Dead or alive, you’re going to bear witness to quite a bit more marketing for José Padilha’s upcoming RoboCop reboot, which could potentially put an end to U.S. crime forever, or at least until the inevitable sequel. I think the film’s success next month is tied heavily into people reneging on their New Year’s resolution to "never watch another godawful Hollywood remake again," although even a cynic like me has downgraded RoboCop’s existence from awful to better than Total Recall’s remake. Have you been seeing the TV spots pop up? We’ve got three of them for you.
The top clip, via ComingSoon, is a domestic one, while the other two, via Comic Book Movie, come from Sony’s Taiwanese YouTube page. For being such short clips, they’re all good at conveying the heart of the story, which is all about robots kicking other robots’ asses. But the paper-thin coating around that heart is about shifting America’s robophobia around enough to let law enforcement become slightly automated with the introduction of the half-man/half-machine RoboCop, a product created in cooperation with OmniCorps and Alex Murphy’s blown-up almost-corpse.
All context aside, these clips are far less about the lead-up to OmniCorp’s greatest invention and more about that invention breaking robot necks and zipping around on a motorcycle, making Jay Baruchel a lot of money. While I am of course interested in seeing CGI-heavy battles between RoboCop and the ED-209, I’m more interested in the whole "machine programming vs. human will" side of things, and I hope that Murphy’s character shines through as someone audiences would want to personify a new millennium’s RoboCop. (It’s on you, Joel Kinnaman.)
Let’s take a peek at both of those international clips, though be warned that the second video is essentially just the final half of the first. Those who tire quickly of Samuel L. Jackson promoting mechanized law enforcement would do well just to watch one or the other.
RoboCop also stars Michael Keaton as OmniCorp’s brainchild Raymond Sellars, who tasks Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) with Murphy’s robo-resurrection, as well as Abbie Cornish, Michael K. Williams, Jackie Earle Haley, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jennifer Ehle and Miguel Ferrer.
Will Detroit be saved, or will it all burn down to the ground? Find out when RoboCop throws you against the walls of a theater and beats you silly on February 12. Lock in on the full trailer below.
