Robocop remake

[t209]

I completely agree with you regarding the simulator comparison.

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He's a PR stunt, not a tactical upgrade. They poured BILLIONS into making him. I don't care if he were 10x more efficient than a drone - he's nowhere near cost efficient.

He doesn't HAVE to be better, or even equal, to the drones. Heck, he doesn't even have to be that much better than a normal human.

All he has to do is show the public a human cyborg so they would actually accept the full robots that could me mass-produced at much more reasonable cost.

Which brings me to the 2nd unbelievably stupid decision - trying to kill him.

They already got exactly what they wanted - robots on US soil legal.

Seriously, how dumb are these people? They already had the perfect excuse to decommission him. He nearly executed the chief of police (regardless of corruption, she was absolutely no threat at the time).

Announce something along the lines of, "While he was very successful, unfortunately, the synthesis of man and machine have caused very serious mental problems. It is with great regret that we have to remove Alex Murphy from the active police force."

Remove him from the police force, pay him off, and give him back to his family. Problem solved.

At least,

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They didn't make a defective ED209. So how is this film Post Cyberpunk, other than slightly less crappier than Robocop original's world (Apartheid, Ongoing Coldwar, and error prone ED209) and not having "Tech is bad".

[Closet_Skeleton]

Its Post Cyber Punk in the same way that every Punk-ish record made after 1977 is Post-punk. Eg, Post Cyber Punk is a relatively unnecessary term that only exists because of the also unnecessarily limiting definition of first wave Cyber Punk.

Why is that? Is it no longer a relevant fear now because it's actually true, accepted, and taken for granted by the populace?
"Oh, that's not political satire! That's just fact!"

True, since people have accepted them as fact now, not because they are a scary future.

The actual effects of extremely powerful corporations after the 80s in real life turned out to be pretty disinteresting. Not that any company is as powerful as a fictional megacorp, not since the days of United Fruit or the British East India Company (the idea of companies overtly bullying governments was basically an out of date anachronism by the 1980s, but that doesn't stop MGS4 and Deus Ex:Human Revolution talking about PMCs like mercenaries are somehow so novel they could only arise in modern capitalist society).

[Avilan the Grey]

The actual effects of extremely powerful corporations after the 80s in real life turned out to be pretty disinteresting.

Can't really comment on this without starting a Politics discussion. I disagree, that's all.

[The Glyphstone]

Can't really comment on this without starting a Politics discussion. I disagree, that's all.

Politics aside...the 80's envisioned OmniCorp and Ares Macrotechnology. What we got was Wal-Mart and Apple.

Their effects/influence on the world might/likely breach the Politics line, so that's a good call....but you can't argue that what we have isn't far less interesting or overtly impressive than what was predicted.


(If I ever run a Shadowrun game, I'm going to include Google and Abercrombie as second-tier megacorps).

[Hiro Protagonest]

(If I ever run a Shadowrun game, I'm going to include Google and Abercrombie as second-tier megacorps).

I should get Shadowrun books... or maybe just Mutants & Masterminds books to use in the Shadowrun setting. I don't have either and I discovered Spoony's channel(s) last week. It sounds like so much fun.

[Thiel]

Can't really comment on this without starting a Politics discussion. I disagree, that's all.

Oh there's no doubt they've had a huge effect, but as Glyphstone said, it doesn't make good action flick material. Robocop wouldn't be nearly as exciting if he was being sued by a company with an army of lawyers at its back. That said his ability to access and collate digital information directly would make him an awesome lawyer. If you were to upload court records to him he'd know every single precedent and loophole out there!

[Avilan the Grey]

Oh there's no doubt they've had a huge effect, but as Glyphstone said, it doesn't make good action flick material.

True. Works well for a political thriller, though.

[Thiel]

True. Works well for a political thriller, though.

Indeed, but imagine the uproar if someone remade RoboCop as one.

[The Glyphstone]

Oh there's no doubt they've had a huge effect, but as Glyphstone said, it doesn't make good action flick material. Robocop wouldn't be nearly as exciting if he was being sued by a company with an army of lawyers at its back. That said his ability to access and collate digital information directly would make him an awesome lawyer. If you were to upload court records to him he'd know every single precedent and loophole out there!

New crossover time: Robocop meets Phoenix Wright?

OBJECTION!!!! <BLAM>

[tonberrian]

New crossover time: Robocop meets Phoenix Wright?

OBJECTION!!!! <BLAM>

The gun is in the pointer finger.

[Hopeless]

The gun is in the pointer finger.

Forget the gun just the throw the book at him already!

Which one?

The heaviest after all you could hit him with the table using one arm!

[DigoDragon]

I've heard a lot of "It's not the same as Robocop, but it isn't bad either" from my friends so maybe I will see it when it hits the second-run theatres. I wouldn't mind being wrong in thinking it wasn't worth watching on the big screen.

(If I ever run a Shadowrun game, I'm going to include Google and Abercrombie as second-tier megacorps).

Wow, you too? A friend and I had almost word-for-word that same idea!

[Mikeavelli]

Saw it a little while go. Can't really comment on the political themes without turning this into a real-world politics thread.

But one thing really stood out to me. Did anyone else get Equilibrium Vibes from Robocop? Like whoever did the Choreography for this movie either took the same source of inspiration for Robocop's gunfights, or was directly inspired by Gun Kata?

[KillianHawkeye]

My personal pet peeve on "unrealistically stupid decisions" would be the actions of the evil CEO at the end of the movie.

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What pampered fat cat CEO would try to have a shootout with a cyborg cop bent on arresting him, at that stage of the game? Or aggravate him by pointing a gun at bystanders? That seems like unrealistic evil bravado just so the movie can have an excuse for a quick clean ending. Any real corrupt bastard CEO would simply capitulate at the first sign of real personal danger, and then let his crack cadre of elite lawyers have at the case. He'll get off with a wrist slap. Maybe OCP might let him go, or he might resign with crocodile tears, but it'll be with a golden parachute.

About this: The thing is that Mr. CEO didn't feel like he was in any personal danger at all, because he had absolute confidence that Murphy could not get past his red doodad. This is actually one of the parts of this film that is most similar to the original, where RoboCop was programmed with a similar inability to harm the bad guy (although of course I feel like the resolution of this problem was better handled in the original movie).



The one thing I don't understand is why they kept the one hand when they cut EVERYTHING else off? What was the point of having one human hand?

[DigoDragon]

The one thing I don't understand is why they kept the one hand when they cut EVERYTHING else off? What was the point of having one human hand?

I don't know either, but my only guess is so he could shake hands with political figures to make him still feel "human" for the photoshoot.

[MLai]

Mr. CEO has vastly more confidence in the infallibility of the company's programming software than I would have, but I guess that could just be his personality and beliefs.

I don't know either, but my only guess is so he could shake hands with political figures to make him still feel "human" for the photoshoot.

That's exactly what it's for, actually. You even see that "in action" in the movie, with the mayor etc.

[KillianHawkeye]

Mr. CEO has vastly more confidence in the infallibility of the company's programming software than I would have, but I guess that could just be his personality and beliefs.

Well they went to great lengths at the very beginning to tell the audience that nobody wearing the red bracelet has ever been killed.

[Chen]

Well they went to great lengths at the very beginning to tell the audience that nobody wearing the red bracelet has ever been killed.

Yeah but those were just robots. This is a cyborg with a human brain. I work with software, something that novel I would definitely not be that certain about. I would want something like "if you try to attack/harm someone with red bracelet immediate self destruct" in the code. And even then I'd be wary of the human brain someone figuring out how to subvert the "harm" part of that.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah but those were just robots. This is a cyborg with a human brain. I work with software, something that novel I would definitely not be that certain about. I would want something like "if you try to attack/harm someone with red bracelet immediate self destruct" in the code. And even then I'd be wary of the human brain someone figuring out how to subvert the "harm" part of that.

See also: 'CEO'. Not 'Software Engineer'. The eggheads told him the red bracelet was foolproof, so he thought it was foolproof.

[Olinser]

See also: 'CEO'. Not 'Software Engineer'. The eggheads told him the red bracelet was foolproof, so he thought it was foolproof.

See also, 'Complete Moron'. You're right, he's not a Software Engineer.

Which means that he has no idea whether there was an exception programmed in to deal with the possibility that an enemy combatant has managed to get their hands on a bracelet. Most likely there is an override that a human can trigger. But guess what - ROBOCOP IS STILL HUMAN.

Remember, we're not talking about the CEO just putting on the red bracelet and going about his normal business.

We're talking about him pulling a gun, waving it around, threatening both Robocop and the people he cares about, and taunting him to do something about it. If there were an enemy combatant exception in the system, you can bet your ass he just triggered it.

And even if there isn't an exception for enemy combatants programmed in - seriously. Nothing ever manufactured by human hands is foolproof, and anybody that purposefully engages in stupid, risky behavior expecting an automatic system to save them is simply too dumb to live. If you're told that glass windows on a skyscraper are shatterproof, do you honestly start throwing yourself at them to see if you can break through?

[Muz]

See also, 'Complete Moron'. You're right, he's not a Software Engineer.

Which means that he has no idea whether there was an exception programmed in to deal with the possibility that an enemy combatant has managed to get their hands on a bracelet. Most likely there is an override that a human can trigger. But guess what - ROBOCOP IS STILL HUMAN.

I suspect part of this decision was thematic. The point was that he didn't view Robocop AS human. He believed he was (and was treating him as) purely a thing, a product. He was dehumanizing him, and this could be argued to be part of the show-don't-tell presentation of such.

[KillianHawkeye]

I suspect part of this decision was thematic. The point was that he didn't view Robocop AS human. He believed he was (and was treating him as) purely a thing, a product. He was dehumanizing him, and this could be argued to be part of the show-don't-tell presentation of such.

I agree, that was the CEO's belief, based on the results of all of the brain tampering they had done in order to get Murphy back on the streets. CEO firmly believed that whatever vestige of humanity Murphy had left was completely subjugated to their programming.