RoboCop 2

RoboCop 2 (1990)

Director: Irvin Kershner

Writers: Edward Neumier (characters), Michael Miner (characters), Frank Miller (story/screenplay), Walon Green (screenplay)

Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Belinda Bauer, Dan O'Herlihy, Felton Perry, Tom Noonan, Willard E. Pugh, Gabriel Damon, Galyn Greg, Stephen Lee, Jeff McCarthy

Synopsis:

RoboCop (Weller) is still on the job in Old Detroit, fighting a new menace to hit the street, the designer drug Nuke. RoboCop, along with his partner Ann Lewis (Allen), work to clean up the streets despite the fact that most of the city's police force is on strike due to poor treatment from the mega-corporation OCP. In reality, OCP wants the cops to go on strike so they can replace them with technological solutions such as RoboCop 2, an upgrade on the original version. In order to overcome numerous failures in launching the new version of RoboCop, the morally questionable Dr. Juliette Faxx (Bauer) uses the brain of deceased Nuke Cult leader, Cain (Noonan) to power the new RoboCop design. It does no go well, violence ensues.

First Impressions:

I was 14 years old when this movie hit theaters. As I mentioned in my review of the first RoboCop, I was quite fond of the original film. As a result, I was excited to see the sequel. Unfortunately, those sensible parents of mine thought it wasn't appropriate for me and wouldn't let me see it in theaters. Thankfully, I had a friend whose family had The Movie Network, so I was able to see the movie, uncut, around a year after release. At the time, I think I liked the movie, though not as much as the first one. Over time, my opinion of the film diminished considerably and I grew to believe it was just a movie studio's attempt to cash in on a phenomenon. However, I had recently read a few articles on the internet claiming the movie may not be as bad as I remembered, so I grabbed a cheap copy of it on Blu-Ray. It's been nearly 30 years since I watched this movie, so I'm excited to see what I think about it now.

Story/Direction: 

"Sometimes, we just have to start over, from scratch, to make things right, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

If I'm being honest, the story on this film is.....not very good. There bits here and there that could have been used to make a good story but they're not really explored that much. I mentioned in my previous review that the original RoboCop was a commentary on a number of things, but mostly it was a commentary on the corporatization of the U.S. during the 80s. If the first film was a commentary, RoboCop 2 barrels right in to full-blown satire. To me, it just seemed like there was a lot of winking into the camera at some of the absurdity in the world that RoboCop exists in. Even the "commercial breaks," which were used to great effect in the first film, just seemed more ridiculous and pointless. I found that all of it just really took me out of the movie.

Not only was the overall "feel" of the movie a miss for me, but there were also certain story aspects that didn't pass muster as well. Specifically there's a subplot in the second act where RoboCop is disassembled by Cain and when he's repaired by OCP, they install a bunch of new directives into his software that make him a "kinder and gentler" RoboCop. While this subplot offers up some very amusing moments, the whole thing is somewhat pointless bin regard to the rest of the movie's plot. Not to mention, that it's resolved fairly quickly and I was forced to wonder why it was even there to begin with.

It's not all bad, though and there were some things about the story that I generally liked. Specifically, the idea of using the brain of a psychotic killer to build another RoboCop. It was an interesting idea and, actually strengthened the third act of the film. Unfortunately, everything leading up to that act was subpar at best.

Acting:

I actually like Peter Weller's performance in this film compared to its predecessor. Not that he did a bad job in the first film, but in RoboCop 2, he's given the opportunity to branch out a bit. While I mentioned that I was not a fan of the subplot where RoboCop has to contend with dozens of new protocols installed into his programming, I still found Weller's performance in those scenes to be quite good, even though I didn't think they fit the tome of the film all that well.

Of course a hero is only as good as his villain(s) and this film has two pretty decent ones. The first, and most overt one is cult-leader Cain, played by Tom Noonan. I've not seen a ton of movies with Noonan but in every single one that I have seen he plays a creepy bastard. Noonan excels at playing deeply unsettling people and Cain was no different. Belinda Bauer plays the film's second main antagonist Dr. Faxx, as a manipulative and amoral executive that stops at nothing to accomplish her goals. Bauer does this decently well, even though bitchy, manipulative female exec was a bit of a trope by this point. Still, she does a pretty good job overall.

Visuals:

Just like the last film, the visuals are okay but look pretty dated. Although, I have to say, the SFX guys did some work on the stop motion animation to make it look a little more part of the world, rather than appearing detached like in the first film. Another noticeable difference with the sequel's aversion to the graphic violence shown in the first film. While, RoboCop didn't shy away from the blood and guts, RoboCop 2 toned down a lot of the graphic violence. That's not to say there aren't any graphic scenes in the movie (there are) but they're just used more sparingly. The makeup is still top-notch, but again, there isn't as much of it as there was in the first movie.

Score/Music:

Leonard Rosenman replaces Basil Poledouris for the music but the score still maintains a lot of the queues from the original film. The main difference is the addition of some more contemporary music to the score. Babylon A.D.'s "The Kid Goes Wild" was used during the film, as well as in the movie's marketing program. It's a pretty good song, so I'll give the film's music a pass.

Action:

Despite much of the blood and gore being toned down for the sequel, the film still has a decent amount of action. Aside from the standard gunfights, there's a pretty well-done chase scene that ends up with RoboCop clinging to the hood of a bomb disposal van. The final confrontation between the two RoboCops is also pretty well done. Despite the film's other issues, the action still holds up for the most part. 

Final Verdict:

I don't hate this movie. I don't particularly like it all that much either. There are some solid bits that can make it a fun watch, i I'm in the right mood but I don't think this is a movie I'll revisit very often.