The new Robocop.....oh, good lord.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/robocop-suit-revealed-first-photo-remake-163723915.html

It's Batman meets Power Rangers.


This film's going to bomb.

I like it.

Robocop is very much a byproduct of its time in terms of design, and this new suit reflects that same sort of thing. Instead of the bulky, somewhat unwieldy metal man we've got a sleek, futuristic looking Cyborg in the vein of the Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid.

The exposed hand also works for me, because the original Robocop was essentially a human head grafted onto a robot body. This is a lot more evocative of a man who has been augmented with Cybernetics rather then replaced with robotics.

Either way, I'm willing to see more.

EDIT: Elsewhere it's been speculated this is likely a tracking suit akin to what Robert Downey Jr. wore for the Iron Man movies and the suit will be augmented with CGI in Post. I find this likely.

Remake = crap

The Castellan wrote:

Remake = crap

True Grit
Ocean's Eleven
Little Shop of Horrors
The Maltese Falcon (Believe it or not, Bogart's film was the third crack at this tale)
John Carpenter's The Thing

Not all Remakes are crap. Far from it - some of them go on to become masterpieces of cinema.

The Fog
When a Stranger Calls
Black Christmas
Total Recall

Remakes can also be terrible.

mattmanw54301 wrote:

The Fog
When a Stranger Calls
Black Christmas
Total Recall

Remakes can also be terrible.

Many of them are, pretty much reboots and remakes for the past 30 years have done crap.
A reboot can work, but more often than not, they suck.

Without starting a heated argument, and admitting that I haven't seen the remake of Total Recall... I don't see how it could possibly be worse than the Schwartzenegger film.
The worst part of how much I laughed in that film was the fact that it wasn't meant to be funny.

This looks more like a cross between Batman and Judge Dread.....plus this.....'thing' looks more like something one would wear to a fetish party.

I don't know what I hate worse, now......Jar Jar Abrams Trek, or this.....I assure you, I'm not buying a ticket....and from a majority of the comments on the article, neither will a lot of people.

It doesn't even look like RoboCop, just another hero is a suit!

LastWho wrote:

It doesn't even look like RoboCop, just another hero is a suit!

Blame that on the dime a dozen super hero films being pumped out every year.

Blame that on the costume designers making everything generic black leather uniforms instead of unique & colourful visuals that translate the source material.

Yes, because chrome and black is such a vibrant, original color scheme.

I guess I'm the voice in the wilderness here, but the original Robocop wasn't exactly a flashing neon sign. He was designed to be the 80s definition of "Sleek" technology. This new suit - assuming it's not simply a tracking suit for CG bits to be put on later - is more in line with our decade's version of "Sleek" - basically the Apple iCop.

Move over Street Hawk and Super Force... he's got a motorcycle...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2217473/Easy-rider-Robocop-star-Joel-Kinnman-shoots-motorbike-action-scenes-Canada-new-remake-classic-film.html

At least Super Force was enjoyable.

Now that Robocop, or should I say this thing has a motorcycle, it's even more like power rangers than ever before, along with the suit.

Seems Hollywood has this mission where they have to go out and destroy a good, classic film, they can't seem to have the concept of originality in their microscopic little minds.

Who wants to bet they are going to have this Robocop wannabe going and leaping and zipping about like Matrix or Jedis or something.

Sorry, but the metallic, big guy we saw in 1987 is the only Robocop. And judging from many of the comment on articles and forums, it seems that a vast majority would agree with me on this.

it looks like a cool motorcycle though.

Plus it's not like Robocop had any sort of defining vehicle attached to him. Again, this fits with the whole modern ideal of technology being sleek.

The suit's also been snazzed up a bit.

All in all, still waiting to see more before I pass judgement.

At this point, I would not be surprised if the soundtrack for this movie had Nickelback covering 'Mr. Roboto'.

mattmanw54301 wrote:

At this point, I would not be surprised if the soundtrack for this movie had Nickelback covering 'Mr. Roboto'.

I think you mean Linkin Park.

Rust wrote:

Plus it's not like Robocop had any sort of defining vehicle attached to him. Again, this fits with the whole modern ideal of technology being sleek.

The suit's also been snazzed up a bit.

All in all, still waiting to see more before I pass judgement.

Robocop does not need a 'defining vehicle', he was merely a police officer, and hence, driving a care like any other cop.


I already will pass judgement.......and here it is.

Remake = automatically going to suck, and Hollywood needs to make, you know, something ORIGINAL! Stop being a bunch of lazy, unimaginative layabouts constantly remaking stuff that does not need a remake, it's reasons like this that I have not gone to a movie theater in 10 years. Nothing but remakes, chick flicks, and dime a dozen super hero films.

I mean if Mr. Turkey Neck, er, I mean George Lucas came out, announcing he was going to remake Star Wars from scratch, I got a feeling we'd see nothing but angry fans on forums where you'll see 100 pages done within the first day.

Remaking stuff is, and should not, be necessary, like my friend Batmanmarch on Youtube said "Pretty much everything on TV these days is CRAP." and now the same goes for film.

And with this one, we'll probably have actors who can't act ( a good indication of that is when they all whisper their lines or talk in a very low tone, as if that somehow makes up for lack of acting skills), a cookie cutter soundtrack and an overuse of CGI.

The Castellan wrote:

Remake = automatically going to suck, and Hollywood needs to make, you know, something ORIGINAL! Stop being a bunch of lazy, unimaginative layabouts constantly remaking stuff that does not need a remake, it's reasons like this that I have not gone to a movie theater in 10 years. Nothing but remakes, chick flicks, and dime a dozen super hero films.

There are good, original movies out there it's just generally there are only a handful a year filtered in with all the other crap.

Some of my personal favorite original flicks of the past ten years include (And for the sake of the list I'll not include any that have recieved sequels - Taken - or are soft reboots of existing franchises - Prometheus):


Pan's Labyrinth
The Hurt Locker
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
There Will Be Blood
Wall-E
Shutter Island


...okay, that is a pretty small list.

Quote :

I mean if Mr. Turkey Neck, er, I mean George Lucas came out, announcing he was going to remake Star Wars from scratch, I got a feeling we'd see nothing but angry fans on forums where you'll see 100 pages done within the first day.

He's been doing that ever since he first released his "Special Editions" and has continued all the way up to the Blu-Ray release (In which he gives Vader a new line of dialogue at the end of ROTJ in a deliberate attempt to troll the fandom).

It's not the fact he's going back and tinkering with cinematic masterpieces that annoys people, it's the fact he keeps insisting that those are the definitive versions of his films and flat out refuses to re-release the original, untouched films in anything beyond a crappy Laser Disc transfer. Making lame excuses about film degradation when the Nation Film Registry has copies of all three of them.

Quote :

Remaking stuff is, and should not, be necessary, like my friend Batmanmarch on Youtube said "Pretty much everything on TV these days is CRAP." and now the same goes for film.

Agreed completely. That having been said, as I pointed out earlier, occasionally a remake ends up surpassing its original. That's not an excuse to keep doing them, I'm just saying when done correctly they can be welcome.

Quote :

And with this one, we'll probably have actors who can't act ( a good indication of that is when they all whisper their lines or talk in a very low tone, as if that somehow makes up for lack of acting skills), a cookie cutter soundtrack and an overuse of CGI.

Um. Not exactly.

Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman are both attached to this film. The gal playing Ellen Murphy - Abbie Cornish - played in Sucker Punch, Limitless, and Seven Psychopaths (A new original film that looks like a lot of fun). While Joel Kinnaman isn't well known on these shores, he's played a reoccurring character in a Swedish Movie series for over 12 movies.

Joel is the weakest link in the chain, but having a relative unknown as the lead is not a bad thing in my opinion. Much like Johnny Depp, Samuel L. Jackson and to a lesser extent Gary Oldman are getting a bit overexposed any more.

What made Robocop great was Paul Verhoven's brilliant directing, as well as the actors Peter Weller (who's a real gentleman, by the way, he's one of the few actors out there with some real class and intelligence), Nancy Allen (and she really talked trash about the dreadful RBC 3 and how it insulted the fans), Kurtwood Smith and the rest of the guys playing Baudiker's gang. These elements, along with the beautifully made Robocop suit, incredible stop motion animation (that was all done with a little ED puppet, not computer) with good story telling and so on that's what made it good.

Robocop was brilliant, and does not need a remaking. And go look at the comments on Youtube as well as various articles regarding the new film, and you'll see a very large majority is in agreement with me......that Peter Weller in the bulky silver and black suit IS the only Robocop.

And regarding Lucas, I popped in a tape of the making of Return of the Jedi, from the early to mid 80's, and it showed Lucas talking about the stores, and how it's the stories making the films, and effects only being part of it, as well as really going that extra mile for the fans.......I wish I could get him and sit down in front of this tape and show him just how much that guy changed over the past 30 years. It's like someone kidnapped him and placed an evil twin or something in his place. That turkey waddle neck of his must be cutting some blood flow to his brain.

And I feel the same way with Trek, now. Instead of boldly going where no one has gone before, and exploring the great unknown, it's all now going to be explosions, double D's flopping around, the new characters being caricatures of the real one, and nothing but fighting villains.....which is going to the norm, now, if JJ's past works are of any indication.

Face it, to get anything good these days, you gotta make 'em yourself.
I'm already doing so with Trek comics.

The Castellan wrote:

Robocop was brilliant, and does not need a remaking.

We're on a 1980s Nostalgia train right now. Look at it this way, at least the suit looks passable, and just some simple photoshop jobs make it look a lot better:

Quote :

And regarding Lucas, I popped in a tape of the making of Return of the Jedi, from the early to mid 80's, and it showed Lucas talking about the stores, and how it's the stories making the films, and effects only being part of it, as well as really going that extra mile for the fans.......I wish I could get him and sit down in front of this tape and show him just how much that guy changed over the past 30 years. It's like someone kidnapped him and placed an evil twin or something in his place. That turkey waddle neck of his must be cutting some blood flow to his brain.

The problem with Lucas is there's literally no one around him that is willing/able to tell him "No". You get a real sense of that in the behind the scenes of the Prequels, where George throws out the goofiest stuff and everyone else in the room races to be the first one to try to apply it to the movie.

Quote :

And I feel the same way with Trek, now. Instead of boldly going where no one has gone before, and exploring the great unknown, it's all now going to be explosions, double D's flopping around, the new characters being caricatures of the real one, and nothing but fighting villains.....which is going to the norm, now, if JJ's past works are of any indication.

I hate to break your heart here, but that was happening well before JJ Abrams involvement with the franchise - which like it or not saved it from oblivion. Were it not for Abrams, Nemesis and Enterprise would have been the tombstones of the franchise. At the very least the movies have been put on life support - Enterprise made such a mess of things I doubt we'll ever see Trek on the small screen again any time soon.

And speaking of double Ds flopping around and charactures...how about them Decontamination Gel rub downs?

If you want to focus your hate somewhere, reserve it for Rick Berman who took Gene's baby and proceeded to do everything in his power to break what worked about the franchise and bury it into the ground. I'm still in awe over the man's ability to take the premise of being stranded 70 years from home in unfamiliar space and make it boring in the first hour. Not to mention only got seven seasons through the grace of being the flagship show on a failing cable network.

To say nothing of the TNG era of movies! You know it's bad when the best out of that bunch is the mindless, senseless action flick that doesn't look or feel like Star Trek at all.

Pfffft, Trek, SAVED?! Sorry, but if you're going to make a dumbed down series of action flicks, that look like something Michael Bay would make, just to get JOE SIXPACK in, then Trek does not deserve to be saved. Trek 2009 was nothing of the Trek I remember, none of the chemistry with the big three, and just another lazy @$$ reboot. And at least when Data was killed, I felt a loss, I felt no loss seeing what happened in Trek 2009, not to mention that, as I said, we're never going to see any sense of going into the unknown, Trek's going to be nothing but Star Wars-esque stories from now on, knowing the sorta crap that overrated HACK JJ Abrams.....who is not even a Trek fan to begin with.....is like. Lost was crap, Heroes was crap.....I have seen nothing, absolutely NOTHING from this guy that impressed me so far. I am so glad I did not pay money to see that THING JJ put out three years ago.....a friend of mine who works in the DVD business, and happened to be on the team making the Trek 2009 DVD, brought me a pre production copy (had the full menu, but only play movie was accessable, it was pretty much a bare bones), about a week before the film came out, and offered to show me it, and since he went to tall that trouble to smuggle the disk to me, I saw it. As I said, I am glad I did not waste money seeing that THING. I say when making a film on a series with legions of fans, get someone who's a FAN to do it. Like Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings.....he actually made a series of films that did the following that made the FANS happy, as well as getting the Joe Sixpacks......it can be done, but it takes that seldom used thing called HARD WORK to make something that cab appeal to both sides.....something that Hollywood definitely has been lacking in for quite a few years. JJ should stick to his mind numbing drivel and let a real director and a fan make 'em. And as I said, gimme James Cawley's Phase 2 fan series over anything Abrams, and even Cawley stuck it to him with this little video I sooooooo love watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO1nvmDjofo And at least with Nemesis, which was not too bad ,really, least made you feel a loss seeing Data gone......seeing what went on in Trek 09 made me feel nothing. So, until we see the original time line in small or big screen, I'm not paying a dime for anything post 2009 JJ rubbish.

And it's time for folks working at Lucas' to tell him the truth for a change, and stop being a bunch of yes men to an aging, out of touch director who seems to actually enjoying angering the fans that made him the rich man he is today.

And that Robocop wannabe still look like looks like @$$. Just another victim of hollywood greed and laziness. Trek and Robocop are just victims of idiots wanting to shove Star Wars and Super Heroes respectively into anything out there.

THIS is the Kirk Enterprise



THIS is Robocop, PERIOD.
:

The Castellan wrote:

Pfffft, Trek, SAVED?! Sorry, but if you're going to make a dumbed down series of action flicks, that look like something Michael Bay would make, just to get JOE SIXPACK in, then Trek does not deserve to be saved.

So basically everything from First Contact on should be written off as "dumbed down series of action flicks"? Because Trek '09 was no worse then any of those films.

Quote :

Trek 2009 was nothing of the Trek I remember, none of the chemistry with the big three, and just another lazy @$$ reboot.

And this is where the fundamental disagreement between ourselves occurs. I grew up watching TOS on VHS. I had quite the collection as a kid - including a special edition of The Cage (Not The Menagerie but the actual unaired pilot). Star Trek(2009) was the first time Star Trek felt like Star Trek to me in a long, long time (Star Trek VI to be precise). Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But it was leaps and bounds better then the dreck we'd been subjected to for years under Berman.

Quote :

And at least when Data was killed, I felt a loss, I felt no loss seeing what happened in Trek 2009, not to mention that, as I said, we're never going to see any sense of going into the unknown,

We haven't had that since midway through TNG when Berman took over from Roddenberry. Enterprise-D stopped all pretenses of being a exploration mission around Season 4, and never left known space after that. DS9 stopped exploring the Gamma Quadrant when the Dominion showed up (You want to talk about the Death of Trek, let's talk about DS9 killing the formula in favor of being a cheap Babylon 5 knock off), Voyager managed to make the Delta Quadrant boring (And after a certain point dull after the Borg started showing up every other episode), and Enterprise just "explored" areas and species we already knew about (Though props for actually making the Andorians characters again, which they hadn't been since TOS).

As for Data, the whole scene would have been a lot better had they not Copy+Pasted the concept from Star Trek II, complete with "out" to bring Data back in the form of B4. I'd say watching Spock lose his mother and his planet was far more emotionally impactful simply due to the fact we hadn't seen it before. Data's death was a rehash of a far superior movie.

Quote :

I say when making a film on a series with legions of fans, get someone who's a FAN to do it. Like Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings.....he actually made a series of films that did the following that made the FANS happy, as well as getting the Joe Sixpacks......it can be done, but it takes that seldom used thing called HARD WORK to make something that cab appeal to both sides.....something that Hollywood definitely has been lacking in for quite a few years.

I'm not sure how much longer Jackson's going to be viable for that list, considering he's stretching The Hobbit out along three movies. And there was plenty of fans who were upset with his portrayals in Lord of the Rings.

As for having a fan do it...I'm sorry, but Fans have an odd sense of what makes Trek good. If you're trying to revive a near-dead franchise, then having a movie based on the political machinations of Starfleet is not what you want to draw people to the theater.

Quote :

And that Robocop wannabe still look like looks like @$$. Just another victim of hollywood greed and laziness.

I personally like the suit, even if it is all black. Then again, I also adore the revamped Constellation Class from the '09 Trek, so I'm sure that invalidates my opinion in your eyes.

I partially agree with you both. Personally, I loved the Trek 09 movie. Also, I appreciate the TNG movies. Obviously, some are better than others. Trek is both exploration and war. For every Corbomite Maneuver, there is a Balance of Terror. And there were plenty of action based Trek movies before Berman as well.

Each series had some great eps and some terrible ones. Yes, the Dominion War was a departure, but some of the most exciting stories in the history of Trek came out of that storyline.

Anyways, to each his own.