The day has arrived to finish out the reviews of the RoboCop trilogy.
I've already reviewed 1987's RoboCop and the 1990 follow-up RoboCop 2, and I'll leave links to those reviews at the bottom of this post, but now it's time to look at 1993's RoboCop 3.
Right off the bat, two departures from the previous films hurt this one:
1) It's rated PG-13, not R. At a glance that may not be that big of a deal but, if you're a fan of RoboCop as I am, then a PG-13 rating takes a lot of the edge out of a film who's franchise never shied away from harsh language and violence.
2) Peter Weller didn't return as RoboCop/Alex Murphy for this one and was replaced by Robert Burke. But hey, no big deal right? The actor playing RoboCop is almost completely covered by the suit, so you probably can't even tell that it's a different guy. Wrong. It's noticeable from his first line in the film that they swapped out actors and, though it never sounds quite right, I could've looked the other way if the movie was great... or good... or even just OK.
To the movie's credit, this isn't one of those sequels that has little-to-nothing to do with the previous films. The 'Delta City' project is still moving forward and the destruction of old Detroit has begun, the Police have gone on strike, and RoboCop still has the same partner Officer Anne Lewis (played by Nancy Allen).
To the movie's credit, this isn't one of those sequels that has little-to-nothing to do with the previous films. The 'Delta City' project is still moving forward and the destruction of old Detroit has begun, the Police have gone on strike, and RoboCop still has the same partner Officer Anne Lewis (played by Nancy Allen).
Unfortunately, the film isn't well written, there is an annoying child computer-whiz character, Anne Lewis dies pretty early on (Spoiler Alert), and there is an underground resistance group without a single likeable character in the bunch. The movie also has a robot-ninja, which probably sounded really cool in the script but in the actual movie it's pretty lame. Add in the fact that RoboCop has a jet-pack in the film, something that was clearly added in just to sell toys, (Admittedly, I had the RoboCop jet-pack action figure as a kid) and you get a disappointing end to the RoboCop trilogy.
It's still a RoboCop movie and I love the character, which makes it hard to give it a zero.
So, I'll give this one a very unenthusiastic 1 out of 5.
Have a suggestion for a review?
Leave it in the comments below, and be sure to check out my reviews of the other RoboCop films.
RoboCop
RoboCop 2
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