RoboCop 2 (1990)

Maybe The Empire Strikes Back wa a fluke... who knows, but this film is embarrassing either way. I am watching it for the first time in 17 years and once it got to the part where he "changed" I gave up. I am now watching in horror and pretending this is all a dream by Robocop.

This film essentially picks up where its predecessor left off with the cyborg known as "Robocop" (Peter Weller) going about his business trying to keep crooks off the streets of a dystopian Detroit. Unfortunately, there are two organized forces with vastly different agendas which interfere in his efforts. The first is a murderous drug-dealer named "Cain" (Tom Noonan) who has cornered the market on a new drug known as "Nuke" and he intends on selling it at all costs. The second major obstacle to Robocop's efforts to clean up the streets of Detroit is the corporation known as "OCP" who initially created him but now has plans to remove him in favor of other cyborgs which they intend to mass-market. Meanwhile, crime continues to be rampant and the police department can only do so much with the resources they have available. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay sequel for the most part but definitely doesn't measure up to its illustrious predecessor. It just didn't seem to have the necessary attention to detail like the previous film. Be that as it may, while this film most certainly could have been better, I didn't think it was a bad movie by any means and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

After my initial disappointment that Anne (Nancy Allen) didn't become Robobabe straight away, since she was so severely shot up at the end of part one, I decided to hope for that to happen later on (no, it didn't) and move on. So, then, 'Robocop 2' seemed to become a lesser version of its predecessor; less impressive villains, less impressive action and a lot of bad one-liners from Robocop himself (not that part one had such great one-liners - not at all, really).But things stayed interesting here and there, and Tom Noonan was a pretty good choice as the new main baddie. And then came more and more terrific ideas: about the cops taking over the city with a cunning financial plan, about a kid who thinks he is the next Scarface, about Robocop (the original) descending into an identity crisis by an overload of rules, about a load of baseball kids (led by their coach!) looting a store, about Dr. Faxx exacting a devious plan to use villains for cops and keeping them in control through drugs, about a fresh young black mayor who decides to get his money from anyone just to stay in power... etc., etc. (it gets a little too obvious in the end with the Nazi flag and the Gestapo outfits, though, ha ha). Yes, 'Robocop 2' has a lot to offer, if you'll keep in mind that it's a sort of exploitation flick with a big budget (looks like it - I haven't checked) - and a very creative one.The creative cherry on top here is the loads of stop-motion scenes with Robocop 1 fighting Robocop 2, which actually don't come in until a lot later. There's some short bits of other Robocop stop-motion bits earlier on, which are good fun as well.It's hard to decide if this one is better or just as good as the first one, but both get a big 7 out of 10 for now.

*********************SPOILERS THROUGHOUT**************************I've always been a fan of the original Robocop film and have seen it several times. To me it's a film that is a nice blend of social commentary, satire, intelligence, action, entertainment & heart. I hadn't seen the sequel for some time and after watching it this evening I can only say that it was partly successful...Robocop 2 starts out in a similar vein to the first film with police officers on strike. As a result of the police being on strike, Detroit City has made a descent into lawlessness; at the start it shows individuals pillaging from each other and looting shops and convenience stores. I also liked the fact that at the start we see Robocop trying to make a connection to his past life... this for me was a big strength in the first film and is a very emotive part of the story. Sadly it isn't given much focus here which is a shame as it is a strong and interesting aspect of the Robocop story.What really lets this film down is the story and the simple truth of the matter is that it just isn't as strong as the story in the first film; everyone is addicted to drugs? Is that all we get here? It's perhaps not necessarily the concept that's bad, but the way it's executed here with the writers not really offering much commentary on the subject. I would have forgiven this aspect of the plot more if it had been remotely interesting, but I just found it really hard to get involved with this story.There also seemed to be pointless deviations such as Robocop's glitch where OCP 're-programme' him. I'll admit that this aspect of the story was quite amusing and entertaining, but it was rather pointless and went nowhere. If the point was to show OCP as being incompetent or misguided then this was unnecessary as this was already ascertained in the first film. I just didn't see the point.There is also a scene later in the film where Robocop discovers the kid who was one of Cain's gang dying in the back of a van; he then gives some heart felt speech and asks Robocop not to leave him.... give me a break. Were we supposed to feel sorry for the kid? Was that supposed to be a tender moment? He was almost as bad as Cain himself and was deserved of no sympathy whatsoever.I also loved the fact that OCP intended to send Robocop 2 out to clean the streets of Nuke even though he is addicted to Nuke himself; isn't that a bit like asking a prolific drug dealer to go out and clean the streets of drugs himself?I think one of the worst aspects of this film was the decision to turn Cain into OCP's Robocop 2; if I'm being cynical I just saw that as a plot device to set up the inevitable showdown between Robocop 2 and Robocop.To me this film is sloppy, but it's sloppy in too many areas to make it forgivable. It does provide entertainment value and is quite amusing and I still love Robocop's 'Thank you for not smoking' line. However, it's far too stupid to be really classed as a good film or even to be considered a worthy sequel.