RoBroCop

Yes, I'm talking about that movie which is kid friendly and everyone else is talking about right now. RobotCop! (Note: I was otherwise obliquely referring to Lego Movie, which doesn't open here for another two months!)

OmniCorp see big bucks in bringing their robot cops to America, but America no want. So they decide to stick a man in a machine in order to make everyone love their products. The man who does this, Dr Dennett Norton, does so, but he's conflicted about what he has to do in order to get the man/machine combo to work properly in the way that OmniCorp can use. At what point will the ethical dilemma become too much for him?

Oh, and there's something about a chap named Murphy too...

Seriously, this movie is unfocused in many ways. Just who is the main protagonist here? It certainly doesn't feel like Murphy is, he feels like the B-plot. (And on his motorcycle, he looks like Street Hawk!) In the original there was a whole arc about the man coming back from the machine, but here there's no even potential mystery about it.

And there are a lot of effects here. Which would be fine if only the CAMERA WOULD STOP SHAKING so you can see them! Did director Jose Padilha have a nervous leg or something? (And don't think I didn't notice that nod to his brother(?) in the news crawl... which, to be honest, is the best and funniest part of the movie.)

And yes, Lewis is a man. But don't worry, he's hardly in it, and the movie completely misses the point of his biggest character arc moment from the original (listen here to find out what that was). Still, there's a lot of big names in this... did they think being associated with the remake would help them? Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Lawren Samuel L. Jackson all have screen presence. Unlike lead Joel Kinnaman who is merely on screen.

I won't say this is a bad movie, just one they needed to work out what they properly wanted to say in.

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