Andy's Archive: RoboCop 2 (1990)

An early scene in RoboCop 2 features a mugging of an elderly woman, and then the mugger is robbed and beaten by two hookers. The hookers pass by a third crime in progress, when a storefront explodes and then the criminals drive their car into the building. They're robbing a gun store and once they stole a giant, cartoonish rocket launcher, I knew RoboCop 2 was capturing the same wicked sense of humor as it's predecessor. This movie even has a commercial where a man kills himself because his download speed was too slow; perhaps the social commentary is even more accurate.

However the sequel quickly sweeps the soul of the original under the rug as Murphy has to deny that he has any humanity and is just a machine, while "The Old Man" is moved into a clear villain role rather than as a neutral figurehead of OCP. I actually thought the storyline for this movie would feature Anne Lewis rebuilt as a second RoboCop after she was shot several times near the end of the previous movie, especially when RoboCop told her, "they can fix you too." It was not to be, though that doesn't stop OCP from trying to capture lightning in a bottle and make another. However their failed creations are hilarious misfires as they end up killing themselves. I guess while the studio stripped the soul away from the first, they increased the dark comedy for this round. A storyline that is carried over from RoboCop to the sequel is that of the police force of Detroit going on strike. A quote from one officer that they cut their salary and took away their pension actually echoes the political climate of the current state of Illinois. Perhaps the darker and more violent Detroit is a natural progression as the crime rate would go up while the police force is on strike and not there to stop it.

In the current state of Hollywood, they seem to take a popular character or popular movie and turn everything into a film franchise before the first ticket has even been sold. I prefer the method for making RoboCop 2; it's just another story to be told in the world of RoboCop once they knew they had a hit. I guess the thought process with making a sequel found its way into the actual movie since this is about creating another RoboCop. OCP had previous failures, but once they actually had to rebuild the only working RoboCop after the bad guys sawed him in half, it gave them the boost they need to finally make a functioning robot. It is in the form of a bad guy named Cain, who was the leading drug dealer in Detroit. His version of RoboCop is much more mechanical and cumbersome, though having two RoboCops doing battle actually gives it the typical Hollywood climactic shoot-out we're known for seeing these days. I think RoboCop 2 turned out to be a worthy sequel and I'd buy it for a dollar!