RoboCop (1987)
If you like to see bad guys going apes--t with machine guns and robotic enforcers returning fire, RoboCop is almost as creatively nuanced as Terminator without the mindless tedium of Starship Troopers. The backstory offers social satire on TV news (SDI and presidential mishaps) and advertising (you'll wanna drive the 6000 SUX) as well as corporate privatization of the police force (a prelude to more sinister plans). Peter Weller plays a robot capably and sensitively (though with less personality than Anthony Daniels as C3P0) and Nancy Allen does well as his tougher-than-Cagney partner. The bad guys are well-played as over-the-top thugs. Don't let kids or grammas watch this movie, though; people getting capped is, shall we say, a big recurring theme (though with burst-blood capsules rather than projectile spluts as in 300). 3.5 stars.
posted by Twerpette at 10:07 PM
2 Comments:
I remember seeing this when it first came out, also seeing part two. What touched me was the thought that they cheated God and the man by placing him in an alternate existence. Pieces of his being remained within this "machine". I found myself feeling enraged that they should believe they had a right to do this to him and quite sad with his outcome.
"Man playing God" and "technology turning against man" are the two most common sci-fi themes since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein: A Modern Day Prometheus. (OK, let's just go back to Icarus and Prometheus while we're at it.) Peter Weller plays a tragic character who literally longs to break out of his shell.
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