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Robocop 2 (1990/Blu-ray/MGM)" Review

 Synopsis: After a successful deployment of the Robocop Law Enforcement unit, OCP sees its goal of urban pacification come closer and closer. But as this develops, a new narcotic known as "Nuke" invades the streets led by God-delirious leader Cain. As this menace grows, it may prove to be too much for Murphy to handle. OCP tries to replicate the success of the first unit, but ends up with failed prototypes with suicidal issues... until Dr. Faxx, a scientist straying away from OCP's path uses Cain as the new subject for the Robocop 2 project, a living God.

 Review: Within 3 years of Robocop coming out we had a sequel and well it's a mix bag type of film. With such a great film as Robocop was there was alot of hype behind this film and speculation about if it would be as strong as the original and sadly it falls short. There is somethings going for it and those are Peter Weller coming back as Robocop, Nancy Allen back as Anne Lewis, Tom Noonan (Manhunter) as Cain, a great stop motion fight scene, and a interesting plot. Now the downsides come in many forms on Robocop 2.
First off they did not bring back director Paul Verhoeven who did a fantastic job directing the first, which I think was a very bad idea on the studios part. The second thing is the characters they added to the story. The ones I simply did not like that they added was Hob who was a evil and sadistic kid who really seemed unnecessary to the storyline, also there was another they changed a bit from the original and that was the CEO of OCP who seems to be much more sadistic than he was in the original, which just seems wrong to do in my opinion. Other than that I just found the story to go down hill around the half way point.
Now when I talked earlier about how I liked a particular stop motion fight scene, that one is when Robocop faces off against the Cain Robot which I loved so much because with it having the jerky type of movements by the Cain Robot maked it look that much more robotic like it should. Despite the fighting I really thought the Cain Robot looked awesome, it had a very raw and gritty look. Now there is 2 things that are a little odd to see in this film and those are Robocop driving a motorcycle similar to the one the Terminator rides in T2 and the color of Robocop which is more of a blue color rather than the original silver color he was in the first film, why the change I have no clue.
Now if you have never seen this film and only seen the first, I must warn you that this film is alot more violent and at times way more mean spirited. The violence is amped way up which may turn off some people who don't mind the violence but don't like it too extreme. Now those who like it cranked up to 11 will dig what this film has to offer, for me I don't care which way it goes as long as it fits the scene and what is going on.
I will say that I think MGM did do a pretty good job at the presentation of this film on Blu-ray, compred to their release of the first film on blu-ray this one looks a bit better and alot sharper. The colors seem to be alot more vibrant and pop out more.The grain is still intact so for those of us who enjoy that natural film look will be pleased by this presentation, also it is presented in it's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio which always good when they do that. The sound they did a good job as well, you get the average 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio as you would expect from alot of the older film releases put out by MGM, which sounds great considering the source.
Overall this is a decent sequel to a great film which I will still recommend those who liked the first to checkout because even though it does have it flaws there is some redeeming qualities and it is surely the best of the sequels!

-Daniel "Damnation" Lee

Director: Irvin Kershner

Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Blu-ray Release Year: 2011
Theatrical Release Year: 1990
Time Length: 117 mins.
Company: MGM Home Entertainment
Website: www.mgm.com

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