So Terminator: Dark Fate wasn’t a good enough example of what happens when a movie is revisited after it’s already gone off the rails and been seen to do little if anything following it’s biggest and most noted hit. The Robocop Returns movie is apparently on again after being on and then off and then on and then off again, and it would seem that there’s even a chance that Peter Weller might be coming back as the character of Murphy, though it’s anyone’s guess as to how this might happen. All that is known at this point as told by Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb is that the movie is coming and that it will be following the original, though whether that means that Robocop 2 and 3 are going to be forgotten or not is kind of uncertain. At this point it might be best to just scrap the two sequels and forget about the 2014 attempt and just start over with Murphy getting older and the entire department having moved on from the whole idea of having a cyborg cop. Of course that’s not bound to happen as Robocop is and has been one of the most noted movie heroes for so long that it’s hard to see anything happening to him that might not include some epic battle that might be a fitting way to send him off.
From the start though Robocop has been kind of a tragic story since it’s the tale of a cop that was blown to bits and remade as part of a top secret project to see if the police force could be phased out using cybernetic officers that wouldn’t be as susceptible to pain, fatigue, or anything else that comes with being human. On top of being nearly invincible when it comes to firearms these cops would be expert marksmen and would also programmed to follow the law to the letter and not have to worry about judgment calls. Of course that last part is kind of problematic since accepting the law word for word is at times not the best idea since being human allows a person to determine the severity of a crime and whether or not it needs to be given the maximum penalty. There are a lot of pros and cons to the idea of Robocop, but one of the biggest pros is that the refitted officer is able to take on crime in a much different way and be far more effective since with the mind and reflexes of a machine that allow them to be quicker and much more precise. Murphy showed this when he shot a criminal in the junk during the first movie, but things kind of went off the rails in the second and third movie since he was seen to get the snot kicked out of him a couple of times. Blair Marnell of SyFyWire has more on this matter.
At this point it’s a wonder if Peter Weller will still be as convincing as Murphy since he’s well into his 70s and isn’t exactly all that young-looking any longer. Bringing him back as Murphy doesn’t make a lot of sense unless the idea is to put a cap on the Robocop movies and finally conclude Murphy’s story in a fitting way. After all the character has been a movie, a comic, a cartoon, a video game, and a toy line, what else is there? The idea to reboot the whole thing in 2014 with Joel Kinnaman obviously wasn’t well-received even though the effects were far superior to the original. The story line obviously wasn’t as the fans, who are fickle as can be most times anyway, made it known. Personally I didn’t think the story was all that great with any of them as the idea of a cyborg cop is pretty cool, but the story line in the second movie was actually a little better despite the fact that the acting and the delivery just weren’t up to par. The third movie was just a walking dumpster fire no matter the love people had for Robocop, and this next movie has a pretty low bar to meet, but then so did the 2014 version and look what happened. Any loyalty that fans have to the original Robocop, and it would appear that there’s still plenty, is bound to be enough to get them excited for the chance to see the character again, but it does kind of seem as though it’s an ill-advised move since bringing something new to the table might be better. Of course if it were that easy to suggest that people move on from ideas that they’re comfortable with Hollywood would be a very different place right now. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter has more to say on the subject.
Whether or not this idea even pans out and finally gets rolling is going to be interesting enough, but if it manages to release on the big screen and actually do well then obviously I’ll have to admit that Hollywood still knows what it’s doing.Terminator: Dark Fate
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