Justice Gets a Sleek Upgrade in ‘Robocop’ Trailer
We’ve thrown a lot of stuff out as a society since the 80’s. Gone are the days of blown out hair, neon colors, and absurd violence at the movie theaters. We’ve shed a lot of excess in the three decades since, resulting in things being sleeker, suits cut slimmer, and everything looking leaner and more minimalist. Even our dystopian-future-Detroit-area-super-cop-social-commentary action films have gotten a slick upgrade, ironing out the distinctive kinks in the process. A new trailer for Robocop was just released and the film seems to have gotten rid of its Reagan-era weirdness in favor of a more straightforward tear through the themes of imperialism, overpowered corporations, and fascism.
In the trailer, a corporation named Omnicorp wants to put its police drones on the streets, but is rebuffed by a public too “robophobic” to allow it. CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) decides that all they need is a machine with a human touch to ease the public into the idea of a robotic police force, and just as luck would have it, Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) has blown himself to bits just in the nick of time. Murphy is rebuilt into a one-man war on crime, but unlike its baby blue predecessor, this Robocop is fitted with cleaner edges and a sleek black profile that screams modern sensibilities.
MGM/Columbia
It was always going to be a tricky maneuver rebooting Robocop; a series with an ’80s Detroit so hard-coded in its base DNA sequence that even the idea of creating a version for today’s audience feels like a taboo right out of the gate. Hopefully, this new film will have new things to say about our modern era, while it’s busy blowing stuff in Detroit the hell up.
