‘RoboCop 2’ (1990) bursts with ideas, almost to the breaking point

RoboCop 2

Thanks to bad timing with a writers’ strike, “RoboCop’s” Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner didn’t return for the sequel (their work would be sort of repurposed for the 1994 TV series), so “RoboCop 2” brings in another darkly comic visionary, Frank Miller. Quite literally. The comic-book legend makes his film debut here after his 1980s “Batman” work and just before launching “Sin City.”

While the plot is similar to that of the original, “RoboCop 2” goes all-in on Detroit being Sin City, where the name of the game is crime. The cops, having been almost defunded by financially bankrupt Detroit, are on strike, except for a handful including Alex/RoboCop (Peter Weller, having perfected his monotone one-liners) and his partner, Anne (Nancy Allen).

Miller’s dark humor steps in

The early moments have a similar sense of humor to the O.G., but more brazen and less cheeky. The TV anchor announces that a nuclear-plant leak has destroyed the rainforest and environmentalists are complaining. “Then again, don’t they always,” quips his partner, as she transitions to the next story.


RoboCop logo

“RoboCop 2” (1990)

Director: Irvin Kershner

Writers: Frank Miller (screenplay, story), Walon Green (story)

Stars: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Belinda Bauer

This week, RFMC looks at the films and TV shows of the “RoboCop” saga.


I love the opening sequence where we follow a string of crimes, one leading to the next: old woman nearly gets run over, man pretends to help her but steals purse, prostitutes beat up man to steal the money. Good stuff.

“RoboCop 2” soon makes its primary storytelling mistake, a common one of first-time screenwriters: It wants to tell two distinct stories, and underplays both. In one, we have the classic SF question of whether RoboCop is a robot or a human. (The 2014 “RoboCop” eventually committed to this thread.)

In the other, we have government-corporate battles taken to the extreme, as OCP – now with a Nazi color scheme to its logo – purchases the city of Detroit and runs commercials for utilities with the slogan “OCP: Your only choice.” These are good zingers – and possibly nods to what Neumeier and Miner had intended — although it’s never explained why The Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy), merely a shrewd businessman in the original, is now pure evil.

Each individual scene is directed with verve by Irvin Kershner (“The Empire Strikes Back”), but he fails in his attempt to create a second sequel that’s better than a beloved sci-fi original due to the screenplay’s clunkiness. (There’s debate about whose fault this is, as Kershner is said to have reworked Miller’s script.)

Another memorable villain

Tom Noonan, as Caine, continues the saga’s tradition of having great character actors as villains. In a satirical twist, one of Caine’s trusted underlings is a 12-year-old kid – a logical choice that takes advantage of an unintended consequence of RoboCop’s programming: He can’t shoot kids.

The sequel surpasses the OG in creep-out factor, and I’m actually not referring to RoboCop being cut to pieces (although that takes second place) nor a bumbling corrupt cop henchman of Caine being tortured by his boss (third place). Rather, an injured Caine gets turned into RoboCop 2 (that’s literally what OCP calls this new robot), and we see his disembodied brain, spinal column and horrified eyes. Top-shelf body horror.

We also get a mayor who desperately tries to save the city via a pledge drive, and the wonderfully satirical notion that he accepts help from Caine’s gang to make Detroit solvent again. Caine’s gang presents a logical argument to the government: Make the drug Nuke legal, rather than prosecuting a drug war, then you save all that money, plus there will be a major decline in crime.

There are so many ideas floating around that when RoboCop faces RoboCop 2 in the final showdown, the action doesn’t hold our attention. Also contributing to the problem is even more stop-motion animation than in the 1987 film. Even RoboCop seems to be an animatronic puppet, rather than Weller or a stunt double, in this battle.

“RoboCop 2” doesn’t pay off all its threads, but at least it satisfies that old tradition wherein a sequel spends money and entertains us in the expected ways. Moviegoers want more from sequels nowadays, but – in what might be a controversial opinion – I don’t think the saga jumps the shark with “RoboCop 2.” I’d buy it for a dollar.

My rating:

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