For the fans of sci-fi

If the original ‘Robocop’ (1987) was essentially slam-bang action, this remake tries to flesh out the characters and humanize them but one just cannot miss the jingoism associated with Hollywood. Joshua Zefummer’s screenplay is imaginative and director Jose Padilha exercises restraint and imbues it will the right pauses.

There are a variety of cameos that further embellish the story like TV anchorman Pat Novak (Samuel L Jackson) who supports mechanized weapons, villainous CEO Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton) who is an arms manufacturer, scientist Dr Demmet Norton (Gary Oldman) and of course police detective Alex Murphy (Joel Kinneaman) who is soon transformed into a Robocop by Dr Norton.

Novak tries to highlight the need of not losing manpower as in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iran but it isn’t easy to erase the bloody American hands in the theatre of war as major American critic Noam Chomsky has pointed out.

It doesn’t take time for Murphy to be mortally injured in a blast; the result is he is more machine than man. It is this human element that is subtley dealt with and his wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) and son David (John Paul Rutton) are flesh and blood cameos.

What follows is the good old creation of a Frankensteinian monster. Will it destroy itself? The pressure on the armament industry grows and Dr Norton is being made a scapegoat. But it is a tightrope walk and creditable performances by veteran actors Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton rise to the occasion, supported by Joel Kinneman and Abbie Cornish. Samuel L Jackson tends to ham his way around.

True, the film has doses with slam-bang which actually makes little sense. The cerebral element is ably dealt with and this reviewer must rate it higher than the original.–EEM