RoboCop 2
| State of Body | Like so many other sequels this much maligned corpse can’t escape negative comparisons to its far superior progenitor. |
|---|---|
| Detail of Inspection | Inspected 4 or 5 times. Difficult to remember after such a long hiatus. |
| Forensic Investigator | winstoninabox |
| Comments | How hard is it to make a sequel? You just have to copy the first one, don’t you? |
I had a plan to tear into RoboCop 2. It was a film that I hadn’t visited since sometime in the early nineties on TV or maybe video cassette. After that I’d abandoned it. I remember walking out of the theater the first time I’d seen it feeling so disappointed. RoboCop had been a favorite and RoboCop 2 just didn’t measure up to it. After this viewing (I’d watched RoboCop the day before to set the mood) I’d have to say I was too hard on RoboCop 2. Don’t get me wrong, for where it fails it fails abysmally. But the great plot rewrite I’d envisaged for this FF disappeared. The plot and subplots are it’s strongest elements.
Murphy must again battle for his identity as first his family, then his robotic body, and finally his freedom of choice are taken from him. These battles are woven into the main story with action and comedy. It’s really very well done, and if Murphy’s story had been supported with material as strong as itself then RoboCop 2 would be as highly regarded as the original. Instead it’s supported by material that earnestly tries to ape RoboCop.
The biggest misfire is the calculated humor. The intentional comedy works well - RobCop’s long list of committee-inspired directives that are supposed to turn him into a walking PR machine for OCP leads to some pretty funny scenes and one liners. I really liked, “And now a word on nutrition.”
But the humor of RoboCop 2’s TV segments was very heavy-handed. RobCop’s TV segments were funny because they didn’t try to be funny. It’s never explained why everyone on TV laughs at “I’ll buy that for a dollar!”, but we’re laughing too. But in RoboCop 2 it’s like someone described RoboCop’s TV segments to a scriptwriter who’d never watched the first movie, and then asked this scriptwriter to write the sequel. The description went, “There are these really funny TV commercials and news reports scattered throughout the movie.” Yes, they’re funny, but not intentionally so.
And it really didn’t help that RoboCop 2 leads off with one of these dud TV moments. ‘MagnaVolt’ is a car security system that protects the car by electrocuting the thief. Yes, we’re expected to believe that middle-American consumers can (and want to) buy a device that kills and then leaves a smoldering corpse in their car. Apparently it doesn’t even drain the battery, but I bet it also doesn’t get the smell out of the upholstery.
Now while the society that we’ve seen in RoboCop 2 is full of ultra-violence, there is still a justice system. Overloaded though it may be in Old Detroit, the suburbs are still presented like a 50s family-friendly ideal, free of crime and worries. Powerful corporations have the protection of red-tape and the best lawyers money can buy. Street lowlifes have the protection of anonymity. These groups can get away with murder, but it’s plain stupid to think that a device that kills car thieves can be advertised to the masses. The society of RoboCop 2 may be ridding in a handbasket to Hell, but it hasn’t quite got there yet. The ‘MagnaVolt’ could be dismissed as a cheap gag, but as it is the first scene seen it does set a tone for the film. RoboCop never went for the cheap shot, and was better for it. Compare ‘MagnaVolt’ to the ‘6000 SUX’ commercial from RoboCop and you’ll see what I mean. In that commercial there’s humor without recourse to a nod and a wink to the audience.
The news report that immediately follows continues the comedy misfiring. This time it’s just 3 words out of place. After the nuclear-reactor-in-the-amazon-meltdown story (great RoboCop-like news) the female newsreader responds to her male colleague’s comment that conservationist are calling it a disaster with, “Don’t they always.” As in the case with ‘MagnaVolt’ it’s a cheap laugh, but it’s a laugh that is paid for by lowering quality of the film. RoboCop never stepped over that line; it never went fishing for laughs. In RoboCop the viewer either laughed or they didn’t at the humor, and that restraint elevates the film.
And every TV commercial is based on the same comedy, that of excess. OCP Communications uses suicide to sell, and Sun Block 5000 (5000 - geddit!) claims 20 seconds (20 seconds - geddit!) in the Californian sunshine is too much these days. Its a crassness that is in stark opposition to the understated comedy of RoboCop.
To cut the film some slack about the lameness of the TV segments, the Detroit City Pledge Show is done well.
The little leaguers robbing the electronic store is another ‘what were they thinking?’ scene. I guess the juxtaposition of the homeliness of Little League with the violence of the kids is supposed to be funny. But combined with the bad TV segments then most of the intentional comedy not only falls flat, but actually works against the film.
Moving on to my last big beef. The capture of RoboCop by Cain’s gang was woefully staged. This is the last time RoboCop will be active for quite some time, but rather than going out with a big bang of an action set piece RoboCop goes out with a whimper. For some reason Lewis doesn’t accompany him even though they were working together in the scene that proceeds it. And RoboCop doesn’t so much as attack Cain’s gang as wander into the trap. His advantages like thermal imaging and his incredibly accurate shooting aren’t used. Heck, RoboCop doesn’t even fire a shot!
And so not only is the scene dull, but Cain’s plan requires a preposterous setup to work. It all hinges on Hob (the bad kid) shooting off RoboCop’s hand with a high-powered machine gun! And wot a bit o’ luck, Hob does. My guess is that either budget constraints greatly limited the action or that there was concern that an action sequence now might look too similar to the later attack on the gang by RoboCop backed up by the police. Still, as RoboCop’s last stand it should have been given more oomph.
If these two areas had been rethought RoboCop 2 would be held in much higher esteem, at least by this coroner. RoboCop charted the reemergence of Alex Murphy’s personality, RoboCop 2 unfetters that personality from the bonds of OCP. In that respect it truly is a worthy sequel to RoboCop. RoboCop 2 goes out with a great last line that sums up it’s protagonists journey “Patience Lewis, we’re only human.” What a pity that that journey for the reclamation of Murphy’s humanity was surrounded with such sub-par material.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I’ve always been a fan of the “theme + variants” school of creativity, and (although it’s been a long time) I do remember liking the variation on Robocop’s Laws, which seemed like a marvelous bit of satire at committee-think.
I agree with you about the other elements, such as the humour. It seemed funny at the time, but it was also clearly not a well-thought out part of the future, and that detracted from the setting. It might have worked if the film had been more explicitly a comedy and had gone further in exploring the throwaway bits of brutality it shows, but that would have required it to be a satire with actual bite. The studio would never have allowed it to deviate that far from the original.
Would have been interesting, though.