Robocop Returns Can Save Neill Blomkamp

With "Robocop Returns", the South African filmmaker may also be able to come out of the "District 9" shadow.

Robocop is back on patrol. Robocop Returns MGM's sequel to the original 1987 movie that saw officer Alex Murphy left for dead and turned into a cyborg who has to deal with his own free will. . Written by the next writer Terminator Justin Rhodes, the sequel is supposed to ignore the previous entries and the 2014 reboot.

Robocop is at an interesting turning point in terms of pop-cultural interest. While Paul Verhoeven's original film is considered a science-fiction clbadic, his influence can be seen as recently as Upgrade this summer, he never managed to exploit his franchise potential. After two poorly received suites in 1990 and 1993, a 1994 television series that lasted one season, a 2001 television mini-series, Robocop: Prime Directives and a reboot that boasted beautiful effects while not not distinguishable from the original, Robocop is a property that seems destined for the scrapheap. But with the Predator and Terminator receiving new movie entries set to compensate, and potentially omit, some of the mistakes of the past, a buy-out for Robocop not only feels right, but necessary. Robocop returns just at the right time, and with a little luck, Blomkamp will come out of the director's prison that too many onlookers and critics have condemned.

Robocop Returns is not the first time that Blomkamp is attached to the rebirth of a great science fiction property. In 2015, he was linked to a sequel to Aliens (1986) that would have seen Sigourney Weaver return as Ellen Ripley. Fox eventually abandoned the project reconfiguring the Alien: Covenant (2017) Ridley Scott and the direction of the franchise. While a film Alien would potentially have allowed Blomkamp to distinguish himself from his previous films, Robocop seems to be a smoother path for the filmmaker to remind critics and the public why his guiding goal is so crucial. And although his interpretation of Alien: Awakening was good, there is no better match for Robocop than Neill Blomkamp – both need one of the best. other. While the South African filmmaker has demonstrated his division in recent years, Blomkamp's cinematic language is largely inspired by Verhoeven's film. Blomkamp's heavy technology films, featuring all kinds of exo-costumes, robots, political conflicts and bloody splash effects, owe a lot to their identity to the movie's 1987. Robocop Returns is the film to which Blomkamp has pushed his entire career.

Because public opinion has changed Blomkamp's talent, it's easy to forget that his Peter Jackson … first feature film produced, District 9 (2009 ) has been nominated for four Oscars, including the best adapted scenario and the best image. While the film promises the emergence of a bold new voice in science fiction cinema, it also hurts Blomkamp with expectations that he can not respect. His second feature, Elysium (2013), found modest success and generally favorable criticism, factors that were lost in the wave of Internet grievances over the treatment of social problems in the world. movie. If Elysium was the beginning of Blomkamp, ​​followed by District 9 it is quite likely that the narrative of the negativity that often surrounds it in some circles in line would not exist. The third film of Blomkamp, ​​ Chappie (2015), is not as easy to argue, but he even has his fan base. A box office and a critical disappointment, Chappie proposed some interesting ideas on artificial intelligence, while being too rough, too broad and too invested in Die Antwoord so that the majority public finds everything to forgivable.

Despite the fact that Blomkamp seems unable to escape the shadows of his first major job, his abilities have never been a matter of pbadion. Every film Blomkamp has made is personal and entirely faithful to his voice and vision. Blomkamp's films enter the wet, hot and crying cinema for protection. They are like newborns seen by people who know what they would like these unrefined mbades to be. In truth, the island nature of Blomkamp's films can be part of the problem in terms of reception. Blomkamp's films seem so attached to a specific point of view and to an aesthetic choice that they can be alienating to the audience. What makes Robocop Returns an exciting prospect, is that it will be the first film that Blomkamp will not have written or co-written himself, leaving the director a freedom and the possibility to define his style outside his own style. head space. While exoskeletons and robots do not remove the filmmaker from his box of tools, Robocop Returns could allow Blomkamp to focus on a specific problem, as he has made with District 9 Rather than approaching the wider spectrum of harsher vexations more difficult to balance.

Blomkamp's previous films in South Africa deal with clbad divisions, xenophobia and pharmaceutical corruption, using apartheid as an entry point for most of these problems . . With the original Robocop located in Detroit, it seems likely that we will see Blomkamp bring his social concerns to America where they will have a different scope and result. The original film relied heavily on political and corporate satire, something late iterations failed to do as effectively, if they tried to do it. Although the return of Robocop is probably considered as a return of an 80s action hero, this is not what makes the project exciting.