Wow! I can't believe it's been 27 years since the first Robocop. Time flies. OK, enough nostalgia.

Robocop '14 was a decent remake. They kept the main theme and the main players, to a certain degree, but changed the story somewhat. One of the main things they did was soften the movie to a PG-13 rating from an R rating. Robocop '87 was far bloodier and more sinister. '87 Detroit was depicted as a more derelict and hopeless city than 2014 Detroit. Another big change was the depth of the story. Robocop '87 was a far simpler story without delving much into politics or Detective Murphy's family life. In the 2014 version we are dragged into a more somber reality of Murphy's transformation with the deep impact it has upon his wife and son. Robocop '87 didn't give much background or detailed information of the decision making for creating Robocop. 2014 goes heavily into the different parties that helped materialize Robocop and what they're motives were.

The net result was a very good remake. Of course this Robocop was given a serious makeover and benefited a lot from 21st century movie making. The movie was far from perfect but held its own.

Alex Murphy, damaged in an explosion to the point of death, is the ideal candidate for a new initiative to join human sensibilities to computerised and robotic peace-keeping hardware. But Murphy has his own mind, which leads to conflict with those responsible for the attempt on his life (plus others), which may stretch beyond the criminal fraternity.

The 2014 remake of Paul Verhoeven's classic 1987 sci-fi satire includes most of the story beats from the original, but has quite a different heart. This makes it into a different film, and one which I enjoyed as much as the original.

Despite being full of action, it is a much gentler film. The violence is not as sadistic, there is no profanity (imagine that!), the relationship between Alex and his family is much more important, and Gary Oldman's conflicted Dr Frankenstein - sorry, Dr Norton - is a fine character: he is the actual heart of the movie.

If you loved the 1987 version with a passion then you may hate this. If you merely liked it, you may like this version too.

It's 2028. Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) is the CEO of OmniCorp whose robots are used to patrol the streets of Tehran. Business is good except Senator Dreyfuss had passed a bill banning security robots in America. Marketing guy Tom Pope (Jay Baruchel) comes up with a PR move to sell the public on RoboCop. Police officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is investigating gun runner Vallon but he and his partner get double-crossed by corrupt cops. Alex is heavily injured in a car bomb. Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) takes what's left to create RoboCop.

This is a deeper darker remake of 1987 action classic. It takes a bit more pains to lay out the process to make him a robot. It's a more in-depth look into the difference between man and machine. That does make the first half slower. The wife played by Abbie Cornish is given a bigger role. Even the people in the corporation isn't monolithic. Michael Keaton is a little bit more nuanced than Ronny Cox. This has both good and bad. The original is much more of a fun action ride with simplified characters. As a popcorn movie, the original is much more enjoyable. This one is slightly realistic and darker. The action is pretty good although I would like more real stunts. I think RoboCop is a good franchise to use real cars rather than CGI. The one undeniable thing is that I love the motorcycle. It gives the movie kinetic energy just by him riding on it. Joel Kinnaman plays a different cop than Peter Weller. Weller always struck me as a boy scout. It could be due to 'The Killing', but I see Kinnaman with more with an edge. Overall this is a remake with a slightly different tone. It's not necessarily better or worst but it does have differences.