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So I finally got around to watching that copy of "Robocop" I bought for like $5. It's fine, I suppose. I was expecting a little more from the cinematic masterpiece I've been told it is. Still, it's got lots of explosions, so... yay?
It's an extremely political movie, no doubt: the commoditization of people, the hybridization of big business and government, the extreme response to crime and the lie of utopia. Also something something, "buy that for a dollar."
If I had to pick one line that really summarizes it, it'd be the one that the senior executive says about the ED-209 project: "I had a guaranteed military sale... who cares if it worked or not?"
This feeling kinda pervades everything in the movie. The ED-209 can't perform even its basic functions; Robocop causes more property damage than he would prevent thanks to his presence; the police strike plays right into OCP's hands.
But it got me what I wanted, so who cares if it actually does what it's supposed to?
It's... I don't want to say "entitlement," since I did a whole thread about how that's a frustrating, pointless word, but it's an expectation that the world will optimize for something other than happiness, safety, and good.
And the fact that it inevitably does is why this movie gets a Black verdict. For all the characters who claim to have a moral code of "protect and serve," inevitably they default to "protect my skewed vision of justice" and "serve corporate interests."
It's a bleak, dark satire, and maybe if you're into that, you'll get a kick out of this. Otherwise... eh. I'm kinda burned out on long scenes of people shooting guns at each other and cars blowing up.
