Robocop brought back from dead (for some reason)

I'm something of a fan of the 1980's. I was born in it for example, allowing my very existence. That's pretty vital. So was my wonderful and better half. That's also pretty vital.

I was of course too young to be part of the zeitgeist and pop culture of the decade, so being a child in the middle of the 90's allowed me to experience the era in a filter. That lead to me growing up with some movies that I utterly fell in love with. Like every era it had it's defining symbols, and one of the many of the decade was the gloriously over the top action movies and the even more gloriously outrageous personalities it gave us. There's a very unique feeling to action films of the age, almost like tongue in cheek comedies played straight. And one of my favorites was Paul Verhoevens 1987 Sci-Fi action/satire Robocop.

"I am the law!"(Shit, wrong movie..)

It's a ridiculously violent and silly satire on a number of themes. American culture is at it's heart, satirizing on corporate greed, authoritarian police, crime, base media (what a prediction that was!), and dehumanization among other things. While I never would have guessed from my own viewing, the director even cites it as something of an allegory for Christianity, with Murphy depicted as a Christlike figure risen from the dead.

There's some seriously deep stuff going on here.
Like this guy. Look how fucked he is. Deep.

One of the best parts of a film is discussion, more specifically discussion on the issues or themes they bring up. I love a film with layers. On the surface Robocop is a silly and generic action film. Fun to watch. On a deeper level for those who want to explore it, there's all sorts going on. None of which I could detect in this recently released trailer for the reboot. It would appear that many of the key plot points of the original are being glossed over, ignored, or changed. Isn't it kind of important how he was brutally killed in the original? Here it's a bomb. His complete isolation from his humanity and his family, resulting in a key scene in which he explores (literally) the memory and home of his former, happier life? Well he can't stop screaming his lungs out here, and his wife seems fully aware. The design of the suit looks like a bloke in a rubber gimp suit. His pretty face is on show most of the way through too. At least Karl Urban had the decency to keep his Judge mask on. Here's the trailer.

It's early of course, and it would be unfair to judge an unreleased film on it's trailer alone (even if that trailer paints it as a pointless piece of a McMovie). Just promise me one thing. If this film *does* turn out to be a huge piece of crap, will you all skip it and go buy another copy of Dredd instead?

Thankfully at least one thing outside the film got it's satirical theming right. Check out this Korean advertisement for fried chicken. It really hit on that brainwashed consumer culture vibe. And Robocops enjoyment of fried chicken. Not sure he'd be down with stealing somebodies fridge though...

I'd buy that chicken for roughly one pound.