RoboCop reboot has tedious sameness about it

The original RoboCop was one of the cleverest dumb movies of the 1980s.

Robocop [M]

Rating: 2 stars

Director:Jose Padilha (Bus 174)

Starring:Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton

THE original RoboCop was one of the cleverest dumb movies of the 1980s.

There was something subversive in its vision of a future where cyborg law enforcers could make on-the-spot judgment calls.

There was also nothing subtle about its more basic inclinations. Particularly when it came to the need for a little brutality and a lot of gore.

After all, this was the handiwork of the great Paul Verhoeven, later to mount the same line of attack to even greater effect with Total Recall and Starship Troopers.

Like that so-so Total Recall remake from 2012, the new RoboCop offers a polite recycling of what came before. Nothing more, nothing less.

Unfortunately, the trashier urges that made the original such a unique pile of junk have been resisted here. Stripped of the snarky humour and mercurial mood swings, this RoboCop is disarmingly dour for a cyborg crimefighter.

Joel Kinnaman (from TV’s The Killing) does OK as Alex Murphy, the wounded Detroit police officer who gets a metallic makeover from some cynical corporate overlords.

Abbie Cornish does not do OK as the weepy, without-a-clue Mrs Murphy. Good to see Michael Keaton back in the acting game as one of the prime villains.

Shame the special effects weren’t packing more of a wow factor, as the action scenes get tediously same-ish after a while.