Robocop 2 (1990)

[Britorama Rob]

I recently watched both of them after rediscovering the VHS tapes in my parent's house - Robocop as I remember and everyone seems to concur, was an awesome combination of action violence and black comedy with some great ideas and all round good fun.

Robocop 2 just doesn't feel right. I'm quite liberal when it comes to sequal continuity but too many things fell flat. As others have said, the little kid just p**ses me off. I found nice Robocop hilarious at points but can see why others weren't too keen. However I can't totally dislike it, there's still kernals of the original's humour that I love - like the unvieling the new Robocop prototypes that go bats**t nuts and kill themselves.

[Robocop]

The original is one of the best social satires ever made. Its so politically incorrect with questionable concepts in a downright silly script but  Verhoeven's direction is what makes it a masterpiece of the action/sci-fi genre. Not only is it intelligent, visually engaging with the action set pieces and extremely funny, but its deep and very meaningful with the messages and themes it sends across; i.e how powerful corporate companies can impact society in the blink of an eye, how technology is constantly involving but bigger doesn't always equaled to better and how the advertising market appeal to the public in selling its product.  The film had heart, it had a soul, and the psychological trauma between man and machine adds critical elements in terms of emotional development . You can't take the man out of the machine.

Part 2 retreads over neutral ground and because of lazy writing doesn't bother further advancing the story between Murphy the cop vs Murphy the cyborg. It takes the cheap way out and makes Robocop the cold, emotionless robot he was originally which was disappointing because what we're left with is a mindless action film that incorporates none of what made the original so great in terms of structure and balance. The only positives to come out of this is Peter Weller, Nancy Allen and a ruthless R rating.

Part 3 is for the kiddies. 'Nuff said.

Haven't seen the TV series, but I really liked the 4 part mini-series: Prime Drective. The story was great (I really dug the backstory we got before Murphy joined OCP), we go back to a dark, political satire and the action given the tight budget was quite impressive. Page Fletcher was a shocking casting choice. Appropriately he wanted to make the role his own, but he really should have replicated Weller's movements because it felt very stiff to the point that it looked like the actor had a stick up his ass. We also get back some much needed emotional character depth which I fell is essential. Anyway the mini-series isn't perfect, but its enjoyable and all in all superior to the rubbish sequels.

In one word...

1. Robocop (Perfect)

2. Robocop: Prime Drective (Great)

3. Robocop 2 (Mediocre)

4. Robocop 3 (s**t)         

[Archivist]

The only thing I really remember about Robocop 2 are Cain's brain, spine and eyes floating in a tank, and the massive robot grunting, 'You have twenty seconds to comply'.  The rest was obviously not striking enough to recall.

[Robocop]

and the massive robot grunting, 'You have twenty seconds to comply'.

That was ED-209 from the original who said that, not Robocop 2.