RoboCop 3

I enjoyed this movie even though there are numerous plot holes. I though Remy Ryan did an excellent job as the child hacker. This movie is precursor for dystopic cyberpunk feel (large corporations control everything, small bands of people fighting against them, most of all a young child prodigy whose computer hacking skills are almost frightening.)

This highly-disappointing sequel finds our hero going against law and order by siding with a group of down-and-outers who stand to lose their neighborhood because of evil corporate interests. Along the way Robo crashes cars, battles robot ninjas and flies through the air like a six-ton Superman. Alas, none of it can save ROBOCOP 3, a film into which very little real effort seems to have gone.

When watching ROBOCOP 3, one can't help but think the producers lazily expected the well-established Robocop brand would simply sell itself this time around. Making matters worse, they tried to move away from a more adult-style of action and sci-fi and deliver something you might watch with older kiddies. I mean, robot ninjas??? What is this, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? This thing even attempts to deliver a do-the-right-thing message, but the whole effort is so muddled and ridiculous it can't succeed (nor should a movie like this even try).

I am willing to cut movies a lot of slack, but this one's a stinker. No wonder Robo was reduced to a cheap Canadian-filmed TV series following this disaster.

Omni Consumer Products are up to their old tricks and are intent on turfing citizens out of their homes so that they can demolish them and re-build a new town called Delta City. The new CEO of Omni Consumer Products (Rip Torn) recruits a crack team of mercenaries led by Paul McDaggett (John Castle) to evict the citizens from their homes. However, some of the citizens form a rebel alliance and fight back against OCP and the mercenaries.

Ahhh here we have Robocop 3 which is kindly referred to as the turkey of the franchise. Although this third film is far from perfect I do think that it's unfairly maligned and I will attempt to explain why I'm prepared to defend it...

First of all if we begin with the story; here we basically have the entire focus of OCP and their greed which is pretty much what the first film explored. I think that's what gives it the edge over the second film as I found the story stupid in the second film whereas it was better in this film. Think about it you're more likely to get on side with a bunch of rebel fighters who are trying to protect their homes as opposed to a bunch of violent drug-pushers. Given the fact that Peter Weller was responsible for making Robocop something of an icon it was a brave move for Burke to accept the role in this third film. To his credit, Burke does a very good job and was every bit as good as Weller in my opinion. Granted it was a risk re-casting the role, but I personally felt that it paid off here.

Another strong aspect of this film is that the writers made it more of a human story and explored Robocop's emotional psyche more; examples of this are Robocop's decision to disobey an order to go and rescue Lewis OR Robocop's decision not to tell Niko that her parents were dead. Robocop 3 is notably less violent than the first two films which may disappoint those with a lust for blood. I myself have no problem with blood and violence, but I think it was toned down here to create a more human story. I also suspect that the writers perhaps didn't want to create too much of a copycat sequel.

This film also has so much camp value that's almost impossible not to like this film; Robocop is given a lot of dry dialogue here and some of the lines that he delivers are cheesy, but very funny as well (this camp humour was present in the first two films, but there seemed to be more of it here). The final line in this film was probable one of the most memorable that I've come across and was also very funny.

Are there any problems here? Well as Churchill the dog would say 'Oh Yes'...... The first half of the film is dull and lifeless and was a bit of a slog to get through. Thankfully though the second half is much stronger so this isn't a major criticism. I thought the inclusion of a flight pack for Robocop was a ridiculous idea. I also thought the inclusion of the Splatter Punks was a bit pointless and unnecessary. Some of the performances were woeful(particularly from Rip Torn who I felt was miscast here as he lacked the menace that the original old man had in the first 2 films). I also found it hard to take him serious as he reminded me of Terry Thomas with that stupid moustache. Aside from Burke, the only other performance that I rated in this film was that of Paul McDaggett who did give the film some of the menace that we saw in Robocop and Robocop 2. The robot ninja character could have been developed better and the fight scenes between him and Robocop were ridiculous, anti-climatic and the resolution was rather predictable.

Overall then this is a mixed bag of a film, but for me the human story and the camp value combined together made this to be a fairly enjoyable film or possibly even a guilty pleasure. Yeah it has its problems, but I don't believe that it is deserved of its terrible reputation. I actually thought it was a slight improvement on Robocop 2, but it doesn't come close to the greatness of the original Robocop.

Righty ho, what went on here then? I can't believe they made this and saw fit to release it! It lacks nearly everything the original Robocop had....especially a big killer robot!

Robocop 1 had ED-209.

Rococop 2 had the huge vicious psycho cyborg Cain.

Robocop 3 had a samurai robot that looked like a normal guy and if you managed to get a decent hit on him he would break like a dodgy little action figure! The director must have realised that this was a bad move half way through making the movie so he added a few more of these unmemorable villains to make up for the fact he didn't have a big impressive killer robot in it and failed miserably.

Sorry but that sums it all up for me. There is of course a load of other faults that i won't go in to but that was the main fault when i watched it.

A few little cool bits in this movie but the bad far outweighs the good. If this hadn't been so sucky we would have probably got treated to a Robocop 4! Damn! 3/10

Before I begin, let me get this out in the open: Robocop 3 is easily the worst movie of the trilogy.

OK, now the rest of the review.

Though this is the worst movie of the series, Robocop 3 manages to find a way to redeem itself (be it intentionally or unintentionally) by being incredibly cheesy, and ultimately a load of fun! The film doesn't even really seem to be a direct continuation of the series, though it does reference the first movie several times via flashbacks. The story is just about as dull as it could get, and the acting leaves much to be desired. Not to mention, the one saving grace this film could have had (special effects) does nothing to help save the movie from falling to "B-Movie" status.

I'm not sure why Peter Weller was not brought back for this one, but I think he was wise to avoid it. Robocop has been reduced to cheesy one-liners, and badly choreographed fight scenes. However, I think this adds to the movie's charm. The film seems to take a very tongue-in-cheek look into the world of Robo, and this saves it from being a complete failure. Also, it seems as if the writers or director were watching a lot of Japanese anime, one of the main villains in the film is a ninja who is seemingly unstoppable; many of his scenes are so stylized you'd swear you're watching an anime. Rip Torn also adds to the film's silliness as the head of the corrupt corporation, OCP. He makes the main conflict in the film not even seem threatening due to the fact that he isn't menacing at all.

Overall I'd say this film is more of a comedy than a sci-fi flick. It contains so many cheesy moments that it's best enjoyed with a small group of friends (my close friend opined once "This is what Mystery Science Theater 3000 was made for," how right he was). If you are a fan of the series because of the grittiness and realism displayed in the first, avoid this entry. However, if you're looking for a good cheesy popcorn style sci-fi film, by all means, get some friends together and have fun! This film was made to be laughed at!