José Padilha's 2014 remake of Paul Verhoeven's widely-beloved sci-fi action classic RoboCop was not the hit that producers wanted it to be and suffered from middling reviews from critics. But does that mean that there's nothing in the movie worth remembering or praising?

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By examining and judging the movie on its best qualities, in relation to the biggest drawbacks of its reimagining of the story, perhaps you'll be able to decide for yourself whether the remake of RoboCop really is as bad as people say it is or whether it's another underrated movie waiting to be rediscovered by the right audience.

Is: Muted Violence

Robocop points his gub

The most commonly criticized element of RoboCop 2014 is the toning down of the original movie's graphic violence. No other movie in the franchise really lived up to the original in that sense but, considering how memorable a quality it is in the first movie, it always feels like a glaring omission.

RoboCop 2014 is heavy on the action but still an almost entirely bloodless movie. As unsatisfying as it is, however, the muting of violent imagery from a very violent world does feel like a conscious theme within the movie and it feeds into one of its best qualities...

Isn't: Contemporary Issues

The original RoboCop was very much a product of its time and the 2014 version does an admirable job at moving its basic elements into a story that revolves around contemporary issues.

Imperialism, capitalism, and the notion of free will are all still explored in the 2014 version but things are now more War on Terror than Cold War and more Steve Jobs than Ronald Reagan.

Is: Less Satire

Jay Baruchel's character provides a brief comedic window into the marketing side of Padilha's RoboCop world but it's no substitute for the hilarious and borderline nihilistic approach to advertising and commercialism in the original movie.

Samuel L. Jackson also gets to bookend the remake with a great performance as an infotainment pundit but he's a very minor aspect to the overall movie despite being one of the best things about it.

Isn't: More Emotion

All of the things that RoboCop 2014 doesn't really carry over from the original movie are replaced by other interesting ideas.

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In losing some of the examinations of soullessness from the first movie, the remake adds a deeper exploration of emotion and Murphy's relationship with his family.

Is: Uninteresting Criminals

One of the more missed aspects of the original RoboCop movies in the remake is the colorful criminals who add so much personality to each of them, particularly the original.

There are gangsters and kingpins in the remake but the criminal side of the villain equation isn't handled as memorably as the corporate side.

Isn't: Creative Action

Making up for its lack of practical effects and gore, RoboCop 2014 gets quite creative with its action scenes and displays a lot of ingenuity with its predominantly handheld style.

The action sequences may all be shootouts but the movie does a good job of keeping them distinct from one another, creating an interesting take on the gun-fu style of choreography.

Is: A Forgettable World

The colorfulness of Verhoeven's approach to the original RoboCop didn't just make the characters more interesting but also made the world that they inhabited more entertaining to be in also.

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The satirical elements of the movie's vision of Detriot made it feel more like science-fiction and, while the 2014 version gains certain things from looking more like our current real world, it loses a lot of personality from the bland environments and often humdrum music.

Isn't: A Great Cast

RoboCop 2014 feels like a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in a lot of ways and most of those ways are actually quite good qualities.

One of the strongest similarities is in the pedigree of the casting and performances, which is pretty top-notch and even comes complete with the Samuel L. Jackson cameo to tie things together.

Is: A Lack of Humor

The most integral aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies is the major thing that RoboCop 2014 doesn't carry over from that franchise or its own for that matter, and that's a constant flow of humor.

The remake does a very good job of proving that you can make a RoboCop movie that takes itself seriously but never really provides a satisfying answer as to why you would want to do that in the first place.

Isn't: It Leaves the Character in A More Interesting Position Than Any of the Sequels

The original Alex Murphy isn't a particularly fleshed-out character before he becomes the metallic superhero we all know and love and, as mentioned, José Padilha's movie does a commendable job of adding dimensions to him.

The most impressive outcome of this is that it actually leaves Kinnaman's iteration of the character in a more interesting position for a continuing story than any of the other RoboCop sequels ever did with theirs. There's room for him to grow and change into something entirely different but still from the launchpad of the original's ideas. It's very unlikely that audiences will ever see a continuation of this onscreen but it still remains a more attractive prospect than another reboot or sequel that tries to repeat the past.

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