RoboCop (2014)

Name: RoboCop
Director: José Padilha
Released: 2014

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years, but have been forbidden for law enforcement in America. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine.

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5 films that influenced RoboCop

What critics say influenced RoboCop

The Killing (1956)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Characters

Kinnaman is more or less channeling Holder from The Killing, but effectively, while Keaton portrays a much more affable Evil CEO than Ronny Cox in the original.

houstonpress.com ↗

But Kinnaman, so great as a shady, underestimated cop in The Killing, can't quite channel Murphy's agony.

laweekly.com ↗

But when honest cop Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman from The Killing ) is badly injured in an attempt on his life, OmniCorp topper Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton) spots a way into the market, and coerces his top R&D scientist Dr Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) to concoct a part-man, part-robot policeman, offering the morals and conscience of a human combined with the hydraulics, armour and built-in gunpower of a robot.

Mark Adams, chief film critic, Robert Daniels, Jeremy Kay, Ben Dalton • Screen Daily • Feb 5, 2014

screendaily.com ↗

Kinnaman plays pre-RoboCop Murphy in the same black tones he used to play an ex-junkie detective on AMC’s The Killing.

Bill Barnwell, Ben Lindbergh, Brian Phillips, Wesley Morris • Grantland • Feb 14, 2014

grantland.com ↗

RoboCop (1987)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Themes

Paul Verhoeven’s “ RoboCop ” was one of the seminal science-fiction films of the 80s that would go on to influence several movies of the genre, which makes it no surprise that, like many other similarly important works, it eventually became the target of a remake.

Hammad Baig • The Examiner • May 3, 2022

examiner.com ↗

If anyone was under the impression that Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 “ RoboCop ” was a vision of the future, Jose Padilha’s pumped-up, cleaned-up update makes it clear that this sci-fi concept merely holds a mirror to the political present.

Guy Lodge • Variety • Feb 5, 2014

variety.com ↗

“RoboCop” is a RoboMovie.

Honeycutt's Hollywood

honeycuttshollywood.com ↗

The RoboCop remake is impressively different from the Paul Verhoeven-directed 1987 bloodbath — it fully justifies its existence.

David Edelstein • Vulture • Feb 13, 2014

vulture.com ↗

Pi (1998)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Visuals

“RoboCop” needed more of Aronofsky’s “Pi” from 1998 and less of its Michael Bay-esque addiction to blowing stuff up.

HollywoodChicago.com

hollywoodchicago.com ↗

The Fountain (2006)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

At one point, director Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream) was attached to helm, and that gave geeks and fanboys cause for rejoicing.

North Bay Bohemian

newsreview.com ↗

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Directed by McG

Themes

Many Hollywood films emphasise cyborgs’ vestigial organic components, from RoboCop’s trigger finger in the 2014 remake to Marcus Wright’s heart in Terminator Salvation .

Mel Campbell, Michelle Rennex, Lavender Baj, Jenna Guillaume • Junkee • Apr 3, 2017

junkee.com ↗

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