Robocop: 10 Object Lessons In Making A Reboot

10. Don't Stick To The Script

Robocop Original Script Movie 1 Doing a reboot as opposed to a remake means you not only have a license to redo the whole script, you have a duty to. Sure, you can have the odd line that gets kept but a scene for scene copy, even with different actors and sets, is not the aim of the game. Robocop does this perfectly by effectively throwing out the old story completely. If you're going to be compared to a classic then you have to be either better or different, the studio went with completely different. Gone are the "Can you fly Bobby" and "Just gimme my f'ing phone call" quotable lines and in their place is an arguably more mature script. Where the original explored an America destroying itself, this version looks at a new American Empire being held together by machines keeping the locals of occupied lands at bay through killer-robot induced terror. Control and subjugation from a distance, a soulless, callous dictator with the blank face of a machine. This is reflected in the face of Samuel L Jackson when a young boy is mown down by 50 caliber rounds, perhaps the most violent moment in either of the two films, and he cares only if the white, blonde reporter is alright. Paul Verhoeven's film investigated our obsession with violence, selfishness, corporate greed and the nature of humanity. This new film manages to investigate those same themes but with a completely different lens. In the original, Paul Weller's Alex Murphy had his head blown apart and his eventual recovery of memory and some personality is remarkable, but his emotional journey is not explored too deeply. In Jose Padilha's story that question of what makes us who we are is central to the plot. Alex Murphy is allowed access to his memories and emotions but is later reduced to a mere automaton. His eventual overcoming of that programing is possibly a more satisfying resolution than his nemesis being fired.
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Contributor

I.T. Consultant, technophile and Doctor Who fan. I like to talk about tech, take films apart and make excuses for Doctor Who's continuity errors. No other show has the power to make me feel like a big kid.