By Rudie Obias | 7 years ago

In roughly a month, we’ll find out if the new RoboCop will be a remake worth watching, like John Carpenter’s The Thing or David Cronenberg’s The Fly, or if it will be part of the countless remakes that are soulless, humorless, and dull, like Total Recall, the new Straw Dogs, and the recent The Thing. Director José Padilha has a few good movies under his belt, like Elite Squad and the sequel Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, but everything we’ve been seeing from RoboCop makes it look like the cheap knock off of Paul Verhoeven’s original.

Today, Sony released a new image that features RoboCop facing off against a number of robotic prototypes as part of Rick Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley) – who is a military tactician responsible for training the cyborg law enforcement agent – training exercise. We’ve seen bits and pieces of this scene in almost every trailer thus far, and it certainly looks like RoboCop will square off against other robotic drones, as well as with ED-209. These new prototype robots also look like all of Tony Stark’s prototypes at the end of Iron Man 3. That was one scene missing from the original RoboCop, a training exercise where RoboCop destroys a bunch of expensive toys.

Recently, Sony unveiled a number of new images and stills. A majority of the new images features RoboCop in scenes that highlight his human alter ego, Alex Murphy. One of the aspects of the new film that will be different from the original is that Murphy will be front and center throughout the whole film. RoboCop is aware of his previous identity, so he’s not going to be struggling to learn who he is. Abbie Cornish plays Murphy’s wife Clara, who appears to be RoboCop’s link to being human.

At least the filmmakers behind the remake are trying to bring a fresh perspective to the new film. Despite negative reactions to the remake, early test screenings suggest something different. It appears that some audiences are warming up to José Padilha’s version. Early reactions suggest that the remake captures Verhoeven’s vision of a dark and bleak future, while at the same time toning down the heavy violence the original is known for. It’s the RoboCop movie that you can take home to meet your mother.

Set in the year 2028, a multinational conglomerate called OmniCorp has become the worldwide leader of robotic technology. OmniCorp is winning wars around the world with drones and the corporation now wants to bring their technology to the home front, to protect cities across the United States. Now meet Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father, and honest cop in Detroit, who is critically injured after a car bomb attack. OmniCorp utilizes their robotics technology to save and turn him into RoboCop.

RoboCop stars Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael Kenneth Williams, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Miguel Ferrer, Jennifer Ehle, and Jay Baruchel. The new face of American justice hits theaters everywhere on February 12, in 3D and IMAX.