Other than the titular character, at least a core element thereof, the rest of the cast in a reboot is ripe for change. Even in the recent Star Trek reboot the personalities of the main characters are changed significantly; a more emotional Spock, a less measured and thoughtful Kirk. The rest of the crew are actually more similar to their original incarnations but then they were never painted as broadly in the first place. In our new story the key characters are either different sexes, colours or were simply not in the original. We have a male Lewis who is a long term partner of Murphy instead of having just been flung together, a female captain who is up to her neck in the conspiracy yet pretends to be Alex's friend. Gone are Bob Morton and Dick Jones', 80's stereotypes of drug crazed, power hungry young execs and morally deficient old school incumbents, in their place are yes women and marketing executives. The slightly baffled old man in the original who we are meant to like, yet gets barely flustered by a man being slaughtered in his conference room, is replaced by Raymond Sellers. Raymond is two faced, media aware, manipulative, politically motivated and guilty of causing the very crimes he wants his machines to be allowed to rid the world of. This is a more complex and in depth cast than the original with a wife and child's reactions to their semi-loss and a well-meaning doctor struggling with the moral implications of his creation. Chucking out the old cast is a brave move, but one necessary if the intention is to make a different version of the story. Robocop 2014 manages to retain the titular hero while creating an ensemble that has the feel of the original but with more human and complex characters.
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.
