2014 Spring movie preview

The spring movie season this year is a bit wonky. Usually, that season is a sort of lead-up to the higher profile summer movie season. But this year it almost seems as if it’s a mini-summer season with several blockbuster films all vying for contention months before summer starts.

First up is Monuments Men, out February 7 which was originally set to premiere last winter. This movie follows the real-life little known Army unit during WWII that was staffed with art historians and museum curators who were tasked with rescuing priceless relics and works of arts from the Nazis during the war. Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon, Monuments Men seems to be equal parts The Dirty Dozen, Ocean’s Eleven and Indiana Jones.

RoboCop
RoboCop

The movie I’m looking forward to most this spring, and by the comments online I think I may be the only one looking forward to it, is the RoboCop remake out February 12. This update of the ’87, dare I say, classic of the same name stars Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Joel Kinnaman and is directed by José Padilha who also directed the two great Elite Squad movies. I’ll buy that for a dollar!

February 21 Pompeii blows it’s top in this film that looks to be a mix of 300 + Gladiator ÷ the modern disaster epic. Here, a gladiator played by Kit Harington of Game of Thrones must race to rescue the love of his life and escape the destruction of the volcano Pompeii in ancient Roman times.

Wes Anderson movie nerds unite! His next film, Grand Budapest Hotel, is due in theaters March 7 and will, no doubt, look and feel and sound like every other Wes Anderson movie that’s ever been made.

What the world needs now is yet another cheesy street racing movie franchise which Need for Speed, based on a video game series of the same name, hopes to fill on March 14.

Shailene Woodley and Theo James are
Shailene Woodley and Theo James are

Divergent, or “please think of The Hunger Games when you think of our movie” movie, is out March 21. Divergent joins a long list of movies based on dystopian teen novels — the already mentioned The Hunger Games, The Host, Ender’s Game, How I Live Now, Tomorrow When the War Began… — none of which have found success at the box office other than The Hunger Games.

I think the problem with these types of films is that many of the stories these books rely on all seem to be variations on a theme — a teen who is special and different than everyone else is that world’s only hope of bringing down some evil new world order. Which is a tough sell when movies like the Star Wars and Harry Potter films already explored that territory so well.

Noah comes to save mankind and all the creatures of the Earth on March 28. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson, Noah follows the biblical story of Noah and his arc. But Aronofsky, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan and The Fountain will surly place the weird up against the spiritual.

Chris Evans is Captain America
Chris Evans is Captain America

The big movie out this spring is Captain America: The Winter Soldier April 4. A sequel to the first Captain American movie, and The Avengers, oh and Thor: The Dark World too, this film features a modern day Cap fighting not only super-villains but a new world order trying to bring down the freedoms Captain America stands for.

While I might question Marvel’s strategy of releasing a new multi-million dollar superhero movie every few months; last year there was 189 days between the release of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World and this year just 116 between Thor and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that strategy seems to be paying off since the Marvel movies are some of the most profitable franchises in the history of film.

And 119 days after Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes Guardians of the Galaxy.

RoboCop, the modern Frankenstein

RoboCop 1987 movie poster
RoboCop 1987 movie poster

The other day I rewatched the movie RoboCop for the many-ith time in preparation for the RoboCop remake due in theaters February 12. To me, the original RoboCop is, was, and always will have that perfect match of future sci-fi that is just close enough to now that we can see our familiar world under veneer the new.

Most other times that I’ve watched RoboCop I’ve seen it mostly as a sci-fi action film that’s more than just robots and guns and explosions. This time I saw it for what it really was; a horror film with a few sci fi and action elements thrown in.

RoboCop is really a riff on the Frankenstein story with officer Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) as the stand-in for the green lunk in the lead role. In RoboCop, it’s a near-future Detroit where crime is rampant and gigantic multinational corporations have started taking over things like the military and police departments. The OCP corporation wants to build a new city from the ruins of “old Detroit” and want new RoboCop police corps to patrol this new city.

The iconic RoboCop image
The iconic RoboCop image

When Murphy is shot to death by a gang of criminals, OCP takes his body and uses it for the prototype of their new RobCop army. Murphy returns as a walking computerized super-police officer who’s only mission is to destroy crime — and be obedient to OCP too.

Where the Frankenstein monster was a creature of limited intelligence, RoboCop is the opposite. Via servers and databanks he has almost unlimited intelligence, constantly records everything he sees and hears and can recall any detail from his life. Where both RoboCop and Frankenstein are similar, though, is that each start out with incomplete memories of their past that they slowly regain over time. With Murphy it’s memories of his murder and his lost family.

Nancy Allen and Peter Weller
Nancy Allen and Peter Weller

If RoboCop is a kind of Frankenstein’s monster, then his creator Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer) must be his Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein wanted to be the creator of life no matter what the consequences and Morton wants to create RoboCop because of the power the program will bring him within OCP — no matter the consequences to Detroit or Murphy and his family as well.

There’s also the gore factor in RoboCop that drives that film more towards horror than simply sci-fi too. The squeamish should look away now.

RoboCop (Peter Weller) sans helmet
RoboCop (Peter Weller) sans helmet

In RoboCop, when Murphy is shot to death by the criminals one of his arms is blown off and gushes blood. Another time an OCP executive gets on the wrong side of another robot gone rogue and is shot to death and nearly torn in half. And towards the end of the movie one of the criminals who originally shot and killed Murphy (a pre-ER “Rocket” Romano Paul McCrane) gets his comeuppance by trying to run-down RoboCop, missing and crashing his car into a vat of toxic waste and emerges as some weird melting-man monster-thing. Which is bad enough, until he’s hit by another car and explodes into a gush of orange comic book goo.

And that’s just the gore from the theatrical release version of the film. The unrated director’s cut version of the movie has much more blood and violence than what ended up in the final film. The MPAA reportedly called the first cut of RoboCop “excessively violent” meaning much of this was taken out of the film to secure its R-rating on initial release.

RoboCop 2014 movie poster
RoboCop 2014 movie poster

Now that I think about it, RoboCop isn’t the only late 1980s horror film masquerading as an action/sci-fi fare. There’s also Aliens (1986) which is essentially at take on a haunted house movie where the ghosts bite and Predator (1987) that’s practically a remake of The Most Dangerous Game (1932), right down to the ending where the person being hunted tricks the hunter into thinking he’s dead by leaping into a body of water and hiding out until he’s able to gain the upper hand.

Not counting this new remake there were three RoboCop movies, and a RoboCop live action and animated TV series too. While RoboCop 2 was interesting, none of the sequels of TV series that followed could ever match the greatness of the original.

The RoboCop remake opens February 12 just in time for Valentine’s Day. 😉