Let’s look back on the Robocop legacy.
RoboCop (1987)
With a B-movie premise, a relatively tight budget and a director in Paul Verhoeven who’d never made a movie in Hollywood before, the odds were stacked against the original RoboCop from the start. However, Verhoeven and writers Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner managed to inject the film with great action, memorable one-liners and a cutting satirical edge that commented on American culture. We’d buy that for a dollar!
RoboCop: The Animated Series (1988)
Let’s face it, RoboCop is a seriously cool character that appeals to a crowd much younger than the R/18-certificate gang who saw the original movie. With that audience in mind, step forward this short-lived animated series made by Marvel Productions in the late ’80s. The story used the original movie as a springboard, following Alex Murphy as he policed the streets of Detroit.
RoboCop 2 (1990)
With much of the original cast returning and Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) in the director’s chair, hopes were high for this sequel. And yet the follow-up failed to match up to its predecessor – violence outweighed wit, and in killer child Hob (Gabriel Damon) it had a character that pushed the boundaries of taste (even by screenwriter Frank Miller’s standards!).
RoboCop 3 (1993)
The law of diminishing returns doesn’t always apply to sequels these days, but RoboCop 3 is a classic example of a franchise running out of creative steam. Comic book writer Frank Miller returned, although his ideas were changed drastically in the finished product and he turned his back on Hollywood until Robert Rodriguez tempted him back for Sin City. RoboCop 3 is perhaps the nadir of the series, with a paltry 3% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
RoboCop: The Series (1994)
As the film franchise wound down, RoboCop crossed over to TV for this Canadian-produced series that used the first movie as inspiration. It lacked the hardcore violence and social commentary of the original, primarily so it could target a younger generation of viewers. Attempts were made to coax back Peter Weller for the title role, but ultimately Richard Eden was cast in the series which lasted for just one season. A miniseries, titled RoboCop: Prime Directives, followed in 2001 but also failed to advance into further adventures.
RoboCop vs The Terminator (1993)
With high-octane action and bloody violence, RoboCop is ripe for the video game treatment. There have been many console adaptations, but the most tantalising of them all conceptually is RoboCop vs The Terminator, which burst on to Mega Drive and SNES in the ’90s. Imagine that as a movie!
RoboCop in comics (1990-2006)
In comic book form, RoboCop has appeared in publications from Marvel, Dark Horse and Avatar Press. The most recent 9-issue run, stretching from 2003-2006, used Frank Miller’s original movie scripts and Juan Jose Ryp’s artwork to tell a full-blooded story without interference from Hollywood studios.
RoboCop (2014)
Suited and rebooted for the 21st century, the latest version of RoboCop casts Joel Kinnaman as mutilated cop Alex Murphy and Michael Keaton as his OmniCorp adversary. Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman and Samuel L Jackson make up the impressive supporting cast, while there are parallels with Paul Verhoeven behind the camera with acclaimed Brazilian José Padilha making his Hollywood debut. This might be a PG-13/12A offering, but expect plenty of nods back to the original with one-liners and the tackling of weightier themes such as remote warfare, the perils of technological ambition and the intersection of corporations and politics.
