7. More Prominent And Memorable Gangs
The 1987 original boasted a nasty and downright cruel gang led by Clarence Boddicker, a vile human being that murdered Murphy in cold blood. Much of this has to go to the credit of Kurtwood Smith's smart mouth and cocky performance, that actually feels like a villain; someone you want to see get their comeuppance. His emphatically overblown murdering of Murphy doesn't just stick with you until he gets that comeuppance, but nearly 30 years later. Even some of his goons had their eccentric qualities to them and had memorable scenes - like that one guy Officer Lewis catches taking a piss in the abandoned saw mill. The reboot most certainly does have some interesting corporate villains that encapsulate the idea of their original counterparts, but the gang presented in this version is laughably forgettable. They have no personality or characterization, they pose no threat, and their attempted murder on Murphy is as lame as possible. It's almost as if José Padilha wanted to honor the fact that a villain like Clarence Boddicker brought something extra and special to the film, but didn't know how to replicate that success within the script he was working with. In short, the gang may as well not have been in the remake, but in theory a dominant gang should be a necessity considering the film is about a cyborg cop ridding Detroit of scum.