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"RoboCop was always a prime candidate for the remake treatment given the character&amp;#039;s potential and enduring popularity, but Jose Padilha&amp;#039;s upcoming reboot has the unenviable task of living up to one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. The 1987 original marked the Hollywood debut of director Paul Verhoeven, the Dutch filmmaker who went on to helm the likes of Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers.  Written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, RoboCop was an example of multi-layered storytelling at its finest - action-packed sci-fi with deep philosophical themes intertwined among the blood and carnage. Verhoeven&amp;#039;s opus was more than just a movie about a cyborg police officer in a crime-ridden near future, it was an exploration of the life-after-death concept and a poignant piece of social commentary dealing with issues such as capitalism, privatisation and gentrification. RoboCop is set in an alternate version of Detroit, Michigan on the brink of collapse due to rampant crime and financial turmoil, where the police force is owned by a faceless corporation called Omni Consumer Products (OCP). This setting was a dark mirror for 1980s America, although much of the media and political satire the writers included still rings true today. The story focused on police officer and clean-cut family man Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), who is brutally gunned down in the line of duty after pursuing crime lord Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang of cronies to a disused steel mill.  We barely got to know Murphy before the film threw him to the lions, yet watching his prolonged, agonising death at the hands of Boddicker and his minions was a harrowing piece of cinema, heightened by Weller&amp;#039;s shrill screams. Murphy&amp;#039;s bullet-ridden body is harvested by OCP for its cyborg law enforcement programme, and RoboCop is born. The remainder of the story focuses on the title character&amp;#039;s struggle with submerging memories from his past life, and his quest to reclaim his identity. Despite its penchant for over-the-top violence and high body count, RoboCop has a profound underlying theme, presenting the argument that the essence of a human being can endure long after the physical form has perished. This level of depth was one of many factors behind the movie&amp;#039;s success, with intriguing characters and a triumphant soundtrack by Basil Poledouris also playing their part.      As we&amp;#039;ve already touched on, Murphy wasn&amp;#039;t a particularly fleshed-out character, but he&amp;#039;s easy to get behind given his tragic plight - mercilessly gunned down and robbed of his very humanity. Following his transformation into RoboCop, he became a modern day spin on the archetypal knight in shining armour sent in to clean up the town. The film&amp;#039;s rogues gallery was also memorable. Smith&amp;#039;s Boddicker is the kind of all-out scumbag viewers love to detest, while primary antagonist Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) is a different breed of villain. The corrupt OCP senior president was essentially the Lex Luthor to RoboCop&amp;#039;s Superman, wielding Murphy&amp;#039;s prime directive that prohibits him from attacking an OCP employee like Kryptonite. Then there was the unforgettable ED-209, a heavily-armed security droid that roars like a lion and guns down innocent boardroom executives for fun.  There were few standout characters outside of the rogues gallery, other than RoboCop&amp;#039;s sidekick, officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). It&amp;#039;s debatable whether a near-indestructible cyborg needs a partner out there in the field, but the movie required a strong female character to avoid coming across as misogynistic. The story would perhaps have benefited from building a deeper relationship between Murphy and Lewis, who share little more than a scene together prior to the former&amp;#039;s death, but she does her part to help humanise RoboCop as the film progresses. Looking back at RoboCop today, the stop-motion effects are starting to look as dated as that Ford Taurus Murphy drives, and there&amp;#039;s some cringe-worthy acting outside of the main cast, but such gripes are easy to overlook. This film has lost none of the depth that made it an instant classic back in 1987. Its social commentary still strikes home, and that final scene in which RoboCop identifies himself as Murphy never fails to make spines tingle. As one of the finest contemporary sci-fi movies ever committed to celluloid, it seems only right that the character should endure in the modern age, but Padilha certainly has his work cut out doing justice to Verhoeven&amp;#039;s masterpiece with next year&amp;#039;s remake. Watch a trailer for Jose Padilha&amp;#039;s RoboCop remake below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/re-viewed/feature/a517069/robocop-re-viewed-the-pinnacle-of-80s-action-science-fiction/>