Imagine a world where drones are a major source of controversy, where pundits scream for whistleblower’s heads, where right and wrong are not as important as marketing and profit margins. A world where a normal, decent person can have their life destroyed, and later get rebuilt into an advanced cyborg dedicated to justice.

Welcome to Robocop, a movie about a future that looks a lot like the present day.

It’s pretty scary just how accurate this movie is, considering recent revelations from Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, along with the increasing coverage of drone attacks abroad. Here, the eponymous Robocop (played by Joel Kinnaman) is created as a drone that will appeal to children of all ages, carefully constructed by marketers and businessmen (Jay Baruchel and Michael Keaton) for mass appeal. He is created to be a toyline, a comic book, a video game. The satire is sharp, the real world parallels are many, and it’s totally in keeping with the tone of the franchise.

It also has kickass action, a tight plot, a great script and some brilliant set pieces. Our hero goes from pounding on drones in an abandoned warehouse to an amazingly taut sequence that alternates between thermal imaging and a darkness lit by only Robocop’s armour and gunfire. One particularly horrifying moment shows the extent of the damage Alex suffered in the failed murder attempt that led to his cybernetic rebirth. It’s pretty chilling as more and more of his protective shell is stripped away until we finally see just how little is left of him.

This is not the 1987 Robocop. That movie would probably not be made today. But rather than make something slaved to the original, or completely rejecting it, director Jose Padilha instead manages to update it, paying due respects to the original (the original theme plays as Samuel L. Jackson soliloquizes on recent events, “Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!” the original design is offered as part of a toyline) and tells a new story.

To compare it to the original would be unfair, the two are too different for a proper comparison. Both are products of their time. Both are fantastic.

– Donal O’Connor