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Robocop (Peter Weller, Buckaroo Banzai, Robocop) is back, kicking ass, and righting wrongs on the mean streets of Detroit. Unfortunately he’s one of the few cops bothering as most of the force has gone on strike in protest against their treatment at the hands of OCP (Omni Consumer Products) who had a private contract to run the Detroit police force. They’ve taken away the cops’ pensions, and refuse to give in to demands for improved wages and conditions, and at the same time the streets see the emergence of a new drug called ‘Nuke’. This ‘Nuke’ is created in a secret lab by a deranged cult leader called Cain (Tom Noonan! He of Manhunter fame) and his gang of cronies and corrupt cops. Nuke presents the biggest danger to the general populous of any drug, more addictive than anything before with a greater effect on the user, and its also dirt cheap. Things are further complicated by OCP, as they are owed huge amounts of money by the city of Detroit that it cannot hope to afford, and thanks to an agreement signed by the mayor when the loans were given, OCP prepares to take control of the city itself, and rebuild it as Delta City. Robocop makes a sworn enemy of Cain and his gang when he busts a drug lab that is making the dangerous substance. A young boy who is part of Cain’s gang, however, causes Robocop to start remembering more of his past as police officer Alex Murphy. He starts lurking near his family’s house, causing his wife great emotional distress, so much so that she is prepared to take legal action against OCP.
Meanwhile OCP are working on a new Robocop (inventively called Robocop 2), however the early tests resulted in the new cyborgs killing themselves soon after activation. A new face at OCP, psychologist Dr. Juliette Fax (Belinda Bauer), believes that the cyborgs are killing themselves because of their psychological make-up, and after making eyes at the President of OCP she is authorised to get more heavily involved in the development of the new Robocop. Fax takes a particular interest in perhaps using a criminal’s brain in the new model, that the power and immortality given to him would be attractive. Can you see where this is going yet? Robocop raids Cain’s secret base after interrogating a dirty cop, but unfortunately finds them ready for him, trapping him with a giant magnet and dismembering him. The gang leave the parts dumped in front of the Detroit police station, the hoards of striking cops too stupid to do anything but stare blankly as the crooks drive away. Barely alive, Robocop is eventually taken in by OCP for repairs, but with Dr. Fax in charge of his repairs a number of changes are made to his programming, turning him into a confused sissy who won’t hurt anybody. The real reasoning behind this, as well as the mistreatment of the police force, is a crafty OCP plan to undermine the city’s infrastructure and governing body to the point that their take over would be welcomed by the citizens of Detroit. With Robocop ‘having trouble’, a crazed drug lord continuing to flood the city with his evil Nuke, and a gigantic corproration preparing to usurp control of the city, what hope does Detroit have left? Will Robocop 2 be a saviour, or will it be another dangerous pawn in the hands of OCP?
There was clearly an attempt to revive not only the cyborg law enforcer himself, but also much of the style of the original. The film is peppered with silly commercials and extremely dry-humoured news reports, and once again Peter Weller brings a surprising amount of quirky character to a potentially one-dimensional role. Tom Noonan also makes a delightful turn as the diabolical Cain, he shows like he did in Manhunter that he can make for a deliciously creepy villain. Sadly Noonan is wasted as a largely peripheral character and does not appear in the last third of the movie. The biggest hindrance to the film is that there is no focus in the writing, no drive to the story. While the first film had a strong plot showing the corrupt Dick Jones use politics and the underworld to manipulate and increase his power, and a subplot where Robocop/Alex Murphy must come to terms with who he has become and whether his humanity has remained intact, this film doesn’t know where its going. The story of his original identity is raised and then discarded early in the film, then we go through his dismembering, reprogramming, fixing himself, going after Cain again, and then we finally get some action with the second Robocop. The episodic nature of the story gives the film absolutely no flow with very little to focus on, and ends up really dragging towards the end of its 110 minutes running time. Things are also not helped by a lack of strong villain characters, Tom Noonan was good but is pushed into the background and we’re left with Belinda Bauer as Dr. Fax who, I’m afraid to say, isn’t a terribly good actress and Robocop 2 is neither used very heavily nor is it terribly inspiring to start with. There’s nobody on the same level as Ronny Cox as Dick Jones, or Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker, leaving Peter Weller to hold the fort (Nancy Allen irritates the hell out of me in case you were wondering) so that whenever Robocop isn’t on-screen, it tends to get rather dull. What also doesn’t help are their attempts to ape the humorous commercials and news reports of the first film much of lack the social awareness of the original is gone and they’re just goofy.
Unfortunately the cyborg action does not fare much better. Peter Weller’s Robocop is a joy of course, his fun and expressive performance does all that was possible with this confused script, and when Murphy is allowed to really let rip he does so in entertaining fashion. However, he really doesn’t get to tangle with the bad guys as often as might have been liked and most of the action outside of Robo is rather flat. This is partly the fault of Robocop 2 – a disappointingly unimaginative invention which looks more like a badly rehashed ED 209 than a worthy successor to the future of law enforcement. He may have four arms, one of which holds a huge gun, but he’s just sorta dull. A real wonder was the amount of personality they managed to fit into the ED 209 in the first film, Robocop 2 is largely realised with similar stop motion animation techniques but just doesn’t convince, he’s just a big robot with a gun. The way it is brought to the screen also makes for a rather unbelievable beast, which became a little too reminiscent of those old fantasy movies like Jason and the Argonauts where the hero would face off with a creature that quite obviously wasn’t there. The action itself is uninspiring too, everybody pretty much just stands around and shoots at each other, there’s little use of the surroundings nor are there many novelty weapons to bring some extra special effects to the proceedings. Yeah, I wanted lots of crazy, wacky cyborg carnage, so sue me.
Perhaps if the writers spent less time trying to make this like the original and concentrated more on giving this film an identity of its own, this would have been a worthy successor to the original Robocop. As it is however, Robocop 2 doesn’t have the writing, directing or cast to get it from out of the original’s shadow and is left a confused mess. A severe disappointment where nothing really clicked outside of Peter Weller’s acting, and nowhere near enough crazy, wacky cyborg carnage.
