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My Review
part sequel, part remake, all action;
'Robocop 2' is superbly-engineered comicbook-styled
entertainment, that more than makes up for it's lack
of originality with wall-to-wall violence and relentless
pacing. The Detroit police force is on strike (again!)
and social order is breaking down as gangs of murderous
thieves roam the streets thoroughly freaked out on
the highly addictive drug "Nuke". Only our
heavy metal hero is still on duty to splatter gangsters
over the sidewalks but when he tackles Cain, the man
behind Nuke, the cybernetic Murphy is reduced to a
pile of rubble. OCP initiate a program to create Robocop
Mk. 2 but after Cain gets his come-uppance from a
rebuilt Murphy, his brain is transplanted into the
new creature which proceeds to go on the rampage.
A dazzling visual treat for action movie fans with
some brilliant effects by Phil Tippett and Rob Bottin.
The screenplay by Frank Miller & Walon Green is
crammed full of movie references (Frankenstein to
King Kong) and comic culture themes. There are faults:
the characters are mere cyphers and some of the illogical
events, where commonsense is abandoned for the sake
of narrative expediency and superheroic vigour, do
tend to be a little distracting. It lacks any of the
humanist concerns of Verhoeven's original, replacing
that film's erudite sub-text with the unsophisticated
nature of pulp adventure.
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