Depending on the kindness of the viewer RoboCop 3 almost entertains as a knock-off RoboCop movie. But as the second heir to RoboCop it fails. It just makes too many fundamental mistakes. Any one of these would leave it in league with RoboCop 2. All together they make a film which most RoboCop fans disavow and most everyone else never bothered to watch. Its crimes are:

1. It was filmed for a lower certification than the previous two. In the US the first two films had an ‘R’ certification. RoboCop 3 limped in with a ‘PG-13′. I’m guessing this was in order to garner a wider audience by allowing the admittance of younger viewers. But in doing so it marginalized the previous two films’ adult-only demographic. Sometimes films can get away with this. Die Hard 4.0’s certification was lower than the previous 3 and it was still a success. But Die Hard 4.0 still delivered on its big-budget SFX and action. RoboCop 3’s SFX don’t warrant the epithet, and the ultra-violence from the previous 2 movies is now bloodless, and lifeless, action. RoboCop doesn’t rack up a gratuitous body count by riddling perps full of holes. Mostly he either misses (huh?), they run away or give up.
2. It kills a key continuing character early in the movie. Again, other films have done this yet still succeeded. The Bourne Supremacy disappointingly knocked off in the opening ten minutes Bourne’s love interest from the first flick, but managed to get back on track and even surpassed the original movie.
3. It makes the previous film irrelevant. Murphy risks his life in RoboCop 2 to eliminate ALL his OCP directives thus leaving him free to follow his own path in life. It’s only like the key scene in the movie. Yet in RoboCop 3 the directives are inexplicably back again. There must be a successful sequel out there which thumbs its nose at what has gone before, but at the moment I can only think of the others like RoboCop 3 that never recover from it. Remember when you found out at the start of Alien 3 that Newt and Hicks had died off-camera, thus negating the whole of their struggle to survive Aliens? Or when in Terminator 3 you found out that the nuclear holocaust that you thought had been averted in Terminator 2 could never be averted? Seems to be a suspicious number of 3s in the title of these offenders.
4. RoboCop picks up a precocious child sidekick. ’nuff said.

As an officer of the law Robo, you know it’s three strikes and you’re out. Your crimes are too many.

And then there are, in no particular order, its misdemeanors:

• To further entertain the hoped-for younger viewer RoboCop is given new toys to shoot with at (but not perforate) the villains. His left hand is now replaceable with a powerful machine gun / flamethrower combo. And there’s an armed jet-pack so he can fly and shoot at (but not perforate) villains. Thanks Marketing for contributing those ideas.
• And to assist RoboCop in his shark-jumping there are the 3 lamest ninja robots ever brought to the silver screen.
• RoboCop 3 copies the structure of RoboCop 2 (serious injury, recovery, final confrontation with robotic nemesis). Didn’t we pay for this already?
• There’s only a brief appearance of an ED-209.

But inside all this there’s a kernel of an idea. RoboCop and RoboCop 2 both worked toward their last lines. RoboCop’s answer of “Murphy” to the Old Man’s question, “Nice shooting son. What’s your name?” in RoboCop signaled the return of Murphy’s personality. And RoboCop 2’s “Patience, Lewis. We’re only human.” is the culmination of RoboCop’s struggle to escape the bonds of his OCP directives.

Likewise RoboCop 3. It finishes with RoboCop stating, “My friends call me Murphy. You call me… RoboCop” while surrounded by the supporting cast. Its got the look of a curtain call about it. RoboCop 3 really wants to tell the tale of Murphy gaining an extended network. I’d even claim this network includes a nuclear family as RoboCop’s technician is a woman and there’s even a kid - the orphaned Nikko. This is a great idea (the extended family, not the kid). RoboCop 3 needed to further Murphy’s story, and the idea of “family” is a great theme to explore. So why was Lewis, his partner of the previous 2 films, killed off? And why was RoboCop’s “family” and friends populated mostly with characters introduced in this movie, instead of fleshing out the characters that had been around in the previous two?

So to flesh out one of those roles Dr. Marie Lazarus from RoboCop 3 is also RoboCop Technician (uncredited) in RoboCop 2. And if I can retcon that, then I’ll also make her Technician #1 from RoboCop. Now she’s got some real Robo-history.

Another character complaint is the no-show of the Old Man. He’s back because there’s going to be no takeover of OCP by a Japanese company (whose name escapes me now. If anyone knows please tell me and I’ll amend this FF) . RoboCop’s fight to be human has always been against OCP. They built him, they controlled him through the directives, and even after ridding himself of the directives they still in a sense continue to control him through the tech support he needs. The film needs OCP to be front and center, and the Old Man is the face of this corporate evil. There was a human nemesis from OCP in RoboCop, a robotic one from OCP in two. It’s time for RoboCop to face OCP itself in 3. Besides, the real justification for the takeover by a Japanese company is so that Otomo, the robotic ninjas, can be in the film. Did I already mention…worst. robotic. ninjas. ever.

So our Robo-tale begins in much the same way, except there’s no Japanese Company and it’s the Old Man who is forcibly clearing out Old Detroit by the Rehabs. His dream of Delta City is close now. But if he can’t get construction started within 3 days then because of OCP ’s financial position and its legal wrangles, the company is going to go under.

With this setup there only a change in focus needed. There’s no Nikko. Lewis doesn’t die defending the “squatters” from the Rehabs, and she and RoboCop become fugitives and are forced to hid underground. RoboCop still needs his heart replaced after it was damaged in the (much more kick-ass R-rated) shootout with the Rehabs. Only now it’s Lewis who sneaks into the police department to fetch Dr. Lazarus.

It’s Lazarus and Lewis who get captured and imprisoned at OCP, yadda, yadda, yadda. The final street fight is a combo of Rehabs, gangs and Ed-209s vs the police, the disbanded squatters, and the flying RoboCop. C’mon you know you want to see an army, well maybe the budget can only extend to a squad, of ED-209s taking names. Then its off to the OCP tower to take care of business. The Old Man ends up getting hoist on his own petard in the tower when his plan to clear Old Detroit with a “terrorist” bomb literally blows up in his face. With OCP financially ruined and in ruins RoboCop can finally be free.

There are some bright points in RoboCop 3 - the script is pretty witty and the TV segments are back on track after RoboCop 2 fumbled them - but like I said the bad stuff is really bad. It really is for completists only.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Action, Alphabetical, Authors, Forensic Analysis, R, winston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.