RoboCop is coming back online. Dan Stevens has been cast as Alex Murphy in Prime Video’s upcoming RoboCop TV series, making him the latest actor to step into one of science fiction’s most iconic suits. Nearly 40 years after Peter Weller first walked onto the streets of Detroit, the character continues to endure, and it’s not hard to see why.
What began with Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 masterpiece quickly grew into a franchise, spawning two theatrical sequels, television shows, animated series, video games, comics, and a big-screen remake starring Joel Kinnaman.
With a new RoboCop preparing to uphold the law, there’s no better time to revisit the four movies that brought Murphy to the big screen. From the original classic to the divisive 2014 remake, here’s how every RoboCop movie stacks up when ranked from worst to best.
After two R-rated movies filled with twisted satire and glorious bloody violence, Orion Pictures made the bewildering choice to strip all that away for RoboCop 3. It was all done to appeal to a younger audience and sell some merchandise, but it backfired in a big way. Fans hated it. Everything they loved about the first two movies had been softened; there was a kid sidekick, ninja robots, Officer Anne Lewis was killed off, and, worst of all, Peter Weller didn’t return. Robert John Burke does what he can, but he’s no Weller.
Instead of finding new ways to explore Murphy, RoboCop 3 simply gives him new accessories, like a giant jetpack.
There are elements of a good RoboCop story buried in here, with OCP forcibly evicting Detroit residents to build a new Delta City, but it’s easily the safest, cheapest-looking, and least distinctive of the four theatrical films, which makes it an easy choice for last place.
The thought of a RoboCop remake was seen as sacrilege by many, and while José Padilha’s film doesn’t come anywhere close to the original—not by a long shot—it’s honestly not as bad as some would have you believe.
Joel Kinnaman’s Alex Murphy retains far more of his original personality after becoming RoboCop, which changes the central conflict considerably. Rather than a dead man gradually rediscovering the person he used to be, this Murphy is painfully aware of what has happened to him. He can communicate with his wife and son, and comes to understand exactly how much control OmniCorp has over his existence. This makes it all the more horrifying when it’s revealed that nearly his entire body is gone, leaving only parts of his head with a cybernetic brain, respiratory organs, heart, and right hand. It’s an awful sight.
The film also has a great cast, with Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael K. Williams, and Jackie Earle Haley filling out the world and giving it some weight.
The problem is that the movie rarely pushes its ideas as far as they could go. There are flashes of the political satire and corporate cynicism you’d expect from RoboCop, but everything is more conventional. And unfortunately, much like RoboCop 3, the remake is saddled with a PG-13 rating. There is potential there; it just falls short.
Like many sequels, RoboCop 2 tries to give audiences more of everything, but it’s nowhere near as good as the first movie. That said, it’s still an enormously entertaining sequel.
There’s enough of the cynical humour and extreme violence to feel like a proper RoboCop story, which is something the subsequent movies lacked. It also has some wonderfully deranged moments, such as Murphy being loaded with hundreds of new behavioural directives after focus-group testing, turning him into an absurdly cheerful public servant who lectures people about nutrition and helps a suicidal man find his self-esteem.
Tom Noonan’s Cain is suitably creepy, but he never quite rises to the level of Clarence Boddicker, the villain from the first movie. And when Cain’s brain is put into the massive new RoboCop 2 machine, the sequel jumps into overdrive, with a fantastic final battle that still serves as a showcase for practical and stop-motion effects.
Although RoboCop 2 isn’t on par with the original, it does at least understand that a RoboCop movie shouldn’t feel safe.
There really was no other choice for the top spot. Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original remains one of those rare movies where nearly every element works brilliantly. It’s a brutally effective action movie, a surprisingly emotional character study, a vicious corporate satire, a black comedy, and a sci-fi film packed with ideas that have only become more relevant with time.
And then there’s Peter Weller. Playing a robotic character like this is a challenge, but he knocks it out of the park. His performance as Alex Murphy is remarkable precisely because so much of it is restrained. Once Murphy becomes RoboCop, Weller communicates through tiny movements, pauses, and changes in his voice. At first, there seems to be almost nothing human left, but little by little, the machine discovers that he was once a man.
That emotional core is what elevates RoboCop above its imitators and sequels. For me, this one is so far above any of the sequels. They can recreate the armour, the guns, the corporations, and the catchphrases, but the original found a very specific balance that has proven almost impossible to duplicate. I’d buy that for a dollar.
Does RoboCop 2 deserve more love? Is the 2014 remake underrated? Or does RoboCop 3 have more defenders than I’m giving it credit for? Let us know how you’d rank the RoboCop movies in the comments below.