ROBOCOP 3
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli
Rating (Linear 0 to 10): 4.7
Date Released: 11/5/93 Running Length: 1:45 Rated: PG-13 (Violence, language)
Starring: Robert John Burke, Nancy Allen, John Castle, Remy Ryan, Rip Torn, CCH Pounder, Jill Hennessy, Mako Director: Fred Dekker Producer: Patrick Crowley Screenplay: Frank Miller and Fred Dekker Music: Basil Poledouris Released by Orion Pictures
ROBOCOP 3 is merely a run-of-the-mill superhero movie, complete with comic-book type villains and a plot of limited scope and even more restricted appeal. It's the good guys versus the bad guys in a time- honored tradition. There's a lot of firepower, numerous explosions, and a few amazing new gadgets for the superhero to put to use. All-in-all, it's pretty routine, and that's a big disappointment. For those hoping that the third entry in the series would bring things back around to the level of the first, 'tis not to be. At least, however, we're spared another plodding and pointlessly violent adventure like ROBOCOP 2. This one has a little life; rigor mortis has not quite set in.
Detroit is still a war zone, but this time it's an elite element of the police force--the "Rehabilitators" against a group of terrorists who are, in reality, citizens fighting for the right to stay in their homes. When Robocop (Robert John Burke) enters the fray, he does so not on the side of the OCP forces, but on the side of the downtrodden--which means he's fighting the police. Not surprisingly, a warrant is issued for his arrest, but the Japanese powers behind the Rehabilitators aren't taking any chances, and send an elite Ninja warrior (Bruce Locke) after the half-man, half-machine police officer.
The great thing about the original ROBOCOP (directed by a pre-BASIC INSTINCT Paul Verhoven) was a tongue-in-cheek attitude coupled with an indefatigable wit. There was action, to be sure, but the script was clever, and it made the old superhero formula seem fresh. Alas, with ROBOCOP 2, little of that freshness remained, and we got what amounted to a senselessly-violent rehash of the first. The satire was tired and the action pedestrian. Now, along comes ROBOCOP 3 and, while it doesn't breathe new life into the series, it at least offers something moderately more diverting than its immediate predecessor. Even though there's nothing extraordinary about the plot, it has a few moments that almost make us forget that the film makers are beating the proverbial dead horse.
ROBOCOP 3 goes for straight action, allowing brief instances only of the facetiousness which made the initial installment so enjoyable. There's one instance where a crook makes the foolish mistake of trying to rob a donut shop. On another occasion, we see just how much punishment a solid American car can take and still keep running. Coupled with a few random one-liners, that's about all the humor that this picture has to offer.
Peter Weller chose not to reprise his role in ROBOCOP 3, but he isn't really missed. Robert John Burke does a passable job as the cyborg officer, and bears a resemblance to Weller with the mask off. Great acting skills certainly aren't required for the part, and there's nothing about Burke that would cause anyone but a relative to lament the change in lead actor.
Almost all the surviving characters from the first two films are back, so there's a nice sense of continuity. The murky politics of who controls the police gets even more confusing in this movie, but that becomes moot by the final battle. Murphy's search for his lost family is reduced to an almost-nonexistent subplot.
One of the biggest improvements from ROBOCOP 2 is the music score. In the last film, Leonard Rosenman created one of the least-inspired action film soundtracks of all time--music that was a bastardization of his own feeble STAR TREK IV work. For this movie, Basil Poledouris has given us an overblown, pompous score totally in keeping with the nature of superhero action movies.
I'd like to make mention of the special effects. While most of them are okay, there are some scenes featuring an airborne Robocop that are absolutely laughable. Hasn't someone come up with a way to make flying look better than the horrible sequences when Christopher Reeve donned the Superman cloak? Judging from this movie, the answer would have to be "no."
Orion's financial problems delayed the release of this film for so long that its arrival is distinctly anticlimactic. People will wait a long time for a special movie, but that's a description that doesn't fit ROBOCOP 3. Since it's hard to imagine conditions under which the series will be granted a further entry, this particular superhero may have flown off into the sunset. Too bad it wasn't in a cinematic blaze of glory.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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