RoboCop (1987)

RoboCop. Who is he? What is he? Where does he come from? This machine has just rolled out of OCP's laboratory. A cop has been killed by a gang of sadistic, merciless hoodlums under the crime boss Clarence Bodicker. This cop is the 32nd to be killed on the streets of Detroit, which is already plagued with so much crime.

The movie focuses on the images that many envision for a better city. Detroit is a dystopia, and a private corporation intends to change that. But it intends to bring in a change in law enforcement: two individuals conceive different ideas, and disagree on them. This movie dwells on office politics, where corruption is a cancer. Dick Jones, the number two of OCP, pioneers his ED—209 program which does not work out well. Bob Morton presses ahead with his RoboCop program, which proves successful. This enraged Jones and leads to Morton's assassination. Competition in the business world is fraught with risks.

So just because they took a part of officer Alex Murphy does not mean they can take away his spirit. This movie demonstrates that a human spirit is free from manipulation by science. A man in a machine preserves his humanity, which is the reason for the success of the Morton program.
It is on this note that this movie dwells so much on RoboCop that it shows how much trials and tribulations he passes through to uphold the law. In fact, some viewers have likened him to Christ, who went through temptations, persecutions and perseverance. One memorable scene is where Jones ordered the police to destroy RoboCop after ED-209 fails to do so. RoboCop has a helping hand from Ann Lewis and is saved.

RoboCop is also renowned for it's score. It is this score that can be remembered non-stop as it magnifies the power in the movie. Even when I first watched this as a child, I could still remember it for it had power and momentum. RoboCop's  crusade accompanied with this score is truly magnificent.

A Cyborg, a human built into a machine, is a symbol. He is a role model for children, a symbol of incorruptible justice. A machine and a human are merged together as the future of law enforcement. He shows no letting up and shows fortitude like no other.

Clarence Bodicker is a memorable crime boss of old Detroit. He calls all the shots on the drug dealing in the city. He is every cop's worst nightmare, a cop killer. He has ties to OCP's senior president, Dick Jones. He likes to taunt anybody he intends to kill; he shows no nonsense.

Robocop 2 (1990)

Last time I wrote my review, I was considerably negative. However, watching this movie once again I decided to be less scathing. So what are the good things about this movie? The plot revolves around OCP's takeover of Detroit. The city has defaulted on its debt and now OCP has taken control of the city. It is pretty obvious in the course of the story that OCP as a private entity wants the government to default so as to claim it. But as the story evolves, a gang of drug dealers want to bail the city out in return for legalization of its drug, "Nuke". But OCP are not pleased with this and are determined to prevent this. So they send their latest creation, RoboCop 2 and manipulate his craving for Nuke as leverage.

I slated this movie for dissipating its focus on the main heroes, RoboCop (Peter Weller) and Ann Lewis (Nancy Allen). The last movie gave screen time on the two, particularly on RoboCop and his humanity. But here, OCP dismiss his humanity and force him to acknowledge the fact that he is a machine and nothing more.

Again, the main villains in this movie are Cain (Tom Noonan), Hob (Gabriel Damon) and Juliette Faxx (Belinda Bauer). Faxx is a female equivalent of Dick Jones of RoboCop, and she is determined to discredit RoboCop in favor of her own cyborg, RoboCop 2. The deal with her is that she is just like Jones: corporate politics, and competition still goes on. She has taken a different approach from the last time: instead of selecting police offers as candidates, she opts for psychopaths, which many are opposed to, including Schank (John Doolittle). Well it is revealed that police officers despair at how they eventually appear after death and "resurrection".

By the way, RoboCop had plenty of humor, since it is a satire. This movie had plenty of humor as a satire. I would point out several cases of humor which I thought was unintentional but not. One scene included two failed RoboCop 2 models that went suicidal. Their responses were so hilarious that one would die laughing. And there is this mayor Marv Kuzak (Willard Pugh). His outbursts just crack me up. When he makes his first appearance at OCP, he ranted and cussed so furiously that anyone watching this must be blown away. This guy is classic. This movie has more obvious cases of intended humor.

Sure this movie has a lot of violence, even more graphic than the last one, and it is not meant for children. I would not need to deride it because this is intended to be an R-rated (18-certificate) movie. So I was wrong to castigate this movie on that basis.

However, I would still blast this movie for having children swear and commit crimes like adults. We not only have to watch Hob curse and shoot at his enemies, but watch neighborhood kids curse RoboCop, and baseball children vandalize an electronic store and curse in his presence. The real problem of this movie is that it deviates to a point where it just wants to illustrate the extent of neighborhood decay. Children with no role models are prone to bad morals.

 At least give this move another credit: we do see that OCP is not the only place where corruption abounds, but also in the police force. A police officer named Duffy (Stephen  Lee) is addicted to  Nuke and is colluding with Cain's gang. He is selling out the police officers to them and is thwarted by Robo. Duffy is done away with.

This movie goes to the extremes of demonstrating the depths of decay in old Detroit. Violence has erupted on its streets and RoboCop, with the aid of Lewis, has to clean up the streets during the police strike. It suffers from not deeply exploring Alex Murphy's plight with his humanity compromised by OCP. We have to watch Robo face challenges from OCP, who plan to discredit him and reduce him to a nuisance. But this movie can be credited for further exploring the state of the city during a police strike, and how criminals would capitalize on its bankruptcy by bailing it out in return for the legalization of their product. I would not be bothered to list its faults without listing its merits. It is a fair sequel, and superior to the woeful RoboCop 3.