My Review: RoboCop (6/10)

"They want a product with a conscious. Something that knows what it feels like to be human. We gonna put a man inside a machine." 

You don't necessarily have to be from the 80's to have heard about the cult classic and ultra-violent RoboCop which served as a witty and funny satire of its time. As with most remakes I always go into them with very low expectations, so when I heard Brazilian director, Jose Padilha (known in South America for his successful film Elite Squad and its sequel) was working on a reboot of the franchise I wasn't very excited. Despite not loving this remake, I was surprised that this film took such a different approach from the original and stood out on its own. Fans of the original might be disappointed that this isn't a fun action film. Padilha has made an ambitious film that differs greatly from the original one by focusing on modern political themes and powerful corporate agendas. It also humanizes the main character and tries to explore his emotions as he has to learn to deal with his new robotic self. There are some very important scenes Joel Kinnaman shares with Gary Oldman as Padilha plays on the dynamics between them and raises various ethical questions along the way. Oldman's character struggles with how much freedom he should give to his creation while being pushed by Corporate greed to deliver a product. Padilha does explore these political and social issues pretty well, while dealing with other concepts such as the illusion of free will and media bias (which we see through Jackson's character). Where this film failed for me however was in the action sequences which at times felt like a video game. Many scenes felt like I was watching my friends play Call of Duty, and I felt detached. So I can see why this film might upset fans because it isn't an action packed film, but more of a sci-fi exploration of modern political and social fears. It isn't groundbreaking, but Robocop stands on its own apart from the original as a somewhat different film.

Joshua Zetumer adapted the screenplay for this remake and he did a decent job at modernizing several of the issues the story presents. It's clearly more character driven than the original, but lacks that witty and sharp humor that made the original such a beloved classic. The film opens in 2028 as we listen to a news report from Pat Novak (Samuel L Jackson) setting up the stage. He's a pro-robot TV host that is trying to convince Americans to embrace robot technology like the rest of the world has. OmniCorp is the multinational corporation that runs this robot technology that has functioned as the military force keeping peace across the globe. Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) is the billionaire running OmniCorp that realizes that if he's going to change American public opinion about robots he is going to need to present a more human one. OmniCorp finds the opportunity they were looking for when a Detroit cop named Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is critically injured after trying to bring down a couple of corrupt cops and a big local dealer. Sellars convinces Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman), a pioneer in robotic prosthetics, to save Alex and turn him into a part-robot, part-man police officer. With Alex's wife, Clara's (Abbie Cornish) permission they save his life, but they plan to keep him doped so he will follow their orders. However Alex proves to be stronger than they expected and he sets out to find justice against those that tried to murder him.

This new RoboCop turns out to be a very different movie than the original taking itself too seriously and trying to raise important ethical questions along the way. This isn't something we were expecting as viewers from a RoboCop film, but somehow Padilha manages to make it enjoyable in a very different way. I liked the way how the true villains of the film were not the criminals on the street, but the corporate giants who were trying to force their agenda. That is why the film focuses much more on those characters than the ones we usually expect, which in this case would be the criminals Alex was pursuing first. RoboCop has many flaws and is overly ambitious lacking the humor and poignant satire from the original, but it works if judged on its own without having to compare the two films. I barely recommend this one so go see it at your own risk.

My Review: Sucker Punch (3/10)

¨ Who teaches us what`s real, and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live, and what we'll die to defend? Who trains us, and who holds the key to set us free? It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight! ¨

Zach Snyder has adapted various graphic novels into films in the past and I enjoyed his movies very much; I was a big fan of 300 and Watchmen and I thought those movies were terrific. In Sucker Punch Snyder tries something new; he wrote the story instead of adapting another novel, but still tried to give it the same feel and look his other films had. The look of the film is also stylish, full of CGI, and the graphics make us think we are playing a videogame instead of watching a movie. This style worked for me in the past because Snyder`s stories were interesting. In Sucker Punch I just couldn’t get into the story, I didn’t like any of the characters, and thought the plot was just ridiculous. The approach was also very hypocritical because the movie tries to preach about female empowerment and girl power, but the entire time the movie is targeted towards a male audience; we have girls fighting in short skirts, and the male characters have little screen time. I can see how this movie might be enjoyed by a young male audience, but it just didn’t work for me. Comparing it to 300 and Watchmen this movie doesn’t even come close, but even before watching Sucker Punch I had lowered my expectations with the trailer. I understood the metaphor and ideas the story was trying to get across, but it was just meaningless with these characters since they weren’t even developed at all. There was not one interesting character, they were all one dimensional. The screenplay was adapted by Snyder himself and Steve Shibuya, but the entire movie relies only on the CGI.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is sent to a mental asylum by her stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) after her mother dies and she accidently kills her little sister while trying to protect her from her abusive stepfather. She was aiming at him, but she missed and her little sister suffered the consequences. Baby Doll is institutionalized and in five days the doctor will perform a lobotomy on her so that she forgets everything her stepfather has done. Blue (Oscar Isaac) receives an important amount of money from the stepdad to make sure the doctor signs the ok for the lobotomy. Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino who also starred in Watchmen with Snyder) never signs the petition because Blue falsifies the signature and so everything is set for within five days when the Doctor (Jon Hamm) comes back. Baby Doll isn’t alone in the asylum. She befriends four other female companions: Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) and her sister, Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung who was recently seen in The Hangover 2). Baby Doll decides to create an alternate reality in order to avoid her pain and guilt. In this fantastical world she becomes a sort of warrior and with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn) she comes up with a plan to escape the mental facility. Along with her four friends they go on a mission to retrieve the five elements they will need in order to escape. In this fantastical world they have to face ninja robots, Nazi zombie`s and different kind of monsters. The lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur as they try to collect the items and break free from the asylum.

The characters are so poorly developed that I really didn’t care whether or not they escaped the institution. Even the fantasy clips in which all the main action and cool effects take place felt more like music videos due to the loud music and videogame style graphic. The movie is empty; simply eye candy and I couldn’t see anything philosophical or deep about it. I really was disappointed with this movie, but I know Zach Snyder will bounce back. He should stick to graphic novels. As for the performances there was nothing remarkable about any of them, but the cast isn’t to blame because the entire movie relied only on the special effects and not on trying to develop the characters. The effects are interesting at some times, but we`ve seen them all before and there is nothing new to Sucker Punch. This will definitely be on my list of worst films of the year; it was a huge disappointment for me. Everyone has the right to make a bad film; even Pixar came short with Cars 2 so I don’t think Zach Snyder should be worrying about how things turned out in Sucker Punch. Some young males might want to check this movie out, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

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My Review: Limitless (7/10)

¨You know how they say we can only access 20% of our brain? This lets you access all of it.¨

When Limitless begins you might confuse this film with another Hangover sequel, but unlike in those movies Bradley Cooper takes a pill to enhance his life not forget about what happened last night. This pill has the opposite effect on his life, instead of getting hungover, he gets smarter. This action thriller has a very interesting premise: a drug has been discovered that allows you to use your brain to a hundred percent of its capacity. Not many people know about the existence of this pill, but Cooper`s character has been fortunate enough to get his hands on it and therefore takes advantage of the situation. The advantages don’t come without risks however and that is how the plot develops and traps us. The film is narrated in first person in order to let us know everything that is going on. The movie isn’t flawless either, the first minutes of the film are very self explanatory and leave no room for us to wonder and figure out what is happening. The beginning serves as a fifteen minute introduction to the story and we can`t help but notice this is taken from a novel.  Leslie Dixon (Mrs. Doubtfire) actually adapted the film from Alan Glynn`s novel ¨The Dark Fields.¨ The beginning seems taken straight out from the novel and it doesn’t really work in the film, but once we get past the introduction the action and thrills begin. I´m not a huge fan of having a narrator letting us know everything that is going on with the story, and in this film the opening sequence suffers from this. Neil Burger (The Illusionist and The Lucky Ones) however brings the movie back to the right direction and lets the rest of the plot play out nicely.

Bradley Cooper is Eddie Morra, a writer who has just worked out a deal with a publisher but can`t come out with the inspiration to write his novel. He has long hair, a hippy style, his apartment is a mess, and his life seems to be going nowhere. Eddie Morra is the sort of person no one expects anything from. Even his girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish), gives him the keys to his apartment back and decides to end their relationship. Eddie is a mess, but his life is about to change when he accidently runs into his ex brother in law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), who happens to have a pill that will change his life. Eddie is reluctant at first, but he doesn’t have anything to lose so he decides to try it. The effects of the NZT pill are almost immediate; Eddie begins to remember things that have been locked up in his unconsciousness. He can remember anything he`s ever read, heard about, or seen. Suddenly he gets inspired to write, fix his room, and tighten up, his whole life changes in one day thanks to the pill. The next morning he is back to his old self but he decides to contact Vernon in order to buy more NZT`s. Once he gets to his apartment he finds Vernon dead and the entire room is a mess. He discovers where the pills are and takes them. Now with the pills, Eddie`s life takes a drastic change. He becomes successful and begins making a lot of money in the financial industry. An important businessman, Carl Van Loon (Robert de Niro), takes an interest in him and wants his services. However, Eddie discovers there are some side effects to NZT, and some very dangerous people are also after the pill.

Limitless has plenty of action and thrills to keep you hooked. Bradley Cooper is also great as the lead role. Andrew Howard and Tomas Arana play the villains who are mysteriously after the NZT pills. The movie has a sort of strange feel to it at times; for moments it seems as if we the viewer have taken the pills as we experience everything in shaky bright and fuzzy colors. There is plenty of suspense and at times it`s hard to know where the movie is going, but it really works well and ties nicely at the end. Limitless does present a moral dilemma as we see how the pill enhances Eddie`s life, but at the same time it barely kills him due to the strong side effects. As a society we have grown to rely on different kinds of pills that enhance our mind and bodies without even considering the side effects and dependence these pharmaceutical drugs are having on us. I think that Neil Burger presents these issues very well in this story that serves as a parable for what our society is turning into in its strive for perfection. I really enjoyed this thriller although it has a couple of flaws here and there, but it still is worth watching thanks to Bradley Cooper`s leading performance.

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