If you read my RoboCop 2 reviews you will know that this is a character and a set of movies that I love. When RoboCop 3 was announced I could not have been any more excited for both the movie and the video game. Well, let me tell you right off the bat, both these kind of sucked!
How to RoboCop 3
RoboCop 3 was released on November 5, 1993. You can or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
To start with, Peter Weller is no longer RoboCop instead we have Robert Burke. Now you may think “Does it matter who is in the suit?” well I say that yes it does. Robert Burke is a fine actor and I have enjoyed his work, but you can clearly tell that this is not the same guy who is RoboCop in the first two movies. To be fair, I think they try and address the change in his personality by having his program “worked on” in the movie, but Burke never worked for me as RoboCop.
O’s Plan for Delta City
This time around the evil corporation, O owns Detroit and wants to build a new fancy city called Delta City in its place. Of course, there are people still living there, even though it is a rundown hell hole and they are refusing to leave. I will say that having Rip Torn play the leader of this organization is kind of fun.
RoboCop Fights Back
There are mass riots as O hires this goon squad to try and force the people to move out of these slums and this is where RoboCop comes in. RoboCop and his partner try to save the day, but she ends up dead and he ends up severely damaged as he cannot fight back as it is against one of his protocols.
After being damaged, RoboCop is fixed and has this restrictive protocol removed so that he can gun down all these goons and try to save the people of Detroit. RoboCop having a jetpack is cool, but that is probably the only cool thing about this movie. What we have here is a by the numbers action movie that lacks the heart, soul, and violence of the first two movies.
A RoboCop Letdown
I have no idea what they were going for here, but it feels like a cash grab and that they had no idea what people actually wanted from a RoboCop movie. The second movie suffered a tiny bit by perhaps having too much going on with the plot. The plot here though is just kind of boring and you really do not care about much of it. The first two movies did a good job of exploring the Alex Murphy side of RoboCop, but RoboCop 3 fails to do that justice as well.
Final Thoughts
This was such a letdown. I playing the RoboCop 3 video game for the Super Nintendo before I saw the movie and it was one of the most frustratingly and unfairly difficult games I had played at that point. I rented the movie the first weekend it was available and at the time I thought it was ok, but each time I have watched this I have liked it less and less. Just watch the first two and give this one a miss. Although, I will say that the 2014 RoboCop movie is far better than people give it credit for so give that a watch too.
