Robocop 2: The Wasted Potential
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- Опубликовано: 24 окт 2023
- #robocoproguecity #robocop
This underwhelming sequel is full of good ideas.
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My huge analysis of the Robocop Remake from 2014: ruclips.net/video/yelsJliysnM/видео.html
My video on Robocop 3: ruclips.net/video/l6qQmluDQw4/видео.html
Robocop 1: ruclips.net/video/EZly34GPsv8/видео.html
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Talking about RoboCop 3 is waste of time. That movie was made by Fred Dekker, he helped Shane Black to direct that The Predator movie, which was worst Predator film from the entire franchise.Thank God for Dan Trachtenberg and his latest Predator movie called Prey.
“There’s no reason to go after Kane.”
Well he did tear Murphy apart and thus led to his reprogramming…so yea I think Murphy has good enough reason to go after him. Also it does tie into Murphy’s personal life in a way.
Kane has a family (sort of) his girlfriend and that kid, yet took them for granted and even kills them. Murphy definitely wants to punish him for willingly throwing away his humanity.
I agree the movie is heavily flawed but having rewatching it, it does actually have a point as to why Murphy chose to go after him.
@@masterzombie161 Sure, I guess. But right from the beginning he's going after Cain and his intensity doesn't go up after what Cain did to him.
@@petrsvancara8785actually I think there is some interesting stuff to talk about in RC3. Bad movie, but there are a couple concepts I wanna get into and I hope you enjoy it.
@@underthemayo I did enjoy your video, it was very on point and I agree with basically everything you said in it. Very good editing, I must say. Good job.
But, why Im saying that there isnt much, when it comes to RoboCop 3?
Well, just because the second movie was so-so (but I still love it, even for what it is) I think that few good elements in third one just cant justify its existence, yes. . you can salvage some parts from it, but thats about it.
But, I will take a look at anything, if you create another video. I really like RoboCop. And Im more than "highly" prepared for the upcoming game.
Cain robot scared the hell out of me as a kid.
Favorite CEO line “Behave yourselves!” 😂
That is the best line. My brothers and I used to yell that at each other while playing multiplayer video games
RoboCain started a lifelong love of killer robots for me. I still have nightmares about that thing.
The plot would have been really different if Cain was killed by Murphy and turned into Robocop 2 near the start of the movie. There would be parallels with Murphy (someone he killed returned as a robot). Would be interesting to have RoboCain work with the police, slowly losing it and becoming increasingly more violent, till the point where he regains his memories. Only at that point we would find out that his "fuel" is nuke and he would have a motivation for revenge against Murphy, going after his family.
The whole "nerfed with idiotic programming" could also come into play here, since that would reduce Murphy's ability to deal with RoboCain.
Good suggestions
@@bluespaceman7937 Yea...they're just a tad late
Good and interesting story!
That's dope!!!
Was this the actually story I comic before changed.
I've always considered the scene with his wife a closure of the first film. Yes he regained his humanity, yes he still cared for his family and tried to reconnect, but in the end he was forced to see how futile his efforts would be. His sort of regression is his brain trying to defend him from collapsing from all the mental torture. Or at least it's my interpretation of it.
Damn.
That is indeed how I take it too. Further proven by th scenes where they try to recreate another RoboCop and all of them going insane.
That’s what I like about this movie. By the end of the original, he regains his humanity. This movie shows him that despite this, he cannot live as a normal human. By the end, he seems at peace being RoboCop. Casually using a socket wrench to take his helmet off after saving the city.
Agreed. They tried to make Robocop all lovey-dovey with his wife and kid in the terrible remake (this movie is miles ahead of that trash piece) and it just didn't work. Robocop was obsessed with his family, but he was reminded (cold-heartedly by the OCP guy) that he was the property of the company and he was not able to be the father he would like to be in his current state. This is indeed closure for his character arc. He embraced being Robocop the same way Charles Lee Ray eventually embraced being a homicidal killer doll. They grew into their new bodies to a certain degree. While the movie is not as good as the original it is still a pretty awesome sequel (albeit flawed) in its own right.
I don’t believe he meant what he said to her. He just realized that he was torturing his family AGAIN. Why again? Look what happened the first time, when he was a cop. Now he will be called upon to answer all the outrageously difficult stuff, and he knows he’d put his family through it time and again. They needed to accept his death, and he needed to accept his death, not create a cycle. Also - the writers didn’t want to deal with family stuff throughout the film so they nipped it in the bud early on.
Still a billion times better than the remake. It's like an entertaining comic book. It lacks the layers and the viscerality of the first one but still beats most modern action movies by a mile.
Please, for the love of god, don't mention this abomination of a remake.... it hurts.
@@grinder7311 compared to robocop 2 and 3 the "remake" isn't that bad.
@@Nohiro.3Dyour right compared to 2 &3 it isn’t that bad it’s downright TERRIBLE 🤣🤣
The remake wasn't ' terrible ' it definitely wasn't as good as the first 2
Agree. The remake lost everything that made the original great.
That hesitant pause right before he electrocutes himself is golden
His thought: This will either fix me or kill me. Either way, I'm free...
Playing the game right after watching the movies is a really neat experience…Rogue City takes place between 2 and 3 and the devs are really respectful of the lore and source material. 👏
Agreed but I disagree with their choice of who's brain was used for the endgame boss, I understand it works with the story but at the same time I had always figured that person was far smarter than that after he had seen the previous failed cyborgs. (Trying to avoid spoilers.)
Even the game devs want to act like RoboCop 3 doesn't exist lol
@@PsychoCPU The game has a lot of references to RoboCop 3 lol
@@SpecteR3145Name one except the finale scene
@@theta38The entire downtown area looks nearly identical to the opening set of Robo 3
I think from someone who grew up with these films, as soon as they made Robocop fly, they lost me. It was ridiculous.
The thing that really sold me on robocop 2 was robocop 3. You start to see the good in something once you see the absolute worst it could have been
Robocop 3 was a travesty
Robocop 3 was so bad I figured that the sequels should never have existed.
RoboCop 3 was **almost** good. The fact of the matter is that RoboCop 2 is actually a warning of how you get RoboCop 3 (and subsequently, the series) is really bittersweet.
The third movie is like a dish made with one too many substitutions that isn't cooking for the right amount of time. I don't think they intended to botch it, but it happened anyway.
There was no robocop 3@@hamboba6558
3 was a parody.
I like the idea of Robocop going after Cain purely to protect his family as the city falls further into chaos. He's still holding onto his old life, to the point where he is purely motivated by defending it from danger. This is an admirable effort, but his inability to move on emotionally drives him further into turmoil, which is only worsened when OCP fucks with his programming at the midpoint. The scene between him and his wife should have been the last scene of the movie, ending it on a downer with him finally rejecting his humanity and embracing the machine part of him as OCP rolls in and takes control of the city. That way, you could have Robocop 3 be about him re-discovering his humanity again as he goes fully rogue to fight OCP in order to protect the innocent, which he could see as his new family.
Spoken like a champion, I agree with you.
Yes
If you haven't watched it, you may like the Prime Directives miniseries since his son's involved.
The so-called 'remake', is nothin' more than a money-grabbin' SHIT SHOW; which neither adds nor explains anything to the original movie, nor the Robocop franchise in general... Simply a WEAK-ASS attempt, at a 'modernized' re-telling of the original story (which was perfectly written) without ANY real substance or lasting appeal of its own. That is why it's so quickly dismissed and forgotten over the years. Nobody needs to see that bullshit ever again. If they were serious about making a 4th movie installment, they really should've done it SOONER!!! 👎
Seeing how the first one ends with him recognizing his humanity, higher stakes in the sequel shoulda been a story about how a villain discovers Robocops identity and then goes after his family as a way to bait trap or control Robocop, then he is torn by the directives programmed into him by ocp by the emotion drive of his human side trying to save his family.
Dude… I commented this at the beginning of the video and I just watched the part where you mentioned the same thing. Exactly! Cane could’ve tracked down his family as a way to get to Murphy
For those who didn't know, RoboCop 2 had a rocky production. It was initially meant to be written and directed by Tim Hunter, who dropped out due to creative differences. Frank Miller was brought in to pen the script, with Irvin Kershner directing. Even then, the script was constantly being revised during production, with scenes being added and dropped as shooting went on.
Lewis was originally around to lend Murphy a hand. Nancy Allen has said in interviews that the original script featured her character prominently, but the re-writes diminished her role. At one point, Lewis takes up a collection and visits the OCP headquarters to talk with Dr. Faxx about fixing RoboCop after being disassembled by Cain and his gang. Later, she helps her robo-partner snap out of it after he has a confrontation with his former wife. (Which I'll get to.)
There was also a scene where RoboCop and Lewis break into Faxx's office and discover the blueprints for RoboCop 2. During the brewery shootout, Lewis gets into a fight with Catzo, Cain's right hand man.
One deleted scene filmed had Cain and Angie visit OCP headquarters, and Cain's encounter with Dr. Faxx, and he stares face-to-face with the gray RC armor from the original movie on display.
The original script also dove deeper into RoboCop's psyche. The movie attempts to explore how RoboCop has become more human since the ending of the first, but the subplot is quickly dropped. In the scene where Robocop is pulled apart by the gang, he visions himself visiting Murphy's grave with the scene cutting back and forth of him masked and unmasked in a surreal way.
In the novelization that utilized the original script, we get a better explanation for why RoboCop is waging a war on Nuke. Seeing the crumbling state of the city and how so much of the youth is hooked on Nuke has him worried that his son will end up like Hobb, corrupted by vice and crime. The scene where RoboCop encounters his former wife at the police station happens much later in the book. After being told by the lawyers to stay away from her, RoboCop drives to a junkyard to ponder what he has become.
"He closed his eyes and daydreamed, seeing himself frozen solid by rust. He envisioned the mighty magnets lifting his long out-modeled, creaky, corroded body toward the conveyor belt. The conveyor accepting the offering without question. The whining, flailing machine nourished itself on Robo's body, tearing it to pieces with rotating, razor-sharp teeth."
Fortunately, Lewis arrives to snap RoboCop out of his suicidal thoughts and remind him of who he is.
Also, in the aftermath of the fight between him and RoboCop 2, Murphy notices his son amongst the crowd, and does the TJ Lazer gun-twirl to let him know that everything's alright and smiles.
There are so many scenes changed and altered that it made the sequel become a middle-of-the-road "meh" movie. You can tell the film had the right ingredients, but someone pissed in the recipe. It's clearly not a bad movie, but I feel it's just disappointing. And I think that hurts more than just being a bad movie; to see the potential put to waste. And the novelization/original script showed that potential. 😞
That scene with the smoking guy who almost gets shot looks so good. Great acting, guy looks like he was really gonna die!
Saw this in a trailer at the cinema when I was a kid (yes they didn't age appropriate the trailers back then much to annoyance of my child-self. Especially when the Terminator 2 trailer dropped a few years later). The audience and my own laughter made me seek it out on home VHS a mere 3 years later though.
This is making me more convinced that action spectacle alone isnt enough. It needs grounding and context in thrillers or classic dramatic narrative to truly thrive.
The current plight of Marvel/DC is proof of that. It's become all bloated spectacle with zero substance.
Clarence Boddicker was the reason Robocop was so good.
Peter Weller said the same thing
O.o
It took a video on RUclips rather than the slew of soulless films being churned out to get ya there? Not meaning that as a slam, I just.. don't get it.
Of course. It has to have purpose and meaning to drive it forward
The way I'd describe Robocop 2 is that it's like binge watching a Netflix series. Every twenty or so minutes is its own episode with the main plot on the bookends.
Funny how people's opinions can vary so wildly. I absolutely LOVE this movie. For instance, you mention how they could have explored the story line of his wife, by her playing a more prominent role in the film. On the other hand, I was very glad they wrapped it up and provided closure early on, instead of dragging it's heels going over old and familiar subject matter again. Still, you put a lot of work into this and did a great job giving us your personal views.
Agreed. I want to see Robocop, not whiny dude in a Robot costume. It's fun, cause if the things this guys says where in the movie, it would have been so boring.
@@valrond For me, I feel like the emotional stuff is what makes the series interesting to me in the first place TBH.
Agree. I love the sequel.
Same for me. I got uspet after that scene where his wife visits him.@@tyrap6949
@@tyrap6949Yeah. I was hoping there was gonna be more with Murphy getting free will again after he had his directives removed besides resolving the police strike and fighting Robocain.
Robocop is a great movie. One that isn't placed in top 10 movie lists enough. Definitely in my top 10
Agree'd this moving hasn't been seen by alot of people but "My Science Project." Is one I think people should watch
We need more movies like in the 80s and 90s
The ricocheting bullet off the wall scene was originally going to appear in the first movie for the rape victim scene until it was changed to a bullet through the skirt.
The Ed Naha 1987 Robocop novelisation seems to confirm this.
There is only one Robocop movie.
16:47 I think it make sense that Cain is his first thought once he recollect his mind, seeing how Cain is the one who dismantled him in the first place. In that way, it's still kinda a revenge action.
Robocop: Prime Directives series is what you want. A four part mini-series. Everytime you describe how this movie could be better I had a flashback to that series. Well, the first two at least because that is all I can remember. Still, I remember it be decent enough.
It makes sense that Robocop was more mechanical in RC2. He started to act more human than machine at the end of the first RC. The CEO witnessed that first hand and didn't like it. Had rc's small portion of Alex's Murphy's brain altered for more software so he can be controlled better.
The musical themes of Poledouris' musical score in the first film are so incredibly woven in with the stoic heroicism and tragedy of the protagonist. It's literally the other half of the identity of the film. When he appears again and operates in the second film, and all of that is suddenly replaced with a generic musical score, it's like a massive piece of the heart and soul of the character has been lost. That first iconic score has been so tied to his journey, and now it's gone.
Not having the Robocop theme in this movie is one of its biggest flaws, imo. Even the third movie, as subpar as it is, had the theme and used to great effect.
I genuinely enjoy 2, it's somewhat of a guilty pleasure/switch my head over kinda movie. Obviously no where near as compelling as the the first film. But it has its own unique charm, oh and don't ask me why but I find the scene in the warehouse with the robo Cain stalking the mayor and Hobb to be quite suspenseful, something about being trapped with a "monster" that you are completely powerless against does it for me.
Yeah robocain is pretty good.
That's a fantastic scene!
That scene has symbolism; It means that what you do in the dark can be exposed.
I love the first two movies.
Well said and totally agree! love both films. That scene is powerful and a great introduction to one of the most menacing sci-fi killing machines of all time.
I think you hit the nail on the head. For me, the biggest mistake of Robocop 2 was introducing the plotline between Murphy and his wife at the beginning and then never revisiting that plot line again.
Yeah, I think the summary of Robocop 2 is "Good Ideas with Mediocre execution." I like Robocop 2, yes, because of the action, the satire, and I just really like the stop motion effects of Robocain. That said, every time I watch it, it really does feel more like I'm watching a series of TV show episodes and while I love it it is, inherently, lacking. Robocop 3... god, that's gonna be a video. Also had some good ideas, but also had way too many bad ones. Waaaaaay too many.
Lacks coherence between a lot of ideas tossed around. They don't make a good story.
So 3 is the DragonBall GT of robocops😂
i think the stalking the family bit would have worked better if his presence put them in harm, like they track him to their house and wind up shooting up the place. maybe she dies, but it would be better if she didn't so murphy could learn he has to walk away from her just to keep her and her son safe.
When my boss asks for stuff I don’t have done I usually respond with “it took 2 days to download stocks from Cleveland! Lost the account.” To which I just don’t get a response
Robocop 2 is entertaining but it's definitely missing a lot of things that made the original a classic but still watchable. One scene I always remember from the Robocop 2 is the Hot Dog guy as I always thought it was Richard Pryor doing a cameo as a kid in the early 90s but I found out it wasn't him when I looked it up on the internet in the early 2000s.
what is missing according to you? it s a sequel, is not supposed to be a carbon copy of the first
It's an imperfect sequel, there either had to be a different first movie, or a movie between the two movies where Murphy regressed. But left with a haunting want of his family. Then the now third movie would deal with Kane but also the drama with his family? Or switched around.
I can totally see making that mistake lol.
“They going to kick somebody ass” 😂
Sequels usually always suck, and for a movie series like "Robocop" the expectations for a sequel were low. In this case it actually makes Robocop 2 a pretty decent follow-up to the story, since there was a good chance we could have got something awful like Robocop 3 as the immediate follow-up to the first movie, which would have left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and it might have really tarnished the entire Robocop legacy. I believe Robocop 2 might have actually elevated the fandom for the entire brand. Too bad 3 was pretty crappy, otherwise there might have been a 4th one.
You're spot on with how ridiculous John Wick gets with it's sequels. The original had a grounded gritty nature to the fights and everything but by the fourth film he's just fighting goons with bullet proof armour and vests and falls down an entire staircase and quickly recovers without breaking a sweat. I mean I love the sequels (besides 3) but even I appreciate the original for being a very self contained story at the end of day.
3 is actually my favorite of the sequels :(
@@underthemayoHow would you rate the John Wick sequals.
3 is fine but the ending fall was ridiculous
@@michaelsoulz8447 first film is a 9/10
Jw2 7/10
Jw3 8/10
Jw4 7/10 (least favorite)
@underthemayo That's very interesting. I actually thought 4 was the best sequel because I think it fixed some of the problems I had with the first two. 2 had good action, but the story was just a mere excuse for said action and didn't add much. 3 had a more thought-out story, but I thought it didn't mix story and action well, and the movie sometimes felt like a slow burner for me. I liked 4 because I like how the directors committed to John Wick being this force of nature, and I really like how ridiculous the action is.....even if sometimes it gets too ridiculous.
I will always defend 2. So not as bad as people claim. I also made a fan edit where I rearranged the scenes with Murphy's family and I spread them out to appear more frequently in the film, and it makes for a much more emotional movie.
That does help balance the movie.
Is it available anywhere?
@@integrity101 I have a video on my channel showing the edits I made. I can't find anywhere to post the whole movie online yet, but I'll keep you posted when I do.
its not as bad as people claim but. idk im conflicted with it. because i see and tend to agree with the issues in the movie. but i still love it lol. you cant top the first one anyway. the 2nd one is fun.
@@hashtagfilm u could try fan edit sites
The getting up and immediately going out to the transformer and grabbing it to reset his programing is 100% Alex Murphy though. That was an act of a man loosing his damn mind and being fully aware of it. I also love the bit where he's reading Miranda rights to a corpse and presses his finger tips together before stating that he is having problems.
Robocop 2 felt like a season of TV episodes jammed into one film. An episode about Murphy stalking his family, an episode about the police strike, an episode about the mayor vs OCP and their corruption, an episode about Robocop being reprogrammed etc. With the Kane/Nuke storyline as the ongoing arc.
The entire film could be made much better by making Hobb into Murphy's son. It gives him a personal stake as Kane has now stolen the last legacy of Murphy as a man, and would neatly tie all the disparate subplots together. I feel like this was the plan but the studio knew it would be controversial and made Hobb an unrelated, unlikeable character instead.
That wouldn't surprise if some early idea was exactly that but script meetings changed it before the pen met paper.
Or even bringing Murphy's relationship to his estranged son more to the forefront, paralleling it with Robocop's relationship with Hobb. Having a fatherhood as a side theme would make the movie more than just a very entertaining slaughterfest.
Maybe making Hobb a friend or school colleague for Murphy's son would have worked. After being "dumped" by Murphy his wife could meet him in private to ask for help with their son because the kid's bad companies. That would give a bigger emotional motivation to RoboCop.
I think Hobb being the son would make the movie universe too small. But a friend of his son, or with more shown parallels to Murphy's own fatherhood, would have been great.
This would definitely make the film WORSE.
Being about 7 when it came out, I was obsessed with this movie. To this day, it's my favorite of the 3 movies. Most of my peers feel the same way. I wonder if it was one of those "You Had to Be There" things?
This movie is so violent, it would have traumatized me as a 7 year old.
I show it to my younger friends all the time and it always goes over well.
@@ZachAttackIsBackthat is the best bit about it. It packs a punch. hahaha. I was about the same age when I saw it. :D. miss those days.
Same😂
Holy crap.
The Robocop game is way better than it has any business being! Love how impactful the combat/gunplay is!!!
Great video and thoughts...and thank you for plugging our documentary too! Look forward to seeing your two cents on 3!
Another way to look at Robocop 2 is that even though he has rediscovered his humanity by the end of the first movie, he now faces a different challenge: OCP's attempts to erase his humanity in order to control and turn him into just another soulless product of the company. You see this in the OCP lawyer telling Murphy that he is just a machine. Then Juliette Faxx reprogramming him with hundreds of silly directives.
It was only by electrocuting himself that he was able to bring his real self back, a form of rebirth if you will. You could say that in Robocop 2 Murphy was reasserting his humanity and not letting anyone take it from him. Aptly summed up by his closing line at the end, "We're only human."
I find it RoboCop 2 criminally underrated. The action scenes were terrific and the stop frame motion animation was the best I ever had seen at this point, before the helm of CGI.
Another idea could have been that Murphy's kid is the psycho kid working for Cain, maybe a little more toned down and re written, interesting angle, he fell into the wrong crowd and is now apart of the same people his father takes down, but could still be 50/50 about what he is doing
A little trivia about the hundreds of directives. The data cable that's delivering the crap into Murphys head was a connecting hose from a toilet. Pretty apt.
I remember the live action series. Robocop didn't kill there. Instead, he used the environment to hit the bad guys like shooting a lamp above their heads and make it fall on them
oooh, I like the idea of Cane being a bad cop instead of a criminal. That would've set up a better dichotomoy with Murphy, and had the ability to set up a way more interesting story.
Good points. That said, I still love this film. It's like the original's awkward brother, not as talented or intelligent but there's an affability and personal charm that allows me to see past its flaws and enjoy it for what it is. Liked and subbed.
I was literally just like "Okay, Under The Mayo, I'll watch....
there is a production image of Robocop visiting his grave. There was a seed of a much better movie planted in Robocop 2 that never got to be. The family and identity stuff is the perfect next thing to explore
The line "I can feel them but I don't remember them" was more than enough, in the first movie, to paint Murphy's emotional state.
i would add that the introduction of robocain was one of the most terrifying things seen in movies, next to the Terminator destroying the refugee camp or shooting up the police station
Totally agree on the fact that Murphy's personality is missing. I want to see Robocop be Murphy. His smile at the end of one was so strong. The scene in one when he goes home was heartbreaking and two lacked that weight.
I'd add a scene after RoboCop beats Kane in the truck chase, where he, now with no directives decides to visit his wife and child, where he tells her to not try and sue OCP and assures her that everything would be alright, but this life is over now. After RoboCain attacks the meeting with the Mayor, he hears his radio go off. His wife tells him he doesn't have to go, he has no directives, only for him to reply "I do".
I disagree that Robo doesn't act like Murphy though. He's not as chipper as the Murphy at the beginning of the first film, and he doesn't talk entirely human-like which I imagine was done because that's just how people associate with RoboCop. But his personality in 2 is different from his pre-discovery personality in 1, he's just serious business because he has stuff to do, and he's not going to crack any jokes because he's kind of sad, he doesn't have anything to be happy about in the beginning of the movie. In 1, before realizing he's Murphy he mostly does stuff with indifference, while in 2 he's pretty pissed when asking the guy where Nuke is made, he caresses the baby that he see's, say's shit like "we can't have that" when the guy tells him he's gonna shoot the baby, casually says "Lewis, hang it up". He's clearly very sad when the guy rips into him for thinking he could be a husband for Ellen. He just says "Dead then" in response to Kane saying one of them must die. He's very clearly Murphy to me in this film.
The final showdown with Cain was cool. The stop motion is sublime. You make good points but I still enjoy RB2. Cain is a great monster. Really good design and action. I like the creepy way Cain bot moves. The first movie is perfect. Always tough to follow.
I feel like the first 30 to 60 minutes genuinely felt like a natural progression from the first movie plot wise, but then it turned into chaotic schlock after that lol
It would have been a better story if Cain went after robocops wife and child and stirred up his emotions.
I always thought Cain was such a missed opportunity like how would Eddie feel about seeing another person having their humanity stricken from them by the same organization that created him
Eddie Murphy as robocop. Lol😂
Robocop 2 is criminally underrated to me
Nah
@@jediknightgeo Ok your opinion other people have said the same kinds of things you are saying about Robocop 2.
What a cope@@damianstarks3338
It is.
Kirshner put his own voice on the material.
Yes it is
Ironically RoboCop 2 is the first one I ever seen so while I do enjoy this one more than the first. The First one was a Different Beast in a Great Way… But I’m also a fan of his Blue Armor here than the Silver one. I do wish we gotten Cain taking his Family hostage by him simply watching them everyday and Cain having his people keep tabs of him and notice this, and by taking him down only for him to return as RoboCain would have been Brilliant! We could have saved all the Mind Changing stuff for the Third film which probably would have made for a Better Third film, Murphy having to fight not only his Directives but also a “Rogue” Police Department no little girl hacking crap or anything like that. At this point of RoboCop 3 Murphy would have had his wife and Son by his side after the events of the second movie!
I saw this film when I was about 8 years old. I had proper PTSD from the violent scenes (the murder of the girlfriend and the brief torturing of the cop)
Looking back Kane is actually a dark reflection of Murphy. Kane technically is the husband of the girl and psycho kid. Kane doesn’t give a shit about his family and even kills them.
So I do feel Murphy wants to punish him because Kane took his family for granted.
No
@@jediknightgeoI mean that’s my perspective. If you don’t like it that’s fine, you’re free to have your own.
I love robo 2.... one of my favorite movies ever.
It just felt like a board of movie execs shoddily put together ideas to milk the new cash cow:
Robo is smart enough to see a mine and get out his car, but not smart enough to see a bunch of crooks with guns, and as a foolproof way to disable him, let's just have a kid shoot his hand off...
Then he is severely damaged, a screen pops out of his arm to presumably advise, erm, somone of this fact....next scene he's somehow completely repaired again, but with no glass in his visor, for some reason.
And he'll be able to survive being shot at by Cain's high velocity bullets, fall from a massive height, take no damage from having his head used as a baseball bat and be in the middle of a gas explosion, because none of that is as deadly as a child with a gun.
Then there's production issues; The robo suit looks visibly cheaper.
The direction required to prevent Weller from looking like a goofy stormtrooper in a toy suit just isn't there.
Attention to detail is also lacking; "We want to show how big and scary this new robot is as he comes out of a truck" "Should the truck suspension move at all to show this?" "Nah"
Ultimately, it was just a souless sequel by numbers job
I'd say that Frank Miller's influence was one of the sequel's problems: The man is way to much into nihilistic violence, but it's the"Murphy" side that made the original Robocop (movie and guy) great in the first place. As a kid I had RC comic in which Murphy faces a cyborg baddie - and adresses their lost humanity and shared trauma, which overloads and shuts down the baddie cyborg. I hope the Amazon reboot/sequel will focus more on Murphy as a person.
Frank Miller's influence was the problem with Robocop 3, but not 2. He wrote an amazing script for 2 which got thrown out and rewritten completely, and the movie was worse on every level. His script was later made into a comic called Frank Miller's Robocop, and it is a monumental achievement.
@@Dartanyoogles Yeah, I know the comic adaptation of Miller's script. It has some good moments but I think that the comic is convoluted and lacks focus.
RoboCop 2 was my favourite movie as a kid. I always felt sad that Murphy didn't reunite with his wife in the end but as an adult I appreciated the path they took with the story. I like how he chooses to let go of his old life as a husband and a father for his family's sake and assumes a new identity that is defined by his vocation as a police officer- a defender of the innocent and an enemy of capitalism. This is the character arc that RoboCop 2 brings to the table.
Agreed, and it works well. Robocop 2 is its own thing, much more exaggerated and comic book than the first one but almost equally enjoyable for me.
3:52 There's a couple of caveats about Murphy's regression. As the man himself says "I can feel them, but I don't remember them". He knows that they were important to him, but not why. It seems obvious as well that OCP is attempting to treat the man as a machine.
Me and a school friend used to always throw out the lines Robocop came up with while under the DLC directives.
Faves include "It's the thought that counts" , "I'm having trouble".
That, and every now and then just throwing out a madman assassin "Nuuuke!"
I saw Robocop 2 on theatrical release and was disappointed. One of the things that really bugged me was the lack of musical cues that were established in the first film are totally missing and replaced with a generic score. Robocops theme is nowhere to be found in Robocop 2. I didn't like that they made the OCP CEO somewhat of a villain this time around, which didn't make sense since Murphy/Robocop rescued him at the end of the first film. I agree with your criticisms 100%. The Robocop sequels suck!
Generic?
Leonard’s score was awesome!
It was more optimistic. It fills you with hope.
Would of been interesting if kane corrupted alex' s son.
I can argue that him going after Cain is pretty Alex Murphy actually. While originally he was after Cain because of nuke, following his repairs, Alex is very clearly going after Cain for revenge after the gang tortured him and tore him apart, he sounds angry when when he tells that other cop "CAIN! CAIN IS BUGGING ME!" He wasn't there to get the bad guy, he was there (this time with backup / his homies) to get back at Cain for what they did. The final battle is also a revenge match, Robocop goes after Robocain because he learned from Hob that it's Cain and goes to finish the job. He doesn't say like "you're under arrest!" or something, he straight up goads the guy to a fight going "CAIN! LET'S STEP OUTSIDE!"
What takes out of it is the fact that Cain has no lines as a cyborg which doesn't let the crew expand the bad blood between the two, the issue is also Cain's design; for me he is easily the coolest 90s giant death robot ever put to film, but you can't really see that thing monologuing or shouting at Robocop so I understand why the director chose to have him not say anything, but at the same time, the lack of lines prevented them from making it clear that the two giant robots are fighting because it's personal.
They could have had the wife become addicted to nuke in an attempt to forget Murphy, perhaps Cain being directly involved in this and using her against Robocop.
WOW!!
SUPERBLY executed.
What a comprehensive deposition that literally (and shockingly) gets it like I do.
My all time favourite story.
Thanks for this gem, now I can shove this in my geek pals faces as evidence I wasn’t just pulling this out of my ass lol
They could have had an angle where the bizarre kid crook element was actually his son whose fallen on the wrong path since his Dad was murdered which would have allowed for Murphy to be more invested in the Cain angle, perhaps only revealing it being his kid via a flashback near the end of the movie, maybe those directives could have been for him to stay away from his family? Maybe that telling off in the station could have been linked towards that too, which in turn caused the boardroom to go nuts with filling additional directives to play to the parental link undercurrent? Perhaps the electrocution on the breakers could have been Murphy's humanity desperately trying to get a grip on the situation, resetting his directives and thus 'taking the gloves off' ..
Who knows what could have been.....
I really don't have time for this movie in general, it's the one I've watched the least over the years, there's some good stuff here but it's not for me.
I'll be honest, Tom Noonan as Caine was my favorite part of the movie. Also, Nuke is one of my favorite fictional drugs, it looks so cool injecting it in the neck lol
In my opinion. If they had managed to keep Verhoeven as director the movie would have been stellar. I'm still a sucker for Robocop 2 and its still an enjoyable movie and for a sequel I still rate it. As you mentioned the amount of rewrites on Miller's script, its pretty much name only.
One way I'd improve Robocop 2 is tying Kane to Bodeger. That way there's more of a reason for Robocop to go after Kane beyond "drug dealer bad >:(" having Kane be Bodeger's unhinged drug dealing 2nd in command not only gives Robocop more of a motivation to go after him especially given what Bodeger and his group did to Murphy in the first one but it also gives Kane something of a vendetta against Robocop. The god complex angle is great and really baking that into Kane'a character to the point where he would have idolised Bodeger in some capacity, would have been great to see if they went with that direction.
I love your idea on Murphy's wife falling into the Nuke addiction. I feel like it would justify Murphy watching the house 24/7 except he doesnt realise that her paranoia because of the Nuke in this hypothetical would heighten her anxiety even more and drive her further into Nuke.
I loved the first movie, i didnt really have a lot of complaints with 2 but 3 is where i checked out.
The reboot was ass cheeks though.
That's what they did with Die Hard 3, making Simon Han's brother. Unless that relationship is established in the first film, which would detract from the plot unless that 2nd in command is integral and is allowed to survive/escape, that connection feels shoehorned. Franchises have this problem where movies begin as one-offs and are then milked for a cash grab. There are rare exceptions (Aliens, Empire Strikes Back, Dark Knight, Godfather Part II) but by and large only Marvel has had a good run, from 2008 to 2018, with franchise planning. I think the solution is to let directors create solid self-contained movies without franchising them. Think of Paul Verhooven with Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. A solid thematic trilogy, not a franchise.
Who is bodegar?
@@garypasquill2355The bad guy with the glasses who shoots Murphy's hand off.
please no,giving the 2 villains a relationship is cheesy, i hate, i despise the concept of "everybody is related to everyone" bullshit
@@pll9000Clarence Boddiker?
RoboCop 1 is a Timeless Masterpiece. Robo 2 having a different Director, Writer, with Re shoots , and Re writes . Hindered the potential of what the sequel could've been.. With that being said, i still enjoy watching Robo 2 overall.. But it's not nearly as good as the 1st film..
Other Sequels like Predator 2 actually got it right. Kept the premise , and narrative close to the chest.. While introducing the Audience to a new story , that is tangible, innovative, and intriguing..
Maybe the best line in the movie and hits so well - "Dying Sucks" "Yes...."
The worst crime of this movie is the fact that it doesn't even feature the goddamn theme song!
It's gonna be interesting how the Game takes its new direction and story since apparently it takes place right after Robocop 2.
Maybe Teyon could incorporate some of the good ideas the movies had and knowing they do their homework well,There maybe some hope.
Nevertheless this movie is atleast entertaining to watch where as the Original is just legendary all around.
I expect game's got at least more of an exploration of Murphy's character than the third film, between the obvious action sequences.
@@bluespaceman7937 Honestly though at the very least,I am happy Peter weller came back as Robocop.
I did liked the concept where entire OCP is the final antagonist of the film.
I like this movie just for the robocain
I feel that the movie starts very strong, with the natural progression of Robocop being hesistant to meet his family. The main problem is that OCP forces him to become a souless robot for the rest of the movie, which is insulting to the character arc of the first film. I would have made it so that OCP, in order to distance themselves from Dick Jones mindless ED-209, actively support the humanity shown by Murphy. To make it harder to decide if the Old Man and Johnson are actually corrupt or in good intentions, they, along with Lewis encourage him to meet his family. This would lead to an emotional scene where Murphy reunites with his family. I think Cain could still see use in this film, and one day, an incident revolves with Murphy's family in a crime. In the process, Murphy and Lewis go to rescue them, obviously being a highly stressful situation, but Murphy is critically damaged and enters a state of comatose. After an unknown period of time, Murphy is restored, albeit in a damaged state to a city slated clean by the constructed Delta City. I think this would make for a good exploration film for Murphy to find what happened to his family, Lewis, the detroit police staff and OCP, you can really play up on the corruption of the rich buisnessmen, crime fighting and would show progression from the first movie. I think they could either reveal slowly that his family was killed by Cain or corrupted by the drug trade to fund Delta City. Then, you could reunite Murphy with Lewis and perhaps establish the resistance group to stop Cain. Maybe Cain was hired by an unknown OCP member to fool the Old Man into funding the corrupt Delta City.
it is important to distract yourself after trauma, so I can see why Murphy has a hard on for Cain.
I disagree with you on so many levels, robocop 2 is such a masterpiece
Despite Robocop 2 being inferior to the first film. I really like this one a lot. Especially using Cain’s brain in the “Robocop 2” machine. There are alot of great aspects of this film. They tend to be downgraded or overlooked when put up against the original
I will never forgive this movie for throwing away the potential of Alex Murphy reconnecting with his family. That was the ONE THING I wanted from a RoboCop sequel. It was the one lingering plot thread that wasn't resolved by the end of the first film. And I was even more shocked to learn that neither of the original scripts for the film focused on this aspect at all!
He meets his son in Prime Directives! I have a video on it.
Thank you for not filling your video with cutaway gags to pad out time for the algorithm. You will be rewarded in the long run.
I really hate that stuff. Comes across as insulting like I need constant bells and whistles to keep my attention. I'll cut away to a joke here and there if it comes to me naturally. But a lot of channels fill their videos with constant cutaways and memes and I hate it.
To be honest, I love all RoboCop movies, including TV shows and reboot movie. Because in my opinion they are all good in their own way. And I wish that we could get a sequel to the reboot movie. Sadly, because of rating, that will never happen. The only media that I can go critical about RoboCop is video games because, we don't have a lot of good RoboCop games. Sure, new game could be actually good but that is just one game in a long time. But before that we didn't had any good RoboCop games. Sure, there is some arcade games, that is good and few home versions, including new game but that is as far as we can get with RoboCop games. But as for the movies, like I said, I like them all.
Robo cop vs terminator is awesome
@@MILDMONSTER1234 I agree, but not on SNES tho.
My condolences
@@jediknightgeo In regards of what?
Robocop 2 is a masterpiece. It's a parody of the making of itself. It's as brilliant as the original, just in a completely different way. Whereas the original movie is more a hero's journey with the emotional lows and highs, Robocop 2 is pure satire, parody, and insanity. Think of it like this, OCP is Orion, trying to make a sequel to Robocop while not understanding why it worked in the first place so they hire a hot shot up and comer Frank Miller/Dr Fax to lead the program/movie. When you think of the movie as referencing itself the entire time, it really is brilliant and insane.
This is a really good take on the film. I honestly never thought of this angle at all.
Yes, agree entirely. Sure, it wasn't what many people wanted. But it did its own thing and it did it damn well.
Damn this is a great take
I like the fact that they gave us closure with his wife early on. I will agree that Weller seems more robotic in this movie and not as expressive as he was in the first movie. But it can also be said that he could be battling embracing his new direction leaving his family behind. Causing to find a balance within his conscious. Either way I love this movie. Cain always freaked me out as a kid.
I actually really like this movie, I like the production design and colors of this movie a lot and I’m a big Tom Noonan fan and I think he’s great as Caine. Although, I will agree that I wish he acted like Alex Murphy throughout the whole movie or at least at the start, instead of regressing him to thinking like Robocop again.
Hey mayo you should try play Hidden Deep, it’s a physical based spelunking game, with a dark secrets at the end. It kind of reminds me of the thing a little bit !
I always thought a great idea for the sequel would be to turn Lewis into a lady Robocop... Remember at the end of Robocop she's all shot up and she says "Murphy, Im a mess!" And he says "They'll fix you. They fix everything". That would have been so awesome. Murphy and Lewis robocop team.
RoboCop 2 shows us that stop motion photography is far more terrifying than CGI.
Excellent analysis Mayo; a very fair and balanced view on what is a very odd film for me. I agree with you that it wasted a lot of good potential and ideas but ultimately isn't a bad movie.
I'm glad it wasn't just me who remembered thinking that it felt like Murphy had regressed from where he was at the end of the first movie to where he is at the start of this one - that always bothered me and no-one else could see it!
Looking forward to your critique of Robocop 3 in due course😁👍
I've tried to watch Robocop 2 at least a half dozen times over the years, and I've never gotten beyond the 15 minute mark.
One other thing that this made me realize and isn't touched, as much as I can remember, Murphy was brought back to life to be a scab worker
Some kid out there watched Robocop and saw OCP as the hero of the movie. They now run Blackrock and Vangaurd, own a city you say, how about the world!
Robocop is awesome but I really enjoyed Robocop 2. 3 is unwatchable. 👍
This was such a let down compared to the first, that is in my top 3 favourite movies of all time and it just went massively downhill
Excellent commentary. I saw an interview with Weller reflecting how at the time he was indeed asking 'Where's the 3rd act?!'
With his desire to preserve tradition and eschew corporate rule, I'd say the mayor qualifies as much more of a Fascist than the CEO...
Honestly, leave everything the same. But when Hob dies in the factory have it effect Murphy so much because it reminds him of his own son. Hell, they could even be the same age. Let Murphy have a flashback of his son while Hob dies which leads to ONE additional scene where Murphy gets closure with his wife and son. The reason the earlier scene with his wife falls flat is because there’s no resolution later in the movie.
Damn, there's a lot to unpack here...
As far as Murphy and his family go... I'm of mixed mind. On the one hand, I can see what they were trying to do. They were throwing a hook back to the first film and trying to address it, they got it done and out of the way. I can see why, in character, Murphy regresses. You talk about the man under the armor, but there is no man under the armor in-universe. Like Faxx (crazy lady, for those who never saw the movie) says, "...you're not even a corpse!" All that's left of Murphy is his brain inside the fully robotic body. There's some disagreement as to whether his face is preserved flesh or a synthetic copy, but either way the most you have is a brain and some skin. Immersing himself in the persona of a badass law enforcing killing machine may be the best way keep himself sane, and letting Lewis be his anchor to his humanity makes more sense than pining for his wife and son, hence "I don't know you". For all his power he really can't be a husband to her. On the other hand, I fully agree they could have done more with it and it was handled in a slapdash way to get it over and done with. That more than anything to me feels like Frank Miller's writing coming through.
The directives section is a bit of satire that is FULLY RELEVANT to the modern times we live in. They predicted the future right there, probably not intentionally but the way the internet and social media has evolved into a virtue signalling hell that ties the hands of real discourse is perfectly parallel with the way the extra directives tie Robocop's hands for that section of the movie. Again, I agree and disagree... they could have done more with that, but when I watch Robocop 2 I don't really want them to. It's clear Murphy is pained by the confusion and conflicting directives, and seeing his willingness to either purge them or die is really moving, and why people now don't realize that they're being restrained in the same way pains me.
Moving on to the fight with RoboCain, something you don't mention is just how much that does to re-establish how badass Murphy is. One thing I hate about this movie is how weak it makes him look when Cain's pitiful gang of drug addicts manages to defeat and incapacitate Robocop with what basically amounts to one shot from an HMG and an industrial strength Tazer. The fight with RoboCain where Murphy no-sells multiple hits from a large bore cannon, an arc welder to the face, a fall from a skyscraper, being bodily swung into and through multiple layers of heavy duty plumbing, and is still perfectly fine at the end, does a lot to re-establish him as a nearly invincible walking tank, as he should be. Then Robocop 3 comes along and proceeds to have him weakened and defeated by trivial amounts of force, making him look weak yet again. >sigh