Since it was announced, José Padilha’s “RoboCop” has had a tough time in the social sphere.
Fans of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 cult classic were always going to be a hard bunch to satisfy, but they tore into the script, casting decisions and, perhaps most of all, the redesigned RoboCop suit with gleeful abandon. Every decision the filmmakers made was met with near-immediate derision.
But now that the first action-heavy trailer is finally out, and fans have gotten a glimpse of Joel Kinnaman in the lead role, the conversation surrounding the film just might change.
Uploaded to a variety of YouTube accounts, the trailer has been viewed millions upon millions of times.
Set in 2028, the movie features the same basic premise of the original – Alex Murphy, an honorable police killed in the line of duty, is brought back as a cyborg in hopes of helping clean up Detroit – but been updated for the new millennium. There seems to have been an attempt to flesh out the original’s lean story, seen best in the movie’s expanded cast, drones have been thrown in to give the film a contemporary ethical talking point, and the iconic suit had been given a sleek makeover.
Trailers are supposed to sell a film whether it’s good or bad, and while there will still skepticism surrounding Padilha’s movie, it no longer appears to be the train wreck it once was assumed to be. “RoboCop” is out February 7, 2014.