Although not thought of as one of the worst remakes ever made, there wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare for 2014’s RoboCop, which starred Joel Kinnaman, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman. And now the director of the 1987 original, Paul Verhoeven, has spoken out about where he felt it went wrong.
“Somehow they seem to think that the lightness of say Total Recall and RoboCop is a hindrance,” he told Collider. “So they take these somewhat absurd stories and make them much too serious. I think that is a mistake. Especially in RoboCop when he awakens they gave him the same brain. He’s a horribly injured and amputated victim, which is horrifying and tragic from the very beginning. So we didn’t do that in RoboCop. His brain is gone and he has only flashes of memory and needs to go to a computer to find out who he even is.”
“I think by not having a robot brain, you make the movie much heavier and I don’t think that helps the movie in any way,” he adds. “It becomes more silly or absurd, but in the wrong way. Both those movies needed the distance of satire or comedy to situate it for audiences. Playing it straight without any humour is a problem and not an improvement.”
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The RoboCop reboot was certainly a domestic flop, making $58 million off a $100 million budget, and the film grossed a total of $242 million worldwide. Sony have always said they wanted to make another one, but no plans have been announced.
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Originally published September 14, 2016. Updated April 11, 2018.
