Super Movies: The one by the guys who made Empire Strikes Back

 

 

Title: Robocop 2

What Year?: 1990

Classification: Weird Sequel

Rating: That’s Good! (4/4)

 

As I write this, it’s been a little over a month since my nominal revival of this feature, and I’ve been continuing to consider what I really want to do. I’ve also been reminded how often I’ve talked about such things and how irrelevant it usually becomes when I lay tings down outside my blog. So this time around, I’m just going to say that I’ll be reviewing a movie that was never really not going to be here, but just got lost in the shuffle. It will also stand out as a movie where the comic book/ superhero angle is unusually indirect (even more so than They Live), which to me has made it all the more interesting. I present Robocop 2, a sequel to a movie that probably ripped off a comic book by a guy who wrote comic books.

Our story begins with our hero Robocop back on the streets, hunting for the source of a drug called Nuke and the crime lord/ cult leader Cain directing the operation. Meanwhile,  the familiar rogues’ gallery at OCP are trying to create another cyborg, but their “candidates” keep literally self-destructing. Things continue to go downhill as the police go on strike and OCP proceeds with a hostile takeover of Old Detroit. When Robocop gets chopped up by the bad guys, however, he overrides his new politically-correct programming to go on the warpath. The aftermath sees Cain crippled, leaving his crazy girlfriend and juvenile delinquent lieutenant to spin a new scheme to leverage the city government. But the real wild card comes in play when the company’s cyber-psychologist decides to put the self-proclaimed Messiah in a new robot body!

Robocop 2 was the first sequel to the 1987 film Robocop, widely believed to be based on the character and comic Judge Dredd (see also Hardware). The project was pursued without significant involvement by director Paul Verhoeven, though writers Edward Neumeier (see Starship Troopers 3) and Michael Miner provided an early and largely unused script. The production proceeded with a script by writer/ artist Frank Miller, with Irvin Kershner (see Never Say Never Again) as director. Peter Weller (see Leviathan, Of Unknown Origin) and Nancy Allen (Strange Invaders) returned as Robocop and Anne Lewis, with Daniel O’Herlihy (The Last Starfighter) as “the Old Man”. Cain was played by character actor Tom Noonan; other cast included Gabriel Damon as Hob, and the late Galyn Gorg as Angie. The villain Robocop 2 was portrayed with extensive “go-motion” effects by Phil Tippett (all hail Phil), who had also created ED-209 for the original film. The soundtrack was scored by Leonard Rosenman, whose previous work included Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, replacing Basil Poledouris (see the Conan the Destroyer and Starship Troopers soundtrack posts while you’re at it). The film was a commercial disappointment, earning under $46 million against a budget of up to $30M. Weller declined to return for Robocop 3, which was received very poorly. Kershner never directed another film, though he continued to  work in the industry; his final credit was as executive producer for The Lost Tribe, released several months before his death in late 2010. Gorg died of lung cancer in 2020.

For my experiences, Robocop was yet another 1980s property that influenced me without more than casual exposure to the thing itself. I can now see in it the backbone of the exotroopers, the Evil Possum, and especially Percy the robot cop. Yet, I’m sure that I couldn’t have seen the movie more than once or twice from elementary school to the start of college, and then always as the outlandishly bowdlerized network TV cut (which I still find in many ways more fun). On the other hand, I can very vividly remember encountering its pop culture trail, from the cartoon to the NES game to the live-action TV show. On top of that, I can now see its mark on still other things I knew and loved back then, like the psychotic TV series Sledge Hammer. It was in the wake of all that when I rediscovered the original film, still on TV and bootleg video tape. That finally inspired me to go looking for more, and what I came home with was a tape of the sequel. From all I can remember, I really liked it as well as what I had seen of the original, which is what I’m bringing to the table even now.

Moving forward, the foremost thing to say is that this is a clear case of a sequel being “different” rather than necessarily better or worse, which has left me all the more puzzled by the criticism and occasional outright hate it was getting both at the time of its release and since. What’s all the more curious is that there is a certain school that tries to pin the blame for the arguable and inarguable failings of the film on its departures from Miller’s story and script (evidently including Weller and Miller himself). Having considered among other things Miller’s own comic book treatment of his original script, I have to dissent that this is getting things exactly the wrong way ‘round. What’s in the movie, for better or worse, is exactly the libertarian/ anarchist  manifesto he intended, especially the very direct connection drawn between allegedly progressive “political correctness” and actual corporate censorship. (For that matter, Robocop 3 is pretty much Miller ramped up by a factor of Miller…) What I find to be the movie’s strength is that this is moderated throughout by good action scenes, engaging dialogue and intriguing character development, all of which I will definitely give the director at least some credit for.

With that laid out, the further pros and cons lie in what is done with the characters and the assumed world. The plans of OCP for Old Detroit have progressed, with even more overt villainy from O’Herlihy as the CEO. On the downside, there’s also more outright irrationality, and not solely in the scheme to use a criminal as their new cyborg. The whole scheme to drive up crime while driving the police to strike made a certain amount of sense as a short-term goal, but by this point, they should be either getting the cops on their side or replacing them (which is admittedly shown in both the comic and the threequel). On the other side, it’s debatable whether there’s anything new for Robocop and Lewis. If anything, Robo has the better arc, as he proves himself more willing to question OCP and more open to human emotion. By comparison, Lewis is just herself with a little more snark, without any sign of being affected by the heartrending ordeal she went through last time. A final good word is in order for the bad guys. The gang from the first movie were too feral for evil deeper than basic sadism. (If they were already raising the dead, why couldn’t we get Kurtwood Smith back?) The trio this time are nuanced, clearly intelligent characters with a complex and increasingly disturbing dynamic, and the kid is the most cunning and quite possibly the most dangerous of them all. This is true Greek tragedy, regardless of whether one can muster sympathy for any of them.

Now, I’m definitely going long for the robots and the effects. Robocop 2 is by any standard one of the best bots created through any method or medium, to me really only comparable to the very odd cyborg of Saturn 3. Its shape and look is essentially ape-like, with touches of the dinosaurian influences of ED-209. What’s most impressive is that it actually seems to have an advantage on Robocop in mobility despite its larger size and evidently far greater weight and durability. This thing can climb, jump, and manipulate objects. On top of that, it has a greater armament. There’s really just two problems. First, the final battle gets long and very bloody for something that could and should be literal comic-book fun, as evidenced especially before and after the surreal melee in the elevator shaft. Second, this isn’t really a natural evolution of the Robocop design, which is already more functional as a one-man SWAT team than a general-purpose law enforcement AI. (I think even kid-me thought of that with Percy.) For an actual tank on legs, there’s not much this can do that an upgraded ED-209 couldn’t do better. For something that can at a minimum chase the bad guys while still entering through the door (and ideally using the stairs…), the already terrifying “joke” Robocops at the beginning were far more promising. (I especially like the first one, which also offered a more natural use of the TV screen interface.) If it comes to that, you could keep the already very good design and just scale it down to Robo’s size.

With that, I’ve gone much longer than usual and I’m still just getting to the “one scene”. Right around the end of the first act, there’s a reunion between Robocop and Mrs. Murphy, and it is not happy. We learn that Robocop has been “patrolling” around his family’s new home, leading to a lawsuit. On coaching from his handlers, he admits that he is a machine before his wife enters. It would be understandable if she only asked to be left alone; instead, she addresses him as Alex, then starts into a speech that they can be together again. Robo simply says, “Touch me,” and she touches his fully exposed face. (We never do get a full explanation how that part actually works.)  He gives the dodgy explanation that the likeness is to honor Alex Murphy, then states, “Your husband is dead.” He then leaves, saying, “I don’t know you.” This is one more thing where I can easily credit Kershner for making it work as well as it does. (Yeah, there is a corresponding scene in the comic, and this is vastly better.) The most frustrating yet counterintuitively effective part is that this is the first and last we will see or hear of it. The whole point of great storytelling and great filmmaking is that if a scene is truly memorable, you don’t have to reference it at every opportunity to keep it applicable to the rest of the story, which is what marks the best of the very best.

In closing, I am left very late with what I think of the movie. Depending on mood, I might rate this lower than I have, but definitely not lower than 3 out of 4. To me, the bottom line is that this is the kind of franchise where “canon” does not apply. The original was so spot on, both in what it showed and what it didn’t show, that a “real” sequel was neither necessary nor conceivable. What makes sense is a “what if” that could just as well be a campfire tale told in the universe of the first film, and that’s the “head canon” by which I can accept the subsequent films (yes, even Robocop 3). In any case, what I have come to appreciate more and more is just how much creativity and actual genius went into this movie. Sure, it’s self-dated and in certain ways outdated, but such is the fate of all political comedy, no matter how good. (If it comes to that, I can count the eventual obsolescence of “PC” as anything but a reactionary’s straw man as one last “I told you so” for Miller.) That doesn’t change the fact that this is a very well-made movie that’s interesting even when it’s irritating. I can even find a last good word for the music, at least as long as there isn’t an actual choir singing our hero’s name. If I don’t get any more done under this feature, I will still be happy to have gotten to this one. With that, I am calling it a day. “They’ll fix you. They fix everything…”