I Watch Films: Robocop 2

 

Robocop 2

In the near future Omni Consumer Products corporation is trying to drive the city of Detroit into bankruptcy* so they can take it over and rebuild it as a corporate paradise. Already running the police, they have cut their pay and eliminated pensions so the police go on strike. This has caused a crime wave, making it even more impossible for the mayor to raise money, exacerbated by Cain, a drug-cult leader who sells Nuke, a designer drug he believes can take over everything.

Who’s not on strike? Roboscab, I mean Robocop, and his partner Anne Lewis. They raid a Nuke lab, though Cain, and his adolescent sidekick Hob, get away. Robocop is also stalking his ex-wife and son. I say ex-wife, Alex Murphy is officially dead. This gets resolved when an OCP lawyer convinces him he can’t be a husband any more. OCP have been attempting to make more Robocops, but it’s not worked out, the legally-dead police officers killing themselves, too attached to their former human bodies. Dr Juliette Faxx convinces the chairman to let her take over the program.

Cain has a corrupt cop in his pocket and he leads Robocop into a trap. They dismantle him and dump him back at the police station. OCP rebuild him under the guidance of Dr Faxx who uses a focus group to give Robocop 300 new directives, to suggest politeness, talk about the environment etc. They make Robocop woke! After a couple of moderately amusing scenes the cop technician figures out what happens but can’t fix it; an electric charge large enough to wipe it might kill him. Robocop takes that chance; better dead than woke after all.

Now without OCP’s directives Robocop gets the cops back to work and they raid Cain’s hideout, Robocop severely injuring him in the process of arresting him. Faxx decides he would be the perfect candidate for Robocop 2, as she would be able to control him with doses of Nuke, so kills him and has him installed in a robot body. Meanwhile Hob takes over the drug empire. He’s got a bold idea, contacting the mayor to suggest legalising the drug trade in return for paying off the city’s debts. Hey it’s so crazy it might work! But Robocop 2 is sent in and kills them all. Inevitably events spiral out of control and Robocop and Robocop 2 will have to fight.

The satire’s not as sharp as the first film, putting things up on screen and saying, hey makes you think, and then not thinking about them. Robocop’s made woke, and then he gets better. A kid becomes a crime boss, and as an adolescent the police can’t treat him as they would an adult. When accused of being anti-democratic by the mayor the OCP chairman says anyone can buy stock in OCP, it doesn’t get more democratic than that! It’s bloody and often funny, slightly weightless compared to the original.

Watch This: Bloody and violent action sequel that manages to raise a few laughs
Don’t Watch This: Not as clever as the first one; not even as clever as it thinks it is

* In real life when the city of Detroit went into bankruptcy corporations did not try to take it over and build a corporate paradise, instead attempting to squeeze every drop of profit, and the city in turn becoming predatory in it’s search for money, levying fines etc. A completely different dystopia!