RoboCop Images Feature The Cyborg’s More Human Side
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In two months, the RoboCop reboot will hit theaters in the United States. While Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original is considered a science fiction classic, the new film from Brazilian director José Padilha will take an updated approach to the source material. The RoboCop remake will open up the character to a new generation of moviegoers, but it still might alienate fans of the original who feel the 1987 version is a near-perfect film. We’ll see whether or not RoboCop will be worth watching this February, but for now we have new images from the film that suggest it might be.
Sony has released six new images from RoboCop, along with a keen banner image for international audiences. The remake appears to be taking a new approach than Verhoeven’s original film. Padilha’s remake looks like it will focus more on the people RoboCop/Alex Murphy’s transformation affects, namely his family and the scientist who built him. The images below show off many of the film’s supporting characters, including Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley), a military tactician; Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), the scientist who creates RoboCop; Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), the CEO of OmniCorp; and Clara Murphy (Abbie Cornish), Alex’s wife.
The banner image shows RoboCop zipping through Detroit on a new motorcycle. If you notice, RoboCop’s right hand is not robotic, but rather it’s still Alex Murphy’s human hand. The reasoning behind leaving it is to show RoboCop’s human side. It’s his right hand because that’s what you use to shake hands. José Padilha is making sure that RoboCop is just as much a human as he is a robot; whether it will work or not, still remains to be seen.
In a recent interview with Joel Kinnaman, the actor playing RoboCop/Alex Murphy, he explained that the new film would be respectful of the original, while still being something completely different. “The biggest respect you can pay to the original is to acknowledge it as a very intelligent movie, and try to make something intelligent to follow it up with, and not just replay old catchphrases,” Kinnaman states. We can tell that this version of RoboCop will be more lighthearted than Paul Verhoeven’s film. It’s a PG-13 action film after all. The big question is: will the new film be as good as the original?
The remake takes place in the year 2028, when a multinational conglomerate called OmniCorp is the worldwide leader of robotic technology. OmniCorp is winning wars around the world with drones and other robots. The corporation now wants to bring their technology to the homefront, to protect cities across the United States. Enter Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father, and honest cop in Detroit, who is critically injured after a car bomb attack. OmniCorp utilizes their robotics technology to save his life by turning him into RoboCop.
RoboCop stars Kinnaman, Cornish, Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Kenneth Williams, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Miguel Ferrer, Jennifer Ehle, and Jay Baruchel. It hits theaters everywhere on February 12, in 3D and IMAX.
