RoboCop is back, only this time in black, and ready to fight for justice in contemporary times. The first trailer for Sony and director Jose Padilha's RoboCop reboot has finally been delivered after it was shown as a sneak peek during Comic-Con back in July, and it tries mightily to separate itself from the previous incarnation despite several obvious and sometimes blatant nods.
Joel Kinnaman (The Killing) stars as Detroit police officer Alex Murphy, a dedicated public servant working in the year 2028 where corruption courses through every institution. To boost their bottom line, power corporation OmniCorp decides its time to bring their military hardware to the homeland and fuse high-tech weaponry with a human body. A perfect candidate for a half-machine, half-man "RoboCop" surfaces when Murphy is critically injured.
In the original RoboCop, Murphy (Alex Murphy) was killed in action with little of his human body left to salvage. For the remake, Murphy is still alive after being the victim of a car bomb and his entire left arm is salvaged for the RoboCop program. At least its there when his wife is presented with the chance to "save him," and the fleshy hand is on RoboCop himself.
Padilha pays homage to the original RoboCop in numerous ways scattered throughout the trailer, starting with an original design that closely mimics the suit worn by Peter Weller. An OmniCorp executive played by Michael Keaton recommends the armor be upgraded to military black, and as a result RoboCop ends up looking a heck of a lot like a cross between Batman and Iron Man.
There's an unwritten rule in remakes that a catchphrase from the original makes it into the update. I'm not a fan of the practice, but this new RoboCop trailers ends with the infamous line, "dead or alive, you're coming with me." The bigger question for potential moviegoers is, "would you buy this ticket for $10?"
Sony is releasing RoboCop on February 7, 2014. The film also stars Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jennifer Ehle, Jay Baruchel, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Samuel L. Jackson. Sadly it is rated PG-13 and not a hard R like the original, though I recommend not passing judgment until the finished film is ready to be seen - even if it does give off a bit of a Total Recall remake vibe.
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