Robocop: 10 Object Lessons In Making A Reboot

2. What's The Point?

Nobody should consider touching a beloved franchise unless they are sure they can do it justice and have something new to say using the voice of the original. Why would you? Why not just make your own film with your own story? Sure, there's the previously mentioned financial benefits but those can back-fire if the product doesn't meet expectations. Not the expectations of fans, the expectation of a decent film. In the modern age of instant reviews and sites dedicated to nothing more than ripping apart whatever has been put on screen an awful film no longer survives. Beyond the opening weekend would-be viewer's opinions can be coloured purely from reviews on Flixster. What makes a film stand or fall is whether it has something to say that is worth listening to. To make a reboot you have a guaranteed initial audience but if the film is terrible or pointless it will soon be exposed. This new Robocop story is certainly compelling and has a lot to say about the modern media, the illusion of free will and artificial intelligence. We saw facial recognition being used to identify and locate known criminals. In one of the slightly more pedestrian and unbelievable scenes we are expected to believe that a known criminal would turn up to the inauguration of a robot cop, but the recognition, data retrieval and subsequent arrest are far from far-fetched. When Dr Norton is asked to remove Robocop's hesitation he is being asked to negate the whole project, this was supposed to be a man in a machine. But in reality all that Sellars wanted was to change public opinion enough to repeal the act blocking his sale of robot police in the US. This is an investigation of corporate greed and the meaning of self in a time of an increasing wealth gap and a populace distanced from their own decisions and responsibility. That's a good basis for a film in anyone's book.