Subject: Retrospective: Robocop 2 (1990)

From: John Ulmer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 20:05:46 -0000

ROBOCOP 2

Verdict: 2.5/5 stars

REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER

"RoboCop" is one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures, the type of rare 
action movie that takes no prisoners and never lets up for a single moment 
until the ride is over, and when the credits start to fill the screen you 
just let out a big sigh of relief--not because it was a bad film, but 
because you survived the ride.

"RoboCop 2" is a bit different. Gone is Paul Verhoeven at the helm of the 
film and filling in for his absence is Irvin Kershner ("The Empire Strikes 
Back"). The film is violent, perhaps a bit more so than the first in certain 
areas overall, but it lacks the hard, almost unexplainable solid edge the 
first film had--the sharpness that pierces you as you watch the film like a 
knife blade. "RoboCop 2" has a dull blade. The first has a great effect. 
This does not. There's violence without reason, reason without explanation, 
and explanation without effect.

Detroit is worse off than it was in the last film--men bash little old 
ladies with cars and steal their loot; hookers stab men in the eye to steal 
cash; stores are blown up and rampages by little league players and the 
captain of the team even occur. Police are on strike because they claim the 
city is screwing them over--only RoboCop (Peter Weller), Lewis (Nancy 
Allen), and a few other policemen/women remain.

There's a new drug on the rise called "Nuke," manufactured and sold to the 
public by Cain (Tom Noonan) and his young apprentice (Gabriel Damon), who 
looks about 11 or 12 but talks with the language of a Quentin Tarantino 
character and kills innocent human beings mercilessly. Oh, but when he dies 
we're supposed to feel sorry for him because then he's a cute little 
mortally-wounded boy.

RoboCop chases down Cain and, after what seems two hours into the film, 
finally catches him. But Omni Corp, the corporation we saw in the first 
film, wants a new RoboCop, so they shut down life support on the dying Cain, 
take his brain and stuff it into a new RoboCop, referenced to so originally 
as "RoboCop 2," hence the title of the film. (My suggestion is that in 
"RoboCop 4," they should create a cyborg called RoboCop XP, and he can have 
lightning-fast reflexes and a built-in wireless broadband modem so he can 
check his e-mails and surf the 'Net while he's on the go.)

Funny how Alex J. Murphy, a.k.a. RoboCop, never looked too scary when 
stuffed into his metal suit. He looked friendly and almost approachable. But 
RoboCop 2, when finally shown to us, is a big, hulking beast with massive 
mounted weapons and ugly characteristics. In short, he looks evil--a 
problem, if you think about it, since the intention of the cyborg is, in the 
first place, to bring peace and harmony to the streets. Not to scare away 
everyone and get involved in land wars.

And putting a homicidal drug dealer's brain inside a giant-sized robot law 
enforcer with machine gun capabilities and weapons of mass destruction 
probably isn't a very good idea, but the thought never crosses the minds of 
Omni Corp. The chairman of Omni Corp (Daniel O'Herlihy) produces RoboCop 2 
to the public, but RoboCop already realizes RoboCop 2 is dangerous and so he 
appears at the unveiling armed with a huge gun.

RoboCop 2 goes haywire and kills everyone. The entire sequence is done in 
cheesy Godzilla animation but, to be quite honest, it didn't look all that 
bad. He and RoboCop duke it out on top of buildings and in elevator shafts 
and on the ground outside Omni Corp, where an uncountable number of police 
officers (hey, weren't they on strike?) are left firing at this 
indestructible--and very bulletproof--machine that unfortunately does not 
have an OFF switch in sight. ("Turn it off!" he says. "I can't!" she says. 
"You idiots!" I say.)

So many loose threads are left dangling in "RoboCop 2," and so many subject 
matters that I wanted sorting out after seeing the first film. But there 
isn't any hope in sight. After a brief moment that hints towards the central 
idea that RoboCop may still be human after all (wasn't that sorta 
established in the original?), everything is dropped for the action set 
pieces to move in, such as a car chase with RoboCop and Cain, or the end 
finale that goes on too long. But RoboCop is seen spying on his wife in the 
beginning, and we find out that she has gone through serious trauma over 
this whole thing. She confronts him at the police station and out of decency 
he insists her husband is dead. But we see the look of remembrance and 
remorse in his eyes.

That's the storyline I would like to follow. I'd like to follow RoboCop's 
journey to find himself again, to recover lost memories floating around in 
that big brain of his. To confront his wife and tell her that he remembers 
her, to add a human element to the story that was so clearly demonstrated in 
the original but completely lost here. Kershner obviously wants to mimic 
Verhoeven. But Verhoeven knows how to equally balance action and excessive 
gore with social satire and the ongoing human battles, relevant to the 
action battles. Remember in the first film when RoboCop went through his 
house and his eyes started to flood with past images and faded memories? 
Nothing like that is done here. We simply get some cheesy flashback in the 
beginning when Alex (pre-RoboCop) is laughing with his wife in a very 
non-candid and dubious sort of way. As I saw this sequence, I just sat in my 
seat waiting for the word "Hallmark" to appear in gold font across the 
screen.

"RoboCop 2" isn't an entirely bad motion picture, in fact it's OK to a 
certain extent, but so much of what could and truly should have been taken 
into consideration here isn't. Paul Verhoeven's film not only had the human 
elements I previously discussed but also a wicked sense of humor. "RoboCop 
2" tries to duplicate all this with its slightly humorous TV ads, but it 
lacks the heart of the original. I suppose they thought that future sequels 
would sort out loose threads, but no film can leave so many shoelaces 
untied. (Was that a good analogy?)

"RoboCop" left open the possibility that the machine might be hiding in the 
man. "RoboCop 2" tells us that there's a man hiding inside the machine. 
Which is it? I'm not interested in excessive violence--yes, it gave the 
first film its edge, but Verhoeven knew how to combine elements and make a 
full-out action movie while keeping true to the fact that RoboCop was, after 
all, very human, and he had emotions. This film may be more dark and 
violent, but Verhoeven made his version seem even more so, because a 
character getting cut open with surgical tools isn't too gruesome if we are 
yawning. When we are on the edge of our seat and someone is cut open from 
the neck down, then we're puking. Verhoeven knows this. Verhoeven played to 
this in the first film. These sequels should have been touched by no one but 
him, not even an accomplished director such as Kershner.

As for all the loose threads left open in this film and supposedly not 
touched in the third movie...let's all hope that when Paul Verhoeven said he 
wishes to return to the series he wasn't lying. I'd love to see this 
franchise closed in a more honorable fashion. "RoboCop 2" is an OK movie for 
a Friday night crowd, but in comparison with the original, it's about as 
cold as RoboCop's facial tissue and as cloudy as RoboCop's memory.

Other notes for fans: The theme song has been radically altered from its 
original version, and has nowhere near the same effect as the original 
soundtrack for "RoboCop" (1987) supervised by Verhoeven. Also, RoboCop 
(Peter Weller) now walks much more stiffly than in the first film and he 
looks almost goofy--Weller did a great job in the first, and though he still 
has the robot move down pat, his walking motions are too comical. And the 
gray RoboCop armor is now blue and very round, making RoboCop look like an 
obese blueberry rather than the super sleek machine he did in the original.

- John Ulmer
Webmaster of The Movie Portal
http://www.wiredonmovies.com/

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X-RAMR-ID: 36157
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1212484
X-RT-TitleID: 1028959
X-RT-SourceID: 1382
X-RT-AuthorID: 6769
X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/5