'RoboCop'

I think we can all admit the 1980s was a great decade for film — especially for the nerds. The science-fiction genre was developing and evolving into a form to create real horror, amazement and social commentary.

We got “Back to the Future,” “The Terminator,” “Aliens,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and more.

And then there was “RoboCop” — an interesting and iconic piece of film that garnered enough success to warrant two sequels, but certainly nothing deserving of a remake.

That’s where director José Padilha intervenes.

The new film follows the old storyline, only interjecting enough modern references to make you think the filmmakers are standing for something when they’re not.

OmniCorp is making drones that are saving the world, and they want to expand their business and safety model to the United States. But there’s some reluctance from both the American people and the federal government about the safety of drones walking the streets of the U.S. without human emotion.

The president of OmniCorp (Michael Keaton) decides he needs to get a human into one of his machines to seem relatable. Honestly, it’s a highly unclear plot device.

Enter Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), a Detroit policeman who gets injured during a bomb explosion in a strange mix-up with organized crime. An OmniCorp scientist, played by Gary Oldman, salvages Murphy’s head, esophagus, heart and lungs by putting them in a clunky robotic suit, thus making OmniCorp happy and the movie actually happen.

The main problem is the movie tries too hard. It fails to recognize all it has to be is a “shoot ‘em up, blow up some bad guys” kind of action flick to make the people happy.

Instead it tries to get into nuanced commentary about human-robot interactions — essentially, it tries to go where the critically acclaimed “Blade Runner” went in terms of futuristic existential critique.

But there are many issues with this, chiefly the fact that “Blade Runner” was made in a time when that critique was highly palpable. Now,  it just seems dry and forced. 

“RoboCop” also fails because it never commits to a side on the issue at hand. It seemingly tries to stay bipartisan throughout the whole 108 minutes.

And finally, “RoboCop” still has to live up to what the trailers promised and be an action movie.

In order to get everything Padilha wanted there to be in the movie, the plot is cramped and compromised. Action sequences are poorly plotted and confusing, and actors literally seem like they just got off the stage of their fifth-grade school pageant.

The only thing saving this movie from a failing grade is Gary Oldman’s impeccable effort to try and save a sinking ship.

That and the fact I got to see a “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” trailer piggybacking on a trailer for “X-Men: Days of Future Past” before the film started.