Remake OK? The Hell You Say!

In general, I'm not in favor of remakes and sequels. There's some place for them. Some films leave more story to be told, and a sequel is called for. That's not too often. Some movies take one angle on a story, passing up an equally valid angle. That happens sometimes, or it sometimes happens that a movie fails in some respect, and another movie has a reasonable chance of improving on the original. Regrettably, the main reason any remake or sequel happens is to take advantage of a perceived preexisting audience.

Yesterday evening, I saw the Robocop remake at a nearby cheap theater. I paid three dollars for my ticket, so the bar was relatively low for me. That's where I like it going into a movie. I was maybe a little biased against it on account of what I've said above, but I was basically ready to enjoy it. That's the only reasonable attitude to have. Who wants to have a bad time? Still, the movie had a little work to do to get me, not that I'm some special prize.

I was really quite content with the film, as it worked out. It wasn't all good. The lead actor wasn't fantastic. The film minimized the main criminal villain, basically going all in on the corporate villain. There wasn't much for women in the movie. Robocop's wife is relatively prominent, but is reactive more than active. That's too bad, because she seemed capable of big things. There really wasn't that much with the movie that was wrong, except that I don't think it had quite as sturdy a message as the original.

These are fairly minor quibbles. The movie was fun, and I had a good time watching it with my friends. It did some interesting things that the original couldn't or wouldn't have done, and it's sort of neat to see a different perspective on the same material. Maybe I would have liked it if it had been a more known director whose style I could more easily discern, but if we were still in a time when not very many sequels or remakes came out, I wouldn't be sorry if this was one of them.