I knew someone had to mention this. Yeah, i've been watching big dogs progress over the years. Its very cool and exciting tech.
But... and these points are very important imo.
It's a quadroped not a biped "chicken walker".
The scale of big dog is quite small in comparison to other walker concepts such as ed209 which itself is quite small compared to other typical mech concepts.
Bigdog is no where near as efficient or as fast as other tracked or wheeled vehicle.
While Big dog is a awesome piece of kit and it may lead on to other walker type vehicles. Advancements in tracked and wheeled vehicles will also occur. Always making them cheaper, more efficent and faster than walkers. I can't really think of any advantages a walker has over wheeled vehicles. Other than they might be able to get over a larger kerb.
I'm not sure why i'm making this arguement. I love mechs and the idea of them. My sketchbook is full of mech walkers atm.
the old design does not fit very well with our actual vision of tech/future, it was childish and it was a robot like coming from the teenage turtles... very simplistic/cartonish and good for its days, but not now.
I hope to see a new design for robocop, because i always hated its armor design. A man with a plastic armor... the newer one should be more stroggish, more fleshy, more more... better? lol
Only no. The original ED looks like a piece of military tech, with plating and a no nonsense design. Look at the military and tell me which vehicle is a jagged mess of bullshit. The original Robocop does look lame, but he looks like something that would be produced in real life. A Stroggish zombie cyborg would definitely not be something marketed as a cop of the future, nor would a Stroggish design be fielded without plating like Robocop had all over his body.
The old designs do have a sort of naivete to them, but design sensibilities weren't as advanced back then (just look at the crappy looking consumer electronics of the time). Now we have sleeker designs, but no fractal DVD payers. If anything the ED should be boxier and more "stealth" looking if you want to evoke visions of future tech, not curvy with random pieces everywhere.
the old design does not fit very well with our actual vision of tech/future, it was childish and it was a robot like coming from the teenage turtles... very simplistic/cartonish and good for its days, but not now.
Our vision of the future changes all the time, however, past designs have proven to always come to life in the future vs. what we have today.
For example, past designs imagined us having digital paper/screens which are thin yet robust enough to write on or watch TV, we currently have black/white digital papers, but the colors ones are the way too.
What do our current future designs indicate? Everything will be holographic and 3D, which cannot be since A) Data which is rasterized and compressed cannot be 3D unless exposed and raw, and Holographic tools require loads of particles in the air, like smog, water, etc, which is not feasible for your average person, or hell, even meeting room.
So yeah, say what you want, but old designs are at least functional and have proven to work and become a real thing in the future, unlike have the crap we come up nowdays which have tiny arms and big hands with weight imbalance issues.
I hope to see a new design for robocop, because i always hated its armor design. A man with a plastic armor... the newer one should be more stroggish, more fleshy, more more... better? lol
I think we have been looking at different images you and me, because the Strogg images I have seen are the opposite of what you want to have for a...Police Unit? Having something that looks like a Robot covered in Human skin with Wings isn't...normal...or cool looking, it's alien...and frightening.
Unless you're M. Shamalymandingdong, having cops dress up as robots with humans skin, you need to take art classes about heavy-handed symbolism.
Also, the only Strogg design which was 'human' was based upon the Robocop design, fun fact. You were Murphy when you become a Strogg essentially.
If you are with the designs and you don't like the change, just don't watch the movie... This happened with John Carter and it's not a bad film at all, another one suitable for all audiences.
People didn't like John Carter because it had to compress the story of the books and give you an 'origins' story in under 2 hours, with a 'grime, angsty, angel cowboy' beginning.
It also doesn't help that many people complained about stuff like 'Oh, why is everyone naked? Wouldn't clothes protect you more from the Sun?', so maybe they should have changed the movie even more.
Also, that's not an excuse, if everyone decided not to watch something and move on, then how do you expect a medium to improve, you need critics to have something move foreward, nothing can improve if we all are 'happy as we are' in the current state of things, just look at the economy around, if people took more care of the world around them, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Now think a bit, and think about Prometheus and the first Alien... This is our actual cinema, not that old fashioned and old cinema. We use CG now.
Car Designs change, our tech evolve each day, all is evolving. Don't be such nostalgic. Too many kids don't know Robocop... and now they will know him but much better imho.
Clash of Titans is another remake, and i love it.
Nostalgia is overrated, but common sense isn't. Are you honestly telling me a WAR-MACHINE needs to looks like a Ferrari having it's guts spilling out to be 'cool' and Strogg like in design, in the Desert, where Grenades, Tanks and Sand is flying everywhere? If you spend a single day in the desert, trust me, you're going to be swearing all day long for all the oil changes you need on something so open.
Look at Iron Man, Thor, and many other actions movies, including D9, they didn't need to create complex designs to have people watch their movies, they just had to have cool design, likeable characters and great narrative to have them watch it.
Movies are not games, where 70% of your feedback is visual on what is the most dangerous looking monster, actors need to show us that, or maybe, them Movie modelers need to stop complaining about stupid stuff like how some software's creator is religious and they don't like him, and instead, take a look at their own crappy designs and critic those in their spare time.
You know the winner's just going to be a penis with robot legs.
While the mech design is questionable, it's worth remembering that it's a show-room piece (or at least was in the original movie) - potentially a fancier version than the production line models, used to woo buyers and investors. That seems fairly in keeping with the themes of the original.
It'll be interesting to see where the new movie goes. Given Darren Aronovski was attached to direct early on, it's seems reasonable to hope that it'll be a thought provoking kind of film. If they can get the balance right with the action, it could make for a great film.
My god, it was awful and probably one of the worst films i've seen. I bought it for £3 in a dvd bargain bucket and I want my £3 back! So glad I didn't go to the cinema to see it.
Not really a remake though. Just a re-telling of and old myth.
Also, that's not an excuse, if everyone decided not to watch something and move on, then how do you expect a medium to improve, you need critics to have something move foreward, nothing can improve if we all are 'happy as we are' in the current state of things, just look at the economy around, if people took more care of the world around them, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Apathy is a terrible thing.
This is very true and it goes for many things.
@Stinger88: It is a remake. They even have nods to the previous version such as the mechanical owl scene.
the old design does not fit very well with our actual vision of tech/future, it was childish and it was a robot like coming from the teenage turtles... very simplistic/cartonish and good for its days, but not now.
I hope to see a new design for robocop, because i always hated its armor design. A man with a plastic armor... the newer one should be more stroggish, more fleshy, more more... better? lol
If you are with the designs and you don't like the change, just don't watch the movie... This happened with John Carter and it's not a bad film at all, another one suitable for all audiences.
Now think a bit, and think about Prometheus and the first Alien... This is our actual cinema, not that old fashioned and old cinema. We use CG now.
Car Designs change, our tech evolve each day, all is evolving. Don't be such nostalgic. Too many kids don't know Robocop... and now they will know him but much better imho.
Clash of Titans is another remake, and i love it.
I agree with you and Adam the original robocop design is pretty shitty, he rolled around in a very unmodified Ford Tauras, even back then it was a hideous clown car for a robot cop...
We haven't seen the new design of robocop himself and most people are commenting on the design of ED209. The new design is confusing, chaotic and dysfunctional, not to mention titanically huge.
ED209: "Pardon me jay walking pedestrian, do not go into the building, I can't follow you... come back... I must demolish the building... you have 20 seconds to evacuate...
(people screaming, bricks falling, cue lady in the shower screaming) brick wedged between my moving parts... waiting for tiny human repair worker to remove thorn in tigers paw, powering down".
I don't think the design will ruin the movie about the only thing that can do that is sticking faithfully to the old script (HA!). I'm not a big robocop fan but I did like ED209.
The only real cool aspect was the dystopian future with an overactive megacorp ham handily trying to solve social problems with the misapplication of force. Hopefully they stick to that... so far so good.
Mostly I just don't like the thousands of thin metal moving parts that transformers introduced and ended up all over ED209. I really liked the old ED209 design and it could have been easily updated without drowning it in super glue and rolling it around a scrap pile.
From the distance, I thought they glued the new Batmobile to a pair of legs, which I wouldn't hvae much issue against, since it's still sorta readable. I expect this one to need maintenance from some punk throwing mud or a bucket of oil on it.
Too black, too rubbery looking and I don't get why they have him wearing a full body suit when they could make it easier on the actor and use a partial suit with mo-cap tracking like Iron Man uses. Maybe it'll work better on film.
Actually it looks much more like the new Iron Man suit.
Which is also strange because I bet both were designed at Legacy Effects...
Wow. You're right. Its nearly exactly like the iron man suit. I think it is Legacy Effects as well. The Budget was probably low so they said. "What can we do for about $20....buy some spray paint!....Genius"
@DavePhipps: Yeah, I like the suit. I like the iron man suit and I'd love to design things like that but you're spot on. It doesn't say Robo cop at all to me.
Robocop was never a "tactical" design. It was meant to be a "robot cop". Walking the beat and making its presents known so the people of the community feel safe.
The ED-209 is a pretty cool DON'T-example for design.
The fail to focus interest, no clear shapes, pretty much the opposite of reducing it to the relevant and the general level of shit can be used to learn a lot about art.
Well, I guess I'll rewatch the real Robocop. Again.
I honestly hope this is not the new robocop design. I hope it's his 'officer' look, before becoming robocop, and they plan to CGI some stuff on there. Robocop is suppose to be mostly robot, with just a human brain controlling it (essentially). This looks like the description of the iron man suit... a highly advanced prosthetic. As though Robocop is still a human, with just a cool suit that any other officer could wear.
Only no. The original ED looks like a piece of military tech, with plating and a no nonsense design. Look at the military and tell me which vehicle is a jagged mess of bullshit. The original Robocop does look lame, but he looks like something that would be produced in real life. A Stroggish zombie cyborg would definitely not be something marketed as a cop of the future, nor would a Stroggish design be fielded without plating like Robocop had all over his body.
The old designs do have a sort of naivete to them, but design sensibilities weren't as advanced back then (just look at the crappy looking consumer electronics of the time). Now we have sleeker designs, but no fractal DVD payers. If anything the ED should be boxier and more "stealth" looking if you want to evoke visions of future tech, not curvy with random pieces everywhere.
I agree.
The old designs work because they were created by better designers I'd say... under direction by better directors with a better vision of the story they need to convey.
The new ED209 looks twice as tall as an M1 tank, so at least 5m tall. Far too big to fit in almost any building. The old one is only as big as a tall human.
The new one looks like a recipe for disaster when it comes to low observability, it's all shiny and would show up like a christmas tree under sunlight.
Any projectile would easily hit it and then jam into those deep edges, rather than bounce off smooth exterior surfaces.
No military vehicle I've every seen in creation or concept looked like that... so an insta-fail for military application believability.
The internal volume looks pretty low despite it's apparent bulk, so where do batteries, motors and ammo go? I could tell you all those things on the old design.
How can an army tank shoot the ED209, probably with a KE penetrator, and the ED209 not even move? It'd either go into the ED209, or it'd explode on impact and put a HELL of a lot of energy into the ED209 knocking it over.
But really the design per se is kinda irrelevant.
This is a lot of modern design for you. Design to serve design itself, rather than to serve the end result...
...in this case a story that needs imagery to immerse you in Murphy's situation so you empathise with him.
Instead the end result might be a load of 'cool' looking robots that just work against delivering the contrasting super violent cold mechanical metal robotics with the warm and highly emotional responses to his murder and realisation of it!
These new designs just appear to be a re-hash of contemporary 'flashy' robot designs... which is a shame considering the original managed to do original robots so amazingly well, with their own characters that fit their appearance.
No doubt the new film will reuse the characterisation without the fitting appearance.
RC 2 and 3 tried to leave the story of Murphy behind and concentrate on the robots and things, and they were pretty crap to be honest.
The remake needs to make the story more intense, focussing on new iffy designs to tease us isn't working...
...tell us about how you are going to convey the horror of Robocop's situation better WITH better designed robots/imagery and you'll buy me into it!
Just showing random images of robots shooting stuff doesn't tell me anything about Murphy...
Missing the point entirely at such an early stage is bad news imo.
Dave
PS, I love robots and stuff, and in isolation these are ok designs/visuals, but they don't make a story in themselves, nor serve to enhance a story like Murphy's, thus I don't like these designs in that context.
Too black, too rubbery looking and I don't get why they have him wearing a full body suit when they could make it easier on the actor and use a partial suit with mo-cap tracking like Iron Man uses. Maybe it'll work better on film.
Indeed.
The lack of joints means he can move more human like, and the quality of the old suit was it forced the very robotic movements...
You had the juxtaposition of humanity and no humanity fighting on screen perpetually. Robocop being truly robotic and in-human with shiny metallic skin and hard surfaces, alongside Murphy's humanity within the shell.
If it looks like a man wearing a rubber suit the audience is gonna struggle feeling so bad for Murphy.
It looks too much like a suit and not enough like a cyborg. The original RoboCop pushed the silhouette just enough to make it seem like he was more than human. His stature was taller than normal people and they played that up, it added to the "oh he is not the same guy any more" mystique he had going. Now it's just some guy in a rubber suit.
I wouldn't be surprised if his partner had to fight him to help him regain his humanity... "hurt me more snake"
Maybe this is a stand in for some FX work they will be doing but it seems like they are missing some key things that the original got right (Scale of ED209 and RoboCop for starters) and are in danger of amplifying all of the things that the original got wrong (capitalistic paper thin plot)... But still too early to pass judgement on the plot or script and there is still a lot of unknowns that could make this a good flick, it's not hard to top the old RoboCop so the bar is set pretty low, that is if people aren't all drunk on nostalgia.
There's some unsubstantiated word from someone allegedly on the films production that the black suit is an "alpha version" of the costume and is not what will be seen in the final movie.
Whether that's true or not, looking at the design, particularly at the flatness of the upper chest area, it looks like maybe there's meant to be a component that goes over the top - say a more familiar chrome plate.
That's sort of what I was getting at. It's hard to base much on one image. That may be just a stand in suit, to be cgi'd later. Or just testing visuals. Things to note about the image, as it is: He has no badge, no gun, so basically, no equipment. Not even ports for hidden weapons.
Verhoeven's SF movies weren't really about the plot, more about the satire. Total Recall was probably the most complex and Starship Troopers the simplest, but all were pretty good in finding the right balance between satisfying the mainstream audience and having deeper layers for those who expected more than just the action and violence.
So the designs won't make or break this one either. Although I'm not a fan of them either... but they do look unfinished, especially ED; and the Robo suit has a difference between the helmet and the rest that could mean it'll be replaced with nicer CG, probably becoming all shiny black (or it could be just a shiny visor...).
Still, the movie will succeed only if the script's good and the designs are just the icing on the cake.
Verhoeven's SF movies weren't really about the plot, more about the satire. Total Recall was probably the most complex and Starship Troopers the simplest, but all were pretty good in finding the right balance between satisfying the mainstream audience and having deeper layers for those who expected more than just the action and violence.
Very true, they are complex movies.
I'm far from an expert, I just have the boxed set of all 3 Robocop films and made the time to watch all three back to back recently.
The first film is just stand out different to the other two. It really is pretty good in so many ways.
Fingers crossed, but I could happily do without these kinds of teaser videos which do nothing for the moment you first see ED209 stomp into view. You've seen it already and so that dread when you see this monster is somewhat diluted.
I remember seeing Robocop on VHS at the age of 14 (the ED209 un-cut first scene is pretty bad haha) and the ED209 reveal was pretty damn intimidating/violent!
They have already given away the anticipation of what it'll look like
Studios can't really do anything against these leaks now that you have a smartphone with internet and an 8 megapixel camera on literally every corner. By the time any security could get there the images are already on social network sites and you just can't stop them. Fox tries sometimes to send cease and desist letters but only when they can claim copyright (like concept art or closed showings).
Arranging a false campaign is too expensive and also risks ruining even more if the wrong picture gets widespread coverage.
I don't really like it either but it seems it's us, the audience, that has to practice restraint here. Don't look at the images, don't click the links and maybe the movie websites won't publish leaks... but as long as they're bringing in visitors and ad revenue, they're going to keep doing it.
And people will of course always take pictures of that stuff whenever they can.
It could be the final one, but it looks like his underarmor suit to me. The original has the black neck piece that goes underneath the metal plating, and this fits the bill perfectly.
I bet they've got the whole Transformers effect down to just a shader, adjust some sliders and Voila!
military robots are still a long way off, computers cant look at a picture and make sense of it. at best they can "comprehend" only a few feet in front of them.
bonus quote for no good reason at all:
"I'm flying so low that every time I see a jack-rabbit, I'm lookin' him square in the eye."
This "redesign" isn't as bad as the Bayformers, but its definitely trending in the same direction. They took what was a very iconic and distinct visual design, and have made it considerably more generic. It is easy to see why they did this. This new design will be considerably easier for them to shoot, as well as much easier for the actor to move around in. But at the same time, it is a lot less distinctive, and much more generic and forgettable. I think this decision is going to come back to bite them.
The movie could still be good. The visual design of the main character isn't central to the film. But this is a bit worrying. If they missed the point with this, what else might they have gotten wrong. I hope this is just a matter of the design department not being on the same page.
But still too early to pass judgement on the plot or script and there is still a lot of unknowns that could make this a good flick, it's not hard to top the old RoboCop so the bar is set pretty low, that is if people aren't all drunk on nostalgia.
As a satire of many of the excesses of 80s corporate culture in the U.S., Robocop is actually quite capable. However, the film suffers from some of the same issues that plague many satires. It does not age well set apart from its original context. Anyone not familiar with the 80s, and many of the corporate practices that went on during the 80s, won't "get" the movie. Robocop's appeal hinges on exaggeration. Without its original context, it falls apart, with sub-par acting and a rather strange script.
I would argue that the visual design of the original film was quite excellent. Robocop himself looked like something that would come out of a car factory. (a perfect design for a film set in Detroit) The ED-209 robot was also delightfully chunky, while maintaining an overall simplicity.
Studios can't really do anything against these leaks now that you have a smartphone with internet and an 8 megapixel camera on literally every corner. By the time any security could get there the images are already on social network sites and you just can't stop them. Fox tries sometimes to send cease and desist letters but only when they can claim copyright (like concept art or closed showings).
Arranging a false campaign is too expensive and also risks ruining even more if the wrong picture gets widespread coverage.
I don't really like it either but it seems it's us, the audience, that has to practice restraint here. Don't look at the images, don't click the links and maybe the movie websites won't publish leaks... but as long as they're bringing in visitors and ad revenue, they're going to keep doing it.
And people will of course always take pictures of that stuff whenever they can.
I was talking more about the sneak peak OCP video product video.
But agree on the latter part about people sneaking peeks out onto social sites. I generally ignore them.
It does seem that perhaps this black suit is just there for the actor to work in, and a metal suit will be comped over the top.
Exciting stuff but as Richard Kain mentioned, it will be interesting to see what the background of the film is set against. It's not gonna be 80's excess any more... perhaps military budget cuts/overruns and Robocop that suffers with oxygen starvation through the film due to a system design fault. Hrmmmmm
Just watched the first Robocop for the first time today. Pretty cool, nothing amazing though. Was pretty cheesy too! But I guess that's 80s sci-fi for you
I'm going to watch the other 2 and then see where I stand on the Robocop series! However, this reboot looks shit from what we've seen so far. That ED-209 re-make looks absolutely awful. I hate how film CG artists always pile on as much shit as they can, and it completely loses its sense of believability. Whatever happened to big, chunky panels?!
The originals are definitely cheesy, and most of the stop motion isn't very smooth, but at the time, it was pretty damn impressive. Watching it as a kid, I thought it was pretty bad ass.
I heard from someone who has seen the final product that this suit will have a "Chrome finish, like the original" or something like that. Chances are this photo just isn't that good. I think the suit looks pretty cool, it just needs to be shinier. Also i think it should be a lighter color with some hints of blue, since he is supposed to be a cop, but you can't have it all I guess.
The suit definitely looks a little derivative.. Iron Man, Batman, and Mass Effect all come to mind. But I think this just kind of shows how similar all those things were to begin with.
It'd be nice to see something totally original and trend setting, that also fits the brief of the film.
To be copied would be flattering, than to copy and look the same as everyone else.
I guess until you see Robocop on screen doing some shooting it'll be hard to judge the end result.
I just hope that they go for stark realism than stylised unrealism.
Ie, picture above, honeycomb panel to the right. Why? An array of linear strips that overlap would be a more functional vent type area. Yes it doesn't look as good but it's not a car, it's a cop that's gonna get shot at, lots
Just watched the first Robocop for the first time today. Pretty cool, nothing amazing though. Was pretty cheesy too! But I guess that's 80s sci-fi for you
I'm going to watch the other 2 and then see where I stand on the Robocop series! However, this reboot looks shit from what we've seen so far. That ED-209 re-make looks absolutely awful. I hate how film CG artists always pile on as much shit as they can, and it completely loses its sense of believability. Whatever happened to big, chunky panels?!
Yeah watching it this late in life can kinda kill the magic and passion that me and most of the other posters have for the original. I mean the directors cut of the original was basically Murphy getting shot to sh*t a little bit longer. No way you could get away with that now. That's all 80s.
After the all the crappy, terrible remakes of the past several year I'm really starting to think that there should be a 50 year lock on franchises.
And as you can imagine I'm not a fan of the new look. Especially when I read that they drop "Robocop" into an afghan village or what have you as a field test.
This "redesign" isn't as bad as the Bayformers, but its definitely trending in the same direction. They took what was a very iconic and distinct visual design, and have made it considerably more generic. It is easy to see why they did this. This new design will be considerably easier for them to shoot, as well as much easier for the actor to move around in. But at the same time, it is a lot less distinctive, and much more generic and forgettable. I think this decision is going to come back to bite them.
The movie could still be good. The visual design of the main character isn't central to the film. But this is a bit worrying. If they missed the point with this, what else might they have gotten wrong. I hope this is just a matter of the design department not being on the same page.
As a satire of many of the excesses of 80s corporate culture in the U.S., Robocop is actually quite capable. However, the film suffers from some of the same issues that plague many satires. It does not age well set apart from its original context. Anyone not familiar with the 80s, and many of the corporate practices that went on during the 80s, won't "get" the movie. Robocop's appeal hinges on exaggeration. Without its original context, it falls apart, with sub-par acting and a rather strange script.
I would argue that the visual design of the original film was quite excellent. Robocop himself looked like something that would come out of a car factory. (a perfect design for a film set in Detroit) The ED-209 robot was also delightfully chunky, while maintaining an overall simplicity.
Huh? The film is really revelant and prescient. We still have errant corporations run by arrogant people. We have police/the military being privatised, and the banning of them striking. Its context is right now.
Especially when I read that they drop "Robocop" into an afghan village or what have you as a field test.
Weird. I don't suppose it could have been some kind of Chinese Whispers muddling that Ed209 is first shown in Afghanistan? It's supposed to be a repurposed paramilitary vehicle so that would seem to be plausible.
Huh? The film is really revelant and prescient. We still have errant corporations run by arrogant people. We have police/the military being privatised, and the banning of them striking. Its context is right now.
While private military contractors are considered a big deal at the moment, I don't believe anyone is proposing the privatization of police forces. (at least in the U.S.) Or if they are, I don't think the general population is going to take them seriously.
The whole errant corporations run by arrogant people is certainly still topical. But it is topical in a different way. The corporate culture is not the same as it used to be, and corporate culture was what a lot of Robocop's satire was directed at. This is why so much of the movie focused on the corporate executives and their behavior behind the scenes. The culture within major corporations has changed drastically since that time, and a lot of what was being riffed on in the original Robocop is divorced from modern society.
Now, that actually could be used as a reason for why a re-make might be useful. A new version of Robocop could provide a modern interpretation that satirizes or at least addresses issues facing the world of today. That would be an appropriate use of this re-imagining.
Big ol' wall of spoilers.
Really, this is pretty much the whole movie.
2039.
In Iran, mercenaries hired by OmniCorp escort a TV news crew to a compound filled with suicide bombers that is being raided by ED-209 drones created by OmniCorp. The mercenaries report to General Monroe of the United States Armed Forces in the Pentagon. He orders the ED-209 drones to move in and instructs the news crew to go live and film the raid.
The footage is aired simultaneously to an interview between General Monroe and TV personality Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson), which Monroe praises the ED-209 drones and OmniCorp's contract with the Pentagon. Meanwhile, in Iran, a bomber leaves his wife and his 10-year-old son hidden in a secret area of the compound and confronts an ED-209 drone, who shoots him dead before he can detonate his bomb vest. The man's son races out of the compound to help his father and is executed by the ED-209 drone as well. Monroe orders the crew to cut away.
In Detroit, police officers Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) and Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) are pursuing mobster Antoine Vallon and his men. During the chase, another police cruiser shoots their tires, allowing Vallon and his men to escape. Though Lewis views this as an accident, Murphy is convinced Vallon has bribed the cops to help him get away.
At OmniCorp's headquarters, roboticist Dr. Robert Norton (Gary Oldman) studies the development of a chimpanzee who has received bionic implants. Norton has created a program that allows him to control the chimpanzee's body movements by intercepting and analyzing his brain patterns, manipulating the chimp into believing he's in control of his own body when he actually isn't.
In Detroit, Murphy reports the incident during Vallon's pursuit to Chief of Police Karen Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). She says Murphy is a good cop, but she can't do anything unless he has proof. Returning home, Murphy meets his wife, Ellen (Abbie Cornish), and their son, David. Murphy and David play videogames together, and Ellen later comforts Murphy, telling him he's a good man.
At OmniCorp, Norton attends a meeting where the company's CEO, Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton), is informed by his lawyer, Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle), that footage of the ED-209 drone murdering a child was covered up, but it can't happen again, or their entire program and contracts with the government would be in jeopardy. Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel), the head of marketing, has been preassuring Sellers to bring their technology to the homefront, and Norton then suggests that they create a scapegoat that could have the blame for the programming glitches pinned on him should they happen again.
In Detroit, Murphy and Lewis learn that Vallon is hidden in a local abandoned warehouse and head there alone after reinforcements don't appear. Upon entering the warehouse, they are surprised to learn Vallon's men were waiting for them, and Lewis runs away, leaving Murphy alone. He is captured and beaten by Vallon's men, and injected with a mysterious substance. Vallon and his men then aim their guns at Murphy. Lewis hears the shotgun blasts and returns only to find Murphy's mutilated remains: a half-torso with one attached arm and the head.
In the hospital, Ellen is visited by Kline, who convinces her that OmniCorp's Project RoboCop is Murphy's only chance of survival. Ellen signs the papers transfering Murphy's custody to OmniCorp. Norton rebuilds Murphy's robotic interskeleton and wires his brain to the program that he previously used on the chimpanzee. The "prototype" is then moved to OmniCorp's Chinese division, where RoboCop 1.0 is created.
Pope conduts market research on RoboCop 1.0's appearance by asking inmates of local prisons in Detroit to rate how threatning he is. When the feedback is negative, the scientists use Pope's notes to build RoboCop 2.0, a fully functional early design. RoboCop 2.0 is trained by ex-Marine Maddox (Jackie Earle Haley) and displays his strenght, speed, agility and stamina by completing a massive obstacle race in a OmniCorp test site in record time.
Adjustments are made to the exoskeleton, leading to the creation of RoboCop 3.0, that is deployed to South Africa to disband a terrorist cell. Norton and his men monitor RoboCop's performance, and Sellers instructs Norton to force RoboCop to shoot a civilian to evaluate his emotional response. Norton confirms that Murphy feels guilt over what he perceives as his own mistake, and Sellers gives the order to "finish the product".
RoboCop 4.0 is created. He has a "Sleeper Mode", where his exoskeleton is programmed to have a blue-ish/grey-ish tint, emulating a police officer's dress blues, and a "Battle Mode", in which the plates are reinforced with bulletproof padding and become a black-tintet tactical gear for more infiltration. Throughout the process, Ellen and David request access to Murphy as they were promised by Kline, but it is continuously denied. Lewis, feeling guilty for abandoning Murphy and blaming himself for his predictment, takes up arms to help them, and, in the process, becomes a surrogate father for David.
With RoboCop completed, Norton connects Murphy's mind to OmniCorp's worldwide surveillance system, downloading records of all known registered criminals in Murphy's head. The sensorial overload of brutal crimes commited throughout the planet is too much for Murphy, and he begins to overload. Norton interrupts the process, and Sellers instructs Norton to reduce Murphy's emotions so he'll become more effective.
When RoboCop is finally reinstated to the Detroit Police Department, he is a borderline emotionless automaton under Norton's control, and initially drives his family away, resulting in Ellen becoming closer to Lewis. Murphy monitors their activities through OmniCorp's CCTV cameras, and his emotions begin to push through OmniCorp's control.
After a series of arrests as RoboCop, Murphy goes after Vallon, and learns that he was hired by Sellers to lure Murphy into a trap and mutilate him so OmniCorp could use Murphy for Project RoboCop. They had selected him as the perfect candidate, but knew he wouldn't accept by his own. Murphy also learns that OmniCorp intents to create more RoboCops, capitalizing on the popularity boost that Murphy's performance will cause among police officers.
When Murphy becomes too big a liability and Norton realizes he is beginning to resit OmniCorp's control, Sellers deploys a group of ED-209 drones to ambush and destroy RoboCop in Old Town, but RoboCop is able to outstmart and defeat them, marching towards OmniCorp's headquarters, where only one thing stands between him and the men who ruined his life: The ED-210 robotic unit, a prototype upgrade of the ED-209 design, and RoboCop's greatest challenge yet.
Replies
It'll go into service within the next couple of years if it passes testing this summer.
Robocop movie looks like a nostalgia cash-in at this point. I'll probable watch it when it reaches netflix in a couple years.
And someone got melted up in the back of a toxic waste van, that'd be ok, too.
HRNNNNRNRRRRRNRNNRNRNRRRRRRRRRRHHRNNHH!!!
I knew someone had to mention this. Yeah, i've been watching big dogs progress over the years. Its very cool and exciting tech.
But... and these points are very important imo.
It's a quadroped not a biped "chicken walker".
The scale of big dog is quite small in comparison to other walker concepts such as ed209 which itself is quite small compared to other typical mech concepts.
Bigdog is no where near as efficient or as fast as other tracked or wheeled vehicle.
While Big dog is a awesome piece of kit and it may lead on to other walker type vehicles. Advancements in tracked and wheeled vehicles will also occur. Always making them cheaper, more efficent and faster than walkers. I can't really think of any advantages a walker has over wheeled vehicles. Other than they might be able to get over a larger kerb.
I'm not sure why i'm making this arguement. I love mechs and the idea of them. My sketchbook is full of mech walkers atm.
Only no. The original ED looks like a piece of military tech, with plating and a no nonsense design. Look at the military and tell me which vehicle is a jagged mess of bullshit. The original Robocop does look lame, but he looks like something that would be produced in real life. A Stroggish zombie cyborg would definitely not be something marketed as a cop of the future, nor would a Stroggish design be fielded without plating like Robocop had all over his body.
The old designs do have a sort of naivete to them, but design sensibilities weren't as advanced back then (just look at the crappy looking consumer electronics of the time). Now we have sleeker designs, but no fractal DVD payers. If anything the ED should be boxier and more "stealth" looking if you want to evoke visions of future tech, not curvy with random pieces everywhere.
Our vision of the future changes all the time, however, past designs have proven to always come to life in the future vs. what we have today.
For example, past designs imagined us having digital paper/screens which are thin yet robust enough to write on or watch TV, we currently have black/white digital papers, but the colors ones are the way too.
What do our current future designs indicate? Everything will be holographic and 3D, which cannot be since A) Data which is rasterized and compressed cannot be 3D unless exposed and raw, and
So yeah, say what you want, but old designs are at least functional and have proven to work and become a real thing in the future, unlike have the crap we come up nowdays which have tiny arms and big hands with weight imbalance issues.
Fun-Fact: Drones where inspired by Star-Wars.
I think we have been looking at different images you and me, because the Strogg images I have seen are the opposite of what you want to have for a...Police Unit? Having something that looks like a Robot covered in Human skin with Wings isn't...normal...or cool looking, it's alien...and frightening.
Unless you're M. Shamalymandingdong, having cops dress up as robots with humans skin, you need to take art classes about heavy-handed symbolism.
Also, the only Strogg design which was 'human' was based upon the Robocop design, fun fact. You were Murphy when you become a Strogg essentially.
People didn't like John Carter because it had to compress the story of the books and give you an 'origins' story in under 2 hours, with a 'grime, angsty, angel cowboy' beginning.
It also doesn't help that many people complained about stuff like 'Oh, why is everyone naked? Wouldn't clothes protect you more from the Sun?', so maybe they should have changed the movie even more.
Also, that's not an excuse, if everyone decided not to watch something and move on, then how do you expect a medium to improve, you need critics to have something move foreward, nothing can improve if we all are 'happy as we are' in the current state of things, just look at the economy around, if people took more care of the world around them, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Apathy is a terrible thing.
Nostalgia is overrated, but common sense isn't. Are you honestly telling me a WAR-MACHINE needs to looks like a Ferrari having it's guts spilling out to be 'cool' and Strogg like in design, in the Desert, where Grenades, Tanks and Sand is flying everywhere? If you spend a single day in the desert, trust me, you're going to be swearing all day long for all the oil changes you need on something so open.
Look at Iron Man, Thor, and many other actions movies, including D9, they didn't need to create complex designs to have people watch their movies, they just had to have cool design, likeable characters and great narrative to have them watch it.
Movies are not games, where 70% of your feedback is visual on what is the most dangerous looking monster, actors need to show us that, or maybe, them Movie modelers need to stop complaining about stupid stuff like how some software's creator is religious and they don't like him, and instead, take a look at their own crappy designs and critic those in their spare time.
While the mech design is questionable, it's worth remembering that it's a show-room piece (or at least was in the original movie) - potentially a fancier version than the production line models, used to woo buyers and investors. That seems fairly in keeping with the themes of the original.
It'll be interesting to see where the new movie goes. Given Darren Aronovski was attached to direct early on, it's seems reasonable to hope that it'll be a thought provoking kind of film. If they can get the balance right with the action, it could make for a great film.
My god, it was awful and probably one of the worst films i've seen. I bought it for £3 in a dvd bargain bucket and I want my £3 back! So glad I didn't go to the cinema to see it.
Not really a remake though. Just a re-telling of and old myth.
This is very true and it goes for many things.
@Stinger88: It is a remake. They even have nods to the previous version such as the mechanical owl scene.
We haven't seen the new design of robocop himself and most people are commenting on the design of ED209. The new design is confusing, chaotic and dysfunctional, not to mention titanically huge.
ED209: "Pardon me jay walking pedestrian, do not go into the building, I can't follow you... come back... I must demolish the building... you have 20 seconds to evacuate...
(people screaming, bricks falling, cue lady in the shower screaming)
brick wedged between my moving parts...
waiting for tiny human repair worker to remove thorn in tigers paw, powering down".
I don't think the design will ruin the movie about the only thing that can do that is sticking faithfully to the old script (HA!). I'm not a big robocop fan but I did like ED209.
The only real cool aspect was the dystopian future with an overactive megacorp ham handily trying to solve social problems with the misapplication of force. Hopefully they stick to that... so far so good.
Mostly I just don't like the thousands of thin metal moving parts that transformers introduced and ended up all over ED209. I really liked the old ED209 design and it could have been easily updated without drowning it in super glue and rolling it around a scrap pile.
[ame="
More info here:
http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/first-images-of-new-robocop.html
Which is also strange because I bet both were designed at Legacy Effects...
I likethe new suit.It looks like something I would try and design. However it doesn't say Robocop to me.
This hundred times, I have no idea what I am looking at, it also looks like it was designed by 12 year old.
Wow. You're right. Its nearly exactly like the iron man suit. I think it is Legacy Effects as well. The Budget was probably low so they said. "What can we do for about $20....buy some spray paint!....Genius"
@DavePhipps: Yeah, I like the suit. I like the iron man suit and I'd love to design things like that but you're spot on. It doesn't say Robo cop at all to me.
Robocop was never a "tactical" design. It was meant to be a "robot cop". Walking the beat and making its presents known so the people of the community feel safe.
The fail to focus interest, no clear shapes, pretty much the opposite of reducing it to the relevant and the general level of shit can be used to learn a lot about art.
Well, I guess I'll rewatch the real Robocop. Again.
I agree.
The old designs work because they were created by better designers I'd say... under direction by better directors with a better vision of the story they need to convey.
The new ED209 looks twice as tall as an M1 tank, so at least 5m tall. Far too big to fit in almost any building. The old one is only as big as a tall human.
The new one looks like a recipe for disaster when it comes to low observability, it's all shiny and would show up like a christmas tree under sunlight.
Any projectile would easily hit it and then jam into those deep edges, rather than bounce off smooth exterior surfaces.
No military vehicle I've every seen in creation or concept looked like that... so an insta-fail for military application believability.
The internal volume looks pretty low despite it's apparent bulk, so where do batteries, motors and ammo go? I could tell you all those things on the old design.
How can an army tank shoot the ED209, probably with a KE penetrator, and the ED209 not even move? It'd either go into the ED209, or it'd explode on impact and put a HELL of a lot of energy into the ED209 knocking it over.
But really the design per se is kinda irrelevant.
This is a lot of modern design for you. Design to serve design itself, rather than to serve the end result...
...in this case a story that needs imagery to immerse you in Murphy's situation so you empathise with him.
Instead the end result might be a load of 'cool' looking robots that just work against delivering the contrasting super violent cold mechanical metal robotics with the warm and highly emotional responses to his murder and realisation of it!
These new designs just appear to be a re-hash of contemporary 'flashy' robot designs... which is a shame considering the original managed to do original robots so amazingly well, with their own characters that fit their appearance.
No doubt the new film will reuse the characterisation without the fitting appearance.
RC 2 and 3 tried to leave the story of Murphy behind and concentrate on the robots and things, and they were pretty crap to be honest.
The remake needs to make the story more intense, focussing on new iffy designs to tease us isn't working...
...tell us about how you are going to convey the horror of Robocop's situation better WITH better designed robots/imagery and you'll buy me into it!
Just showing random images of robots shooting stuff doesn't tell me anything about Murphy...
Missing the point entirely at such an early stage is bad news imo.
Dave
PS, I love robots and stuff, and in isolation these are ok designs/visuals, but they don't make a story in themselves, nor serve to enhance a story like Murphy's, thus I don't like these designs in that context.
Indeed.
The lack of joints means he can move more human like, and the quality of the old suit was it forced the very robotic movements...
You had the juxtaposition of humanity and no humanity fighting on screen perpetually. Robocop being truly robotic and in-human with shiny metallic skin and hard surfaces, alongside Murphy's humanity within the shell.
If it looks like a man wearing a rubber suit the audience is gonna struggle feeling so bad for Murphy.
If it doesn't fit the brief then it's bad design.
Dave
I wouldn't be surprised if his partner had to fight him to help him regain his humanity... "hurt me more snake"
Maybe this is a stand in for some FX work they will be doing but it seems like they are missing some key things that the original got right (Scale of ED209 and RoboCop for starters) and are in danger of amplifying all of the things that the original got wrong (capitalistic paper thin plot)... But still too early to pass judgement on the plot or script and there is still a lot of unknowns that could make this a good flick, it's not hard to top the old RoboCop so the bar is set pretty low, that is if people aren't all drunk on nostalgia.
Whether that's true or not, looking at the design, particularly at the flatness of the upper chest area, it looks like maybe there's meant to be a component that goes over the top - say a more familiar chrome plate.
So the designs won't make or break this one either. Although I'm not a fan of them either... but they do look unfinished, especially ED; and the Robo suit has a difference between the helmet and the rest that could mean it'll be replaced with nicer CG, probably becoming all shiny black (or it could be just a shiny visor...).
Still, the movie will succeed only if the script's good and the designs are just the icing on the cake.
Very true, they are complex movies.
I'm far from an expert, I just have the boxed set of all 3 Robocop films and made the time to watch all three back to back recently.
The first film is just stand out different to the other two. It really is pretty good in so many ways.
Fingers crossed, but I could happily do without these kinds of teaser videos which do nothing for the moment you first see ED209 stomp into view. You've seen it already and so that dread when you see this monster is somewhat diluted.
I remember seeing Robocop on VHS at the age of 14 (the ED209 un-cut first scene is pretty bad haha) and the ED209 reveal was pretty damn intimidating/violent!
They have already given away the anticipation of what it'll look like
Or maybe it's all just a false campaign... hmmmm
Dave
Arranging a false campaign is too expensive and also risks ruining even more if the wrong picture gets widespread coverage.
I don't really like it either but it seems it's us, the audience, that has to practice restraint here. Don't look at the images, don't click the links and maybe the movie websites won't publish leaks... but as long as they're bringing in visitors and ad revenue, they're going to keep doing it.
And people will of course always take pictures of that stuff whenever they can.
I bet they've got the whole Transformers effect down to just a shader, adjust some sliders and Voila!
military robots are still a long way off, computers cant look at a picture and make sense of it. at best they can "comprehend" only a few feet in front of them.
bonus quote for no good reason at all:
"I'm flying so low that every time I see a jack-rabbit, I'm lookin' him square in the eye."
The movie could still be good. The visual design of the main character isn't central to the film. But this is a bit worrying. If they missed the point with this, what else might they have gotten wrong. I hope this is just a matter of the design department not being on the same page.
As a satire of many of the excesses of 80s corporate culture in the U.S., Robocop is actually quite capable. However, the film suffers from some of the same issues that plague many satires. It does not age well set apart from its original context. Anyone not familiar with the 80s, and many of the corporate practices that went on during the 80s, won't "get" the movie. Robocop's appeal hinges on exaggeration. Without its original context, it falls apart, with sub-par acting and a rather strange script.
I would argue that the visual design of the original film was quite excellent. Robocop himself looked like something that would come out of a car factory. (a perfect design for a film set in Detroit) The ED-209 robot was also delightfully chunky, while maintaining an overall simplicity.
I was talking more about the sneak peak OCP video product video.
But agree on the latter part about people sneaking peeks out onto social sites. I generally ignore them.
It does seem that perhaps this black suit is just there for the actor to work in, and a metal suit will be comped over the top.
Exciting stuff but as Richard Kain mentioned, it will be interesting to see what the background of the film is set against. It's not gonna be 80's excess any more... perhaps military budget cuts/overruns and Robocop that suffers with oxygen starvation through the film due to a system design fault. Hrmmmmm
Still excited but not holding my breath.
Dave
[ame="
I'm going to watch the other 2 and then see where I stand on the Robocop series! However, this reboot looks shit from what we've seen so far. That ED-209 re-make looks absolutely awful. I hate how film CG artists always pile on as much shit as they can, and it completely loses its sense of believability. Whatever happened to big, chunky panels?!
The suit definitely looks a little derivative.. Iron Man, Batman, and Mass Effect all come to mind. But I think this just kind of shows how similar all those things were to begin with.
To be copied would be flattering, than to copy and look the same as everyone else.
I guess until you see Robocop on screen doing some shooting it'll be hard to judge the end result.
I just hope that they go for stark realism than stylised unrealism.
Ie, picture above, honeycomb panel to the right. Why? An array of linear strips that overlap would be a more functional vent type area. Yes it doesn't look as good but it's not a car, it's a cop that's gonna get shot at, lots
Dave
Yeah watching it this late in life can kinda kill the magic and passion that me and most of the other posters have for the original. I mean the directors cut of the original was basically Murphy getting shot to sh*t a little bit longer. No way you could get away with that now. That's all 80s.
After the all the crappy, terrible remakes of the past several year I'm really starting to think that there should be a 50 year lock on franchises.
And as you can imagine I'm not a fan of the new look. Especially when I read that they drop "Robocop" into an afghan village or what have you as a field test.
Huh? The film is really revelant and prescient. We still have errant corporations run by arrogant people. We have police/the military being privatised, and the banning of them striking. Its context is right now.
While private military contractors are considered a big deal at the moment, I don't believe anyone is proposing the privatization of police forces. (at least in the U.S.) Or if they are, I don't think the general population is going to take them seriously.
The whole errant corporations run by arrogant people is certainly still topical. But it is topical in a different way. The corporate culture is not the same as it used to be, and corporate culture was what a lot of Robocop's satire was directed at. This is why so much of the movie focused on the corporate executives and their behavior behind the scenes. The culture within major corporations has changed drastically since that time, and a lot of what was being riffed on in the original Robocop is divorced from modern society.
Now, that actually could be used as a reason for why a re-make might be useful. A new version of Robocop could provide a modern interpretation that satirizes or at least addresses issues facing the world of today. That would be an appropriate use of this re-imagining.
Really, this is pretty much the whole movie.
In Iran, mercenaries hired by OmniCorp escort a TV news crew to a compound filled with suicide bombers that is being raided by ED-209 drones created by OmniCorp. The mercenaries report to General Monroe of the United States Armed Forces in the Pentagon. He orders the ED-209 drones to move in and instructs the news crew to go live and film the raid.
The footage is aired simultaneously to an interview between General Monroe and TV personality Pat Novak (Samuel L. Jackson), which Monroe praises the ED-209 drones and OmniCorp's contract with the Pentagon. Meanwhile, in Iran, a bomber leaves his wife and his 10-year-old son hidden in a secret area of the compound and confronts an ED-209 drone, who shoots him dead before he can detonate his bomb vest. The man's son races out of the compound to help his father and is executed by the ED-209 drone as well. Monroe orders the crew to cut away.
In Detroit, police officers Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) and Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) are pursuing mobster Antoine Vallon and his men. During the chase, another police cruiser shoots their tires, allowing Vallon and his men to escape. Though Lewis views this as an accident, Murphy is convinced Vallon has bribed the cops to help him get away.
At OmniCorp's headquarters, roboticist Dr. Robert Norton (Gary Oldman) studies the development of a chimpanzee who has received bionic implants. Norton has created a program that allows him to control the chimpanzee's body movements by intercepting and analyzing his brain patterns, manipulating the chimp into believing he's in control of his own body when he actually isn't.
In Detroit, Murphy reports the incident during Vallon's pursuit to Chief of Police Karen Dean (Marianne Jean-Baptiste). She says Murphy is a good cop, but she can't do anything unless he has proof. Returning home, Murphy meets his wife, Ellen (Abbie Cornish), and their son, David. Murphy and David play videogames together, and Ellen later comforts Murphy, telling him he's a good man.
At OmniCorp, Norton attends a meeting where the company's CEO, Raymond Sellers (Michael Keaton), is informed by his lawyer, Liz Kline (Jennifer Ehle), that footage of the ED-209 drone murdering a child was covered up, but it can't happen again, or their entire program and contracts with the government would be in jeopardy. Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel), the head of marketing, has been preassuring Sellers to bring their technology to the homefront, and Norton then suggests that they create a scapegoat that could have the blame for the programming glitches pinned on him should they happen again.
In Detroit, Murphy and Lewis learn that Vallon is hidden in a local abandoned warehouse and head there alone after reinforcements don't appear. Upon entering the warehouse, they are surprised to learn Vallon's men were waiting for them, and Lewis runs away, leaving Murphy alone. He is captured and beaten by Vallon's men, and injected with a mysterious substance. Vallon and his men then aim their guns at Murphy. Lewis hears the shotgun blasts and returns only to find Murphy's mutilated remains: a half-torso with one attached arm and the head.
In the hospital, Ellen is visited by Kline, who convinces her that OmniCorp's Project RoboCop is Murphy's only chance of survival. Ellen signs the papers transfering Murphy's custody to OmniCorp. Norton rebuilds Murphy's robotic interskeleton and wires his brain to the program that he previously used on the chimpanzee. The "prototype" is then moved to OmniCorp's Chinese division, where RoboCop 1.0 is created.
Pope conduts market research on RoboCop 1.0's appearance by asking inmates of local prisons in Detroit to rate how threatning he is. When the feedback is negative, the scientists use Pope's notes to build RoboCop 2.0, a fully functional early design. RoboCop 2.0 is trained by ex-Marine Maddox (Jackie Earle Haley) and displays his strenght, speed, agility and stamina by completing a massive obstacle race in a OmniCorp test site in record time.
Adjustments are made to the exoskeleton, leading to the creation of RoboCop 3.0, that is deployed to South Africa to disband a terrorist cell. Norton and his men monitor RoboCop's performance, and Sellers instructs Norton to force RoboCop to shoot a civilian to evaluate his emotional response. Norton confirms that Murphy feels guilt over what he perceives as his own mistake, and Sellers gives the order to "finish the product".
RoboCop 4.0 is created. He has a "Sleeper Mode", where his exoskeleton is programmed to have a blue-ish/grey-ish tint, emulating a police officer's dress blues, and a "Battle Mode", in which the plates are reinforced with bulletproof padding and become a black-tintet tactical gear for more infiltration. Throughout the process, Ellen and David request access to Murphy as they were promised by Kline, but it is continuously denied. Lewis, feeling guilty for abandoning Murphy and blaming himself for his predictment, takes up arms to help them, and, in the process, becomes a surrogate father for David.
With RoboCop completed, Norton connects Murphy's mind to OmniCorp's worldwide surveillance system, downloading records of all known registered criminals in Murphy's head. The sensorial overload of brutal crimes commited throughout the planet is too much for Murphy, and he begins to overload. Norton interrupts the process, and Sellers instructs Norton to reduce Murphy's emotions so he'll become more effective.
When RoboCop is finally reinstated to the Detroit Police Department, he is a borderline emotionless automaton under Norton's control, and initially drives his family away, resulting in Ellen becoming closer to Lewis. Murphy monitors their activities through OmniCorp's CCTV cameras, and his emotions begin to push through OmniCorp's control.
After a series of arrests as RoboCop, Murphy goes after Vallon, and learns that he was hired by Sellers to lure Murphy into a trap and mutilate him so OmniCorp could use Murphy for Project RoboCop. They had selected him as the perfect candidate, but knew he wouldn't accept by his own. Murphy also learns that OmniCorp intents to create more RoboCops, capitalizing on the popularity boost that Murphy's performance will cause among police officers.
When Murphy becomes too big a liability and Norton realizes he is beginning to resit OmniCorp's control, Sellers deploys a group of ED-209 drones to ambush and destroy RoboCop in Old Town, but RoboCop is able to outstmart and defeat them, marching towards OmniCorp's headquarters, where only one thing stands between him and the men who ruined his life: The ED-210 robotic unit, a prototype upgrade of the ED-209 design, and RoboCop's greatest challenge yet.