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RoboCop 3

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RoboCop 3
Film poster
Directed byFred Dekker
Written byEdward Neumeier (characters)
Michael Miner (characters)
Frank Miller (story and screenplay)
Fred Dekker (screenplay)
Produced byPatrick Crowley
StarringRobert John Burke
CinematographyJohn Wallace
Edited byHenry Wallace
Music byRalph Peters
Distributed byPeter Williams
Release date
1993
Running time
104 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,004,564

RoboCop 3 is a science fiction film, released in 1993, set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan. It is the sequel to the 1990 film RoboCop 2. This was the last film in the trilogy of films about RoboCop and is often viewed as the film that contributed to the downfall of the once popular film franchise.

Taglines:

  • He's Back!
  • Back on line, Back on duty.
  • He's back to lay down the law.

Background

The film was directed by Fred Dekker, a director primarily known for cult horror films. Popular graphic novelist, Frank Miller, returned to write the screenplay for the film. The star of the film, Peter Weller, could not reprise his role and thus it was left up to Robert John Burke to play the cyborg character. Other important casting changes had to be made for the third film. The actor that played the OCP CEO from the previous two films, Dan O'Herlihy, and his successor are both absent from this film.

Another pre-production problem with the film was pressure from media watchdog organizations for the film to be rated PG-13, in favor of the younger audience that had only seen the G-rated animated series. The first two films had been rated R. Hence the profanity, graphic violence, mature sexual content, and references to illicit drugs and prostitution all had to be reduced or taken out altogether. The gritty Blade Runner-like environment of the first two films was severely diluted.

RoboCop 3 was rushed into production soon after RoboCop 2 was complete (even though some have claimed RoboCop 2 was not as successful as Orion hoped). Although completed in 1991, RoboCop 3 would languish on the shelf until 1993 as Orion went through bankruptcy and was bought out. RoboCop 3 earned a disastrous $4.3 million on its opening weekend, ending its run with $10.6 million domestically, far short of recouping its estimated $22 million production budget.

Plot

Template:Spoilers The main plot of RoboCop 3 involves RoboCop finding a new family, as he has apparently given up hope of seeing his wife or son again. He finds an extended family in the form of an orphaned little girl, an underground paramilitary resistance of underprivileged urban families that OCP wants to relocate in order to build Delta City, and one of the original scientists from the first two films that built and operated on him. His longtime partner, Ann Lewis, is killed.

Meanwhile, OCP is on the verge of bankruptcy. The dream of the former CEO and Old Man lives on through the help of a Japanese Zaibatsu, the Kanemitsu Corporation, who bought a controlling stake in OCP. Kanemitsu is prepared to use a mercenary army and its own Ninja robots to overcome the resistance of the defenders of the impoverished neighborhood. Eventually, RoboCop defeats the three Japanese robots and enlists the aid of the Detroit City police department to stop the development and thus save the blue collar urban neighborhood from the invasion while OCP collapses into bankruptcy.

Criticism

The heroes in the film were described as one-dimensional[citation needed]. RoboCop misses his son, but makes no attempt to keep an eye on him.

Remy Ryan's character, Nikko, is able to quickly reprogram an ED-209 with a simple laptop computer, which is unrealistic since the adult technicians in the first film were unable to control the ED-209 prototype.

The resistance fighters, young and old, were accused of being without any guiding political philosophy[citation needed], and no dreams beyond saving a neighborhood that by all accounts is a crime-infested mess.

For his part, RoboCop was considered by some not to have done much for the resistance[citation needed], and the climactic action sequences where he dons a jet pack and flies in to help the resistance was described by some critics[citation needed] as "uninspiring and dull", as well as obviously portrayed through the use of blue screen or guide wires (seen in the final confrontation scene). In addition, the inclusion of "samurai robots" essentially made the film a parody of itself.

As in RoboCop 2, Frank Miller's original script was re-written and discarded many times by the director.

Cast

Soundtrack

After RoboCop 2's score which was composed by Leonard Rosenman, the RoboCop 1 original composer Basil Poledouris returned to do the soundtrack score and brought back much of the Robocop themes that were missing from RoboCop 2. One of the criticisms for RoboCop 2 was the lack of use of Poledouris's great themes, and the return of Poledouris was a welcome one despite the movie's eventual failure.

See also


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