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ChAnOoD
DC-L4
 
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
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  Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:20 pm |
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| RoboPimp : | | I did not like him as Murphy. It probably has more to with the script/directing and just the way he is portrayed in general, but the flashback stuff of him as Murphy is actually the portion of PD I remember least fondly. You can do RoboCop poorly and I will still enjoy it somehow because it is still Robo. But the flashback Murphy stuff was just unbearably generic and boring. And it did not feel like Murhpy to me. Sure, we only got to see him for a few minutes in the movie, giving us little to work off of. But there was one thing that stood out: his smile. Murphy seemed like the guy who grinned in the face of death, and indeed when he was transferred to a dangerous precinct he didn't complain upon arrival, he smiled. I did not see any of that charm in PD, and he came across much more like a typical hardass cop. Sure, that may be an accurate extrapolation of what to expect from a model cop, but it is not compelling to watch for me. Fletcher did not bring anything special to the role of Murhpy, he was just less disappointing compared to his performance as Robo. |
The problem I got with his Murphy is that his personality clashes with the one on the film(s). On the Dark Justice flashback he seemed way "by the book". Maybe that was the point of the flashback, as Cable was the one who insisted on going inside (something that Murphy does before dying in the first one).
Anyway, we need to talk about something until Ed shares the first trailer of the "Dick Jones" tv show... 
| RoboPimp : | | You sure about that? Not to get too offtopic, but I'd dare to say that people are generally more passionate about Batman than RoboCop. |
I meant in the sense that a bunch of people accept that there are Ok with the fact that there was a campy one on TV, two gothic ones, a two pack of neon-homoerotic films and so on. Even they accept that other characters from the comics could portray Batman (Dick Grayson being Batman at some point, or the Batman Beyond show). It could be changed a little bit and people would dig it (after all, each writer and artist has their own ideas). I know there could be heated debates and such, but reinterpretations are often welcome. That said...
| RoboPimp : | | and then there are Snyder/Affleck fans and haters with a healthy debate still raging across social media today. |
What a crappy (but good looking) Batman!
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ireactions
O-L1*
Joined: 26 Apr 2015
Post Count: 51
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| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 8:38 pm |
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| ChAnOoD : | | People donīt usually go so passionate about different versions of Batman or his favorite character, and even RoboCop donīt feel the same between movies (even if Weller is playing him). I think of this as an "Elseworlds" kind of story, like the kind of short running comic from a specific artist toying with an established character. Even people here thinks PD would make a cool comic (to the point I asked the writers why they didnīt try to sell the original concept to BOOM! or whoever owns the comic rights right now to be adapted into a graphic novel, since the end result is WAY different than the original concept for the miniseries. But it seems they canīt do much with it, since they were hired scriptwriters). |
I think the main problem is that ROBOCOP II, III, THE SERIES and PRIME DIRECTIVES all insist that they are sequels to the original movie (to varying degrees), but they clearly aren't (to varying degrees).
R2 has the original cast, but the new director has traded in Paul Verhoeven's absurdist violence for just violence. The over the top and therefore hilarious tone of R1 becomes cruel and hurtful in R2. R3 presents RoboCop as a children's life size action figure, a police mascot with automatic guns. R2 and R3 are also deeply incompetent films on so many levels with Cain's mystifyingly incoherent character, aborted and incomplete story arcs and at times incomprehensible story elements.
THE SERIES, from a production standpoint, seems pretty solid to me for the 90s and Richard Eden's interpretation of RoboCop is detailed, obsessive and wonderful and a non-violent adaptive cyborg is a terrific idea for a version of RoboCop, but then it needs its own origin story instead of claiming the same one as the 1987 film by reusing its footage of Murphy's death scene.
It'd be better to present FRANK MILLER'S ROBOCOP and ROBOCOP: POLICE MASCOT as alternate visions the way the Superman of LOIS AND CLARK is not the Superman of the Christopher Reeve movies. PRIME DIRECTIVES seems to have hit a breaking point with the fans where, after years of impersonators, they get an actor with no mime training and no mime coaching.
Batman has been blessed by decades of publishing, TV shows and films with so many contradictory depictions that no single version can really damage the ones that worked out well. RoboCop had one definitive portrayal and then far too many inauthentic impersonators; even if it's the same actor in R2, the world of the near future Detroit is clearly not the one in R1.
And I find this to be a similar situation with Page Fletcher as Murphy in PRIME DIRECTIVES. I think Fletcher does a good job playing an experienced but naive police officer who is intimidated by a serial killer, admiring of Cable's cool confidence and surrenders when his partner is held hostage. But this simply isn't the same character as Peter Weller's Murphy, a determined idealist who takes the lead in a crisis and faces death refusing to show fear or vulnerability to his executioners.
Weller was also quite a bit younger than Fletcher in Fletcher's flashbacks; Fletcher might have benefitted from a dye job to his silver hair. The PRIME DIRECTIVES team took the view that the flashback in DARK JUSTICE turned Murphy into the more self-assured version we met in the first movie.
The end result, at least for me -- Page Fletcher plays a good version of Page Fletcher's Alex Murphy, but fans ultimately want Peter Weller's Alex Murphy. I'm sure fans wouldn't have demanded that Fletcher put on a Peter Weller mask. But I think fans would have wanted the DARK JUSTICE script to feature Murphy demonstrating Weller's cool under fire at some point to connect him to the original performer -- perhaps a gun twirl or a moment where he is more Weller-esque when saying good-bye Cable for the last time.
In DARK JUSTICE, Fletcher's Murphy is unconfrontational when bidding his farewell, not making eye contact, looking away. I think this would have been a moment for Fletcher's Murphy to stand up to Cable firmly and resolutely the way Weller's Murphy faced down Clarence Bodikker.
Ultimately, PRIME DIRECTIVES declined to attempt any pastiche of Paul Verhoeven's direction or Peter Weller's acting... and I think it might have been best for the fans if PRIME DIRECTIVES hadn't been a sequel to the 1987 movie but its own version of RoboCop with an origin story, a career, and a conclusion separate and distinct from the first film.
I don't know what licensing allowed the AVATAR and BOOM publishing houses to acquire and adapt Frank Miller's original scripts. I wonder if they could someday license the PRIME DIRECTIVES scripts for a comic book adaptation. The PRIME DIRECTIVES writers have written some comics (some published, some not) and I think they'd be up for it, although BOOM pays a lower page rates than the industry standard and the economics might not be encouraging.
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ChAnOoD
DC-L4
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Post Count: 2763
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| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:15 am |
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| ireactions : | | Fletcher might have benefitted from a dye job to his silver hair. |
Yup, thatīd help to sell the "Young Murphy" look. And that would take little effort to make.
| ireactions : | | I think it might have been best for the fans if PRIME DIRECTIVES hadn't been a sequel to the 1987 movie but its own version of RoboCop with an origin story, a career, and a conclusion separate and distinct from the first film. |
I donīt think sharing the previous story hurts the whole thing. Again, what I said about Batman: you can tweak the universe, but the origin is the same. I think having a new origin and not having any connection to the previous films would make the miniseries a more hated production
| ireactions : | | I wonder if they could someday license the PRIME DIRECTIVES scripts for a comic book adaptation. |
That would be really interesting to see, since the original idea is way different from the finished product. You know, a more sleek RoboCop with blue visor, the whole cyberpunk stuff, the battles... Iīm sure casual fans would like to take a read on that, as itīd be similar to the comic adaptations of Robo 2 & 3.
| ireactions : | | The PRIME DIRECTIVES writers have written some comics (some published, some not) |
I know 
| ireactions : | | I think they'd be up for it, although BOOM pays a lower page rates than the industry standard and the economics might not be encouraging. |
Well, I think they could sit and enjoy the process. I meant, Millerīs implication on the recent comic adaptations of his drafts of RoboCop 2 and 3 was minimal. Steven Grant adapted the (movie) scripts into comic scripts, and then someone else draw it (Ryp and Öztekin). Iīm sure there would be any legal stuff involved (I assume you get the movie rights to RoboCop when you publish comics about the character, so youīd need to buy the rights for the miniseries? I donīt know how these things work). But Iīm sure itīd be fun to get that. Plus, weīd get new RoboComics, something that I think we wonīt have in a while.
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RoboCop: PD - What went wrong?
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