Robocop 2
With the smashing success of Paul Verhoevenâs Robocop in 1987 the studios were keen on making a sequel, and quickly. Verhoeven himself dropped out of the game right off the bat, feeling that there was no artistic value in such an endeavor. His replacement generated some excitement in the form of Irvin Kershner, who had helmed what many had felt to be the âbestâ of the Star Wars films in The Empire Strikes Back, even as many had also forgotten that he was very much a journeyman up until then and had only gotten the job from being George Lucasâ film professor years earlier (along with the known and obvious fact that Lucas himself was heavily involved in the actual production process and was practically an uncredited co director). But here, without the Lucas rub, Kershner would have a more difficult time at the helm, as returning co star Nancy Allen would later openly admit to hating him for the direction that he took the film in while Robocop himself Peter Weller actually said that he rather enjoyed working with him (and Kershner himself would retire from directing for good after this experience). Of course, for many the main selling point might be the involvement of Frank Miller as the primary screenwriter on the project, turning in a bloated manuscript that was said to have had enough material for several movies but when pared down definitely made this a sequel of some real story caliber. The film itself plays out as a litany of action movie bad taste, with some scenes just so over the top and mean spirited that they literally have to be seen to be believed (such as The Surgeon General being gunned down during the opening sequence as a âterrorist actâ carried out by a drug addict or a little league coach compelling his charges to rob and vandalize a convenience store while he engages in a shootout with the police before being shot dead in front of all the kids), but the nilhilistic social satire of Verhoevenâs original has now been co opted in favor of straight up nilhilism, showing us a world so shitty that the only kind of news being happily reported in the media is bad news as the streets of Detroit are continuously flooded with death and destruction while only the most rich and powerful live safely sequestered away in their skyscrapers looking down upon the carnage until the day that they can rebuild the city (and society) on their own terms. Into this crumbling world we again find Wellerâs Robocop, still patrolling the streets with the full knowledge of his true identity and past life as Officer Alex Murphy (and presumably still in full control of his own actions as such), getting himself into hot water for his regular patrols past his widowed wifeâs home, causing her so much emotional distress that she has filed a lawsuit against the department which leads to a face to face confrontation where he coldly tells her that he is not her husband and that this machine that he is was built merely to honor him, a heart rending bit by Weller where Robo knows that he is lying to his wife but yet must do so because it is the right and only thing to do, with the only time that we ever see Weller in human form being during a very brief yet haunting flashback. Other interesting changes on display here include the transitioning of Dan OâHerlihyâs corporate head honcho known as The Old Man from being that of a neutral / borderline good character in the original film to that of a more straight up, sinister, heartless villain, laughingly watching as the fumbling, bumbling Mayor Of Detroit (Willard Pugh) completely fails to pull his city out of debt to force a bankruptcy (something that really did happen years later) which contractually allows his company to take over the city and even funnier, purposefully baiting the (black) Mayor to make him start swearing and cussing him out incessantly. In addition, Felton Perryâs yes man Johnson from the first film has now taken on the role once held by Ronny Coxâs Dick Jones as the clear number two man in the company. OâHerlihy has coldly cut the salaries and pensions of the police department which he owns, leading to the often threatened in the first movie strike by members of the law enforcement community, something which has no bearing on Murphy as he is considered a corporate product who receives no actual salary while Allen as his partner Anne Lewis continues to serve at his side. But the real villain is out there on the streets, and his name is Cain (Tom Noonan), a man who has not only created and distributed his own custom made drug called Nuke (only ingestible by being injected into the neck) and making hundreds of millions in the process, but has also fashioned himself into being some sort of a guru / cult leader who quite literally likens himself to Jesus Christ(!) and promises for his disciples a better life in a chemically enhanced paradise provided that they continue to take his horribly addictive drug (which he himself is hooked on). But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Cain is his second in command who happens to be a 12 year boy(!!) and a nasty, foul mouthed one at that, made perhaps even more dangerous by the fact that he is clearly NOT hooked on the drug in question and thus seems to not be impaired while going about setting up drug deals and ambushes on cops, and as played by Gabriel Damon, helps bring an extreme edginess to the film that not even the original possessed, albeit the fact that it is an ugly edge through and through. In time, OâHerlihy starts looking to recreate the magic that was Alex Murphy becoming Robocop, but unfortunately all qualified police officer candidates killed in the line of duty prove unable to handle the transformation and usually commit suicide, leading to the hiring of a renowned psychologist (Belinda Bauer, a gorgeous actress who later on actually did retire from acting to become a psychologist in real life) who determines that while Murphyâs intensely strong sense of duty was the only reason that he had managed to thrive, maybe they should go in a different direction and look at more dangerous criminal types instead. She ultimately decides that the perfect type would be one with godlike tendencies (who would welcome the upgrade to a more indestructible, seemingly immortal status) who also has a severe drug addiction through which the supplying of such would thus make him easier to control, leading her to conclude that the most ideal candidate would be Noonanâs Cain, which means that itâs just a matter of waiting until Robocop takes him down so that she can pull the plug on his life support and get him prepped for the operation (with Noonan even generating a bit of sympathy with his reaction as itâs pretty clear that for all of his mighty talk comparing himself to Jesus Christ that this purely evil person is still really scared of letting go of his earthly human form). However, despite this role reversal on having the bad guy cheating death this time (the original tentative plan was to have the first filmâs chief villain in Kurtwood Smithâs Clarence Boddicker undergo the transformation instead, but despite the actor himself agreeing to the idea, that plan was scrapped so that the new cyborg wouldnât be introduced until the second half of the movie since Clarence laying in a coma for the first hour probably wasnât a good idea), the one thing that made the first film a masterpiece yet is lacking here are the amazing spiritual overtones that clearly showed Murphy dying and then being ârebornâ as Robocop while still retaining his soul, something which the corporate bosses werenât too thrilled about since they considered him to be just an expensive piece of equipment. While Murphy DOES find a way here to free himself completely of his well known âdirectivesâ (and thus guarantee that he can move about completely of his own free will), for the most part it is his âsense of dutyâ that is most in play here as he goes after the worst scum in the city. There are also other eerily prescient bits here (like when Cain while referring to his drug mentions how being made in America is âgoing to mean something againâ in a particularly Trump like moment). And the ending, an all out Battle Royale between Robocop and RoboCain where both cops AND reporters are gunned down and killed, is suitably destructive even as Weller himself even recommended a more moralistic spin on the outcome and was ignored, thus driving home the point that not rehashing the brilliant allegories of the original and instead upping the ante on wild, over the top, gruesome violence can still reap some substantial benefitsâŚ
8/10