RoboCop: Prime Directives (2001)

RoboCop: Prime Directives (2001)

4 episodes, approx 90 mins each.

A miniseries made up of four feature-length TV movies: 01. Dark Justice; 02. Meltdown; 03. Resurrection; 04. Crash and Burn. It's important to watch them in the correct order because there's continuity. It takes place ten years after the original Paul Verhoven film, which is referenced briefly. Had they been allowed to use it more, they surely would've.

Like the short lived TV Series (1995) it ignores the original film sequels, but goes even further by ignoring the TV Series as well. It's odd that it would do that, because it feels like a middle ground between the two. It's less violent than the original film but much more so than the kid-friendly series. So much so that I lost count of the number of dead cops that piled up in the streets.

OCP are returned to their selfish, profit-driven ways. RoboCop's real name is still a guarded secret known only to a few privileged OCP members. It makes use of the same kind of satirical news bulletins to comment on the nature of propaganda and truth (real and invented) that add an extra layer of poignancy to the script.

The cyborg protagonist (Page Fletcher) is valued for his contributions to crime prevention, but is slowly becoming outdated, like most tech eventually does. Where that puts him emotionally is something that could have been developed further. That's the biggest flaw of the four films in a nutshell: they present a number of ideas but don't go deep enough with any of them.

I don't have time to detail each individual film, but will say that the third one (Resurrection) is where things get more interesting. It's arguably not very 'Robocop', but maybe that's a good thing because trying to compete with Verhoven on a limited TV budget is folly - it's better to take existing standards and go someplace new. If you've read and enjoyed any of the Robocop comic books, then you'll maybe be more forgiving of the rather unrealistic turn of events. And if you make it through the end credits you'll be treated to some post-ending goodness.