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RedLetterMedia posted their thoughts on the new one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv2_HTqWFHA Their verdict? Pretty much "ehhh, it was okay". They had several of the same gripes I had with it, that the movie felt lifeless overall.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:07
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I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, but as we were at dinner last night after getting out of the theater, I had a disturbing conversation with my wife: So, did you like it? Yeah, I was surprised. Dull in some parts and I thought Kinnaman was really struggling with his accent in parts, but Gary Oldman really stole the show. I like that it wasn't as bloody as the original. Well, yes, but the original was bloody and gory as part of Verhoeven's point. This was telling a different story, so it didn't need to be a gore-fest. I ... liked it a lot more than the original. 
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Feb 19, 2014 19:16
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Maybe she's hinting that you don't spend enough time with her and your kid
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Feb 19, 2014 19:21
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Timby, you need to speak to your son! 
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Feb 19, 2014 19:25
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This movie wasn't a steaming pile, but it was mediocre and completely forgettable. Keaton was the only one with any shred of charisma and the "novak element" segments were terrible. It's not satire (at least not good or effective satire) if you have to look at the camera and tell the audience what the point is. There are legitimately good sequences but they weren't stitched well into a compelling story: 1. Opening sequence in Tehran. Well done for PG-13. 2. Robocop waking up in the "hospital" which turns out to be a factory in China 3. Getting to see what's underneath the armor. Parts of the movie that turned out to be horrible weapons grade horseshit: 1. "Bad cop, ROBOCOP!" was bad enough to make me want to walk out of the theater. 2. The fact that the "red asset" system can be overridden with EMOTIONS! Just wait for Netflix. This movie was not worth full ticket price.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:47
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Slim Killington posted:I always understood that to be figured into the reported gross. No, gross is just that, gross earnings: How much people paid for their tickets. The film will get around half of that back.
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Feb 19, 2014 19:57
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Timby posted:
I'm close to that opinion, myself, but I've been struggling to put it in words since I saw the new one. This one's commentary resonates much more strongly than the originals do. Hell, Deus Ex: Human Revolution out-Robocoped the original Robocop.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:53
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I'm curious for those that are saying they like this version of Robocop over the original: How old were you when you saw the '87 version, and what year did you see it? I saw the original one when it came on ABC back in 1988-1989(?) so I'm pretty ingrained in the "living in the '80's" thing. I'm trying to find friends that saw this new version and haven't seen the original one yet & see what they think.
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Feb 19, 2014 20:58
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G-III posted:2. The fact that the "red asset" system can be overridden with EMOTIONS! The red asset system only works when a robot is pulling the trigger. That's kind of the point.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:04
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Slim Killington posted:The red asset system only works when a robot is pulling the trigger. That's kind of the point. I understand, but it was uninteresting along with the entire film's premise of "HUMAN EMOTION FOULS UP THE SYSTEM!" It was as if this movie was written by a seventh grader. Robocop saves the day with the POWER OF HIS FEELINGS! G-III fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 21:15
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Slim Killington posted:The red asset system only works when a robot is pulling the trigger. That's kind of the point. Yeah, I haven't seen the film yet but the impression I'm getting is that people have a problem with this because it's just the old "the human will/heart/soul can just overcome" trope. Just because.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:18
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Yeah I get that's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's still a solid cinematic theme. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but I would fault you if you went into a 2014 action movie about a robot cop expecting groundbreaking and thought-provoking.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:20
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I think there's plenty of red meat in this movie that's pretty interesting and thought-provoking, it's just that the movie never really just stops at any one point and puts your nose in it and rubs it all up and down and around like the original does. It's really full of satire and dark humor and little clever touches. Just because the villain isn't some completely mustache-twirling cackling caricature of ganglords and corporate raiders doesn't make their evil any less profound.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:28
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Slim Killington posted:Yeah I get that's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's still a solid cinematic theme. It's not groundbreaking or anything, but I would fault you if you went into a 2014 action movie about a robot cop expecting groundbreaking and thought-provoking. It can be a solid cinematic theme, but it just wasn't done well enough here for it to work.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:56
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api call girl posted:Just because the villain isn't some completely mustache-twirling cackling caricature of ganglords and corporate raiders doesn't make their evil any less profound. They may be evil but they are also not memorable (Keaton's Steve Jobs is the best of the bunch, obviously). I don't remember the name of either the drug dealer, his lackeys, or military dude. I mean, I am not asking for a Bodicker-level kind of hyper-memorable rear end in a top hat, not even a Morton one, but since they are so devoid of character and screen-time then them getting their just deserts feels pretty empty. Even the film itself doesn't really care that much about them. Well, that dude is now dead, whatever, lets keep on trucking. You're right that there is enough satire (and the Novak report *rubs* it in your face, repeatedly) and some interesting themes, but it seems to me that they couldn't truly explore them because they had to shoehorn most of the action stuff. Oh well, I enjoyed it more than I thought. A sequel could work, maybe. trucutru fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Feb 19, 2014 |
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Feb 19, 2014 23:04
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WarLocke posted:Yeah, I haven't seen the film yet but the impression I'm getting is that people have a problem with this because it's just the old "the human will/heart/soul can just overcome" trope. Just because. An entire openly stated point of the movie is that putting a person into a machine means dealing with an unavoidable human element. This doesn't mesh well with Keaton's character wanting Robocop to be as super efficient as Omnicorps robots so over the course of the movie they repeatedly dial down how much of Murphy is still there to the point that he's essentially gone, and even in his most diminished state he breaks from programming and preset assignments to act on his own initiative like a human cop would. Him overpowering a directive at the end through force of will wasn't a feel good human soul moment, it was the entire point and having some kind of technical cheat around the way the original did would undermine basically what the movie until then stood for. So no, it really wasn't just because.
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Feb 20, 2014 01:32
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Seemlar posted:So no, it really wasn't just because. Yeah, that's the main point of the movie (and it's not subtle at all) so people missing it is pretty weird.
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Feb 20, 2014 02:19
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Seemlar posted:An entire openly stated point of the movie is that putting a person into a machine means dealing with an unavoidable human element. Its too bad that such a notion is like a fine cut of kobe beef, which the movie chars to a hockey-puck consistency and then drenches in ketchup. api call girl posted:Just because the villain isn't some completely mustache-twirling cackling caricature of ganglords and corporate raiders doesn't make their evil any less profound. Which movie are we talking about? The original villains were bad guys, but they were far from cartoon caricatures doing it for the EVULZ or tins of mustache wax. In fact, the relative banality of their evil made them more real and more impactful; Boddicker and Dick Jones was motivated by pride and ambition - one to be Vice Lord and the other CEO. Its just that they put the well-being of everyone else beneath their own desires, which is the root of most tragic real-world disasters. Compared to the paper-thin and frankly apathetic attempts to create antagonists in this 'remake', Jones, Boddicker, Morton, and even the sleazy lawyer are masterpieces of character building. Was anyone else disappointed that Lewis was re-cast as Generic Black Sidekick? I really enjoyed the subversion in the original with Lewis being a woman.
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Feb 20, 2014 03:02
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trucutru posted:Yeah, that's the main point of the movie (and it's not subtle at all) so people missing it is pretty weird. G-III fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 03:21
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The emotions loving things up and being how he pulls the trigger at the end also tie into the theme that trying to simplify and reduce people down into clockwork routines will not work long term, which would tie in with the introduction in Iran and how they do routine sweeps to keep the population in check. Reminds me of the episode of Star Trek's original series where they visit the planet that lets a computer fight all their wars and then march off to die; by breaking the machine, they make the war real for the first time in ages, and by forcing them to face the worse they hope the war might actually end. The film's commentary on drones, and by extension, other forms of impersonal long distance warfare and international suppression, would suggest that such efforts are ultimately futile and possibly worse than fighting regular war.
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Feb 20, 2014 03:49
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Poster LeJackal, would you say that RoboCop 2014 is more injurious to the idea of a cyborg police man than RoboCop 3, RoboCop: The Animated Series, RoboCop the Television Series, the RoboCop: Prime Directives mini-series, and RoboCop: ALPHA COMMANDO?
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Feb 20, 2014 08:53
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Saw it, liked it better than I thought I would. Was kinda sad there was no mention of BITCHES LEAVE, or one of the ED's blasting away some schmuck doing tech support on it, but it's such a different film from the original that they weren't entirely missed. Loved the OCP scene though, way more carnage than the robocop fight in 2. I was kind of reminded of  during the scene where they talked about focus groups and had all the lights and sirens on there.All in all, worth a watch.
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Feb 20, 2014 09:14
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Young Freud posted:Also, it was largely filmed in South Africa with green-screened CGI matte expansions. If they needed to they could easily get remake everything on the cheap. I hate* to keep bringing this up but props and costumes and sets are hilariously expensive and the art dept runs between 10-20% of a film's budget (with some allowance for post work). That's a fairly major set of expenses. Design, limited run manufacture and labour costs are all huge. I have never understood where this idea that props/sets are cheap comes from because that's never been the case. It was bewildering on here when they auctioned the Dredd props and goons seemed to think they'd get a full set of armour for like $100 or something. *love echoplex fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 11:00
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Otisburg posted:Poster LeJackal, would you say that RoboCop 2014 is more injurious to the idea of a cyborg police man than RoboCop 3, RoboCop: The Animated Series, RoboCop the Television Series, the RoboCop: Prime Directives mini-series, and RoboCop: ALPHA COMMANDO? Or the time Robocop showed up at a WWF show.
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Feb 20, 2014 12:57
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muscles like this? posted:Or the time Robocop showed up at a WWF show. That was genuinely funny back when it originally happened, though. Here's a terrible quality Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afr0xwde0Aw Some Pinko Commie fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 13:29
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LeJackal posted:Its too bad that such a notion is like a fine cut of kobe beef, which the movie chars to a hockey-puck consistency and then drenches in ketchup. A reminder that the original basically opens with a plan from on high to actually have an ideal candidate killed to make Robocop. That's a cartoon caricature.
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Feb 20, 2014 14:34
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Lewis being a black companion wasn't an issue for me, the main issue is that he had no chemistry with Murphy. The second issue, and one more comical, is that he's shot twice in the film. The first time I thought they were going to kill him off and I literally groaned at the idea of the black sidekick dying. The second time he got shot I started imagining a Naked Gun/RoboCop crossover with OJ Simpsons playing Lewis.
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Feb 20, 2014 14:58
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muscles like this? posted:Or the time Robocop showed up at a WWF show. WWF/WWE has done some dumb stuff, but this one was WCW 
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Feb 20, 2014 15:40
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api call girl posted:A reminder that the original basically opens with a plan from on high to actually have an ideal candidate killed to make Robocop. That's a cartoon caricature. Yeah, I remember all those OCP executives waxing their mustaches as they plot how to best murder their target, complete with model train sets and contingencies for interference from the RMCP. Oh wait, no. I guess you were watching some old Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes. What a single branch within OCP (Security Concepts) actually did was transfer several possible candidates to high-risk precincts, and waited for things to work themselves to a lethal conclusion. From a technical, legal standpoint OCP was not responsible for the death of Alex Murphy, but we want to blame OCP for it entirely from a moral or ethical stance, and so we often do. The idea that a single person or small group in a corporation would actively seek to murder someone is actually more palatable than the real truth - that profits(and to a smaller degree) PR matter more to a corporation that human lives do, and that they are bound by different laws than you or I. We face that in the real world all the time, directly or indirectly. You probably remember from Fight Club the discussion about the formula used in car recalls. The worst industrial disaster in the world back in 1984, the Bhopal Disaster, was a direct result of Union Carbide slashing safety budgets and training to enhance their bottom line. There were nearly 4,000 confirmed deaths, though it may have been over 10,000. Over half a million people were seriously injured. Union Carbide did some legal dances, paid out a fraction of a percent of their yearly profits in damages, and finally in 2010 sacrificed a few low-level Indian-national employees to a grand total of 2 years in prison each(less than 14 years total) - the rest of the UC executives were not extradited to India for some rea$on. I'd be hard-pressed to call Union Carbide cartoon caricatures, but easy to call them evil. I don't see how you would call Bob Morton a cartoon caricature, honestly, unless you wanted to play pretend that a certain kind of dispassionate evil exists.
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Feb 20, 2014 16:51
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Vintimus Prime posted:WWF/WWE has done some dumb stuff, but this one was WCW Yeah but it isn't dumb. :P
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Feb 20, 2014 17:12
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LeJackal posted:Yeah, I remember all those OCP executives waxing their mustaches as they plot how to best murder their target OCP executives send hitmen to shoot and blow up each other with grenades while a video death message plays. Way less cartoony!
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Feb 20, 2014 19:25
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Steve Yun posted:OCP executives send hitmen to shoot and blow up each other with grenades while a video death message plays. Way less cartoony! One executive sends a hitman to kill a rival executive. Though I can see how you can be so confused, since you're making up cartoonish things like interoffice grenade wars. 
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Feb 20, 2014 19:28
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A man was shot to death in an OCP boardroom and no one so much as lost their job. You're trying way too hard to hate on the new movie when the first was just as silly, just differently.
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Feb 20, 2014 19:32
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Lotish posted:A man was shot to death in an OCP boardroom and no one so much as lost their job. I missed the part where someone waxed their mustache and cackled evilly. Was it before or after the part where profits and promotion were demonstrated as higher priorities in what passed for the OCP employee ethical system? The one that mirrors real-life corporate policy and repercussions? Lotish posted:You're trying way too hard to hate on the new movie when the first was just as silly, just differently. Even if I accept your argument that the original OCP was 'cartoonish' at least they wouldn't be committing the cardinal sin of their remake counterparts by being uninteresting.
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Feb 20, 2014 19:37
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Seriously, where do you even get the "waxes mustache evilly" thing? Did you watch another movie by mistake?
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Feb 20, 2014 19:57
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Lotish posted:Seriously, where do you even get the "waxes mustache evilly" thing? Did you watch another movie by mistake? You'd have to ask them that. api call girl posted:Just because the villain isn't some completely mustache-twirling cackling caricature of ganglords and corporate raiders doesn't make their evil any less profound.
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Feb 20, 2014 20:23
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Lotish posted:A man was shot to death in an OCP boardroom and no one so much as lost their job. You're trying way too hard to hate on the new movie when the first was just as silly, just differently. Passive disregard for human life and stopping just short of "legally culpable" when it comes to things like reassigning officers is far, far more evil that direct action. We don't know that no one lost their job, but we can totally believe that the whole thing was "taken seriously" by an investigative team and "all procedures were followed" and "appropriate steps have been taken to prevent this sort of dreadful accident in the future." It's kind of a flavor of banal evil.
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Feb 20, 2014 20:33
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LeJackal posted:One executive sends a hitman to kill a rival executive. Oh sorry, no cartoonish grenade wars, only a cartoonish hitman (singular) cartoonishly killing a cartoonishly braggart executive (singular) with a single grenade (singular) because he disrespected a cartoonishly villainous senior VP (singular) in a restroom. And you say cartoony like it's a bad thing! I liked that Robocop 1987 was cartoony. That was one of its strengths. The movie's humor is blunt and completely lacking in any subtlety, kind of like Robocop himself, and that makes it even funnier. That the new film has less cartoonishness is simply a reflection of the times. We don't have as many people with pink/blue hair and reflective silver clothing as the 80's. Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 23:19
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Steve Yun posted:And you say cartoony like it's a bad thing! I liked that Robocop 1987 was cartoony. That was one of its strengths. The movie's humor is blunt and completely lacking in any subtlety, kind of like Robocop himself, and that makes it even funnier. Well its wrong and so describing the film as cartoony would be bad but I think its mostly because you have lovely and wrong opinions and are just a bad poster. Several people have spoken about the sheer banality of the evil associated with OCP and its antagonist cast, which is pretty much the polar opposite of 'cartoonish' but you're just too deep and you can't help seeing everything as a cartoon, right? Are you sad because newLewis couldn't be your waifu? Steve Yun posted:That the new film has less cartoonishness is simply a reflection of the times. I had to laugh. If one of them felt like a cartoon, it was the remake. Like a cheap cartoon, too, where everything was phoned in because kids don't care about good scripts or characterization.
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Feb 21, 2014 02:23
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The Security Concepts Division of OCP in the original was clearly cartoonish as they didn't offer anyone a free pizza after that dude got killed in the conference room: http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/20/5429112/chevron-offers-free-pizza-to-make-up-for-fracking-explosion If anything the OCP of the original movie was less cartoonishly evil than many modern day companies in operation today.
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Feb 21, 2014 02:45
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