Dan Stevens Says the Prime Video RoboCop Will Aim for the Original’s Satire and Shock

The useful part

After all, none of the sequels or remakes, or video games have really been able to capture the spirit of the original. Yet a recent observation by star Dan Stevens has us cautiously optimistic that Wan and company know what they're doing as they try to follow the character's prime directives. The real interesting part came when he talked about what the original film means to him.

How it works

• However, as Murphy regains his memories and investigates his murder, he discovers a plan among the executives at OCP to use rampant crime to destroy Detroit and replace it with their own metropolis Delta City.
• The TV show and the comics made villains out of men in business suits who disregarded human life while trying to save a buck.
• None of them have matched the original RoboCop 's ability to make the critique work alongside the action, to make the violence so excessive that we turn away in disgust or chagrin more than we cheer.
• It was, perhaps, my first exposure to extreme violence." With that observation, Stevens clearly understands the importance of the first movie and the character.
• Written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner and directed by Paul Verhoeven, RoboCop presents itself as a straightforward supercop story, not unlike other Hollywood hits of the era, such as Lethal Weapon or...

What to take from it

The mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) uses Murphy's brain and face to create RoboCop, a weapon against crime. The whole thing ends with RoboCop killing the bad guy, complete with a one-liner, just like an '80s action movie should. Ad Ad – content continues below As generic as that sounds, RoboCop is a Verhoeven movie, which means that it's filled with plenty of social satire and excess that undercuts the action tropes.

Example or evidence

• Even the movie's final line, in which RoboCop identifies himself as "Murphy," plays less like a happy ending (he's recovered his humanity!) and more like the police department putting a sympathetic face on...
• Nowhere is that satirical undercutting of action tropes more clear than in the violence that Dan Stevens notes.
• In one of the movie's best scenes, the malfunctioning ED-209 obliterates some corporate schmuck in a boardroom.
• That's especially true if like Stevens and a lot of RoboCop fans (including this writer) you saw the movie way, way too young.

Details worth keeping

It's satirical," Stevens told The Hollywood Reporter about the series. "It left an imprint, and I probably saw it too young. RoboCop feels like an action figure come to life, so of course he's going to appeal to young kids.

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