RoboCop: Prime Directives

It's clear that Julian Grant, Brad Abraham and Joseph O'Brien are fans of Robocop. They have updated the series for the new millenium and spin on a few ideas of their own.

John Cable was an excellent addition to Robocop. Him and Alex Murphy are great to see in action. Cable is similar to Murphy in many ways: family man, law man, takes no nonsense. Full credit to Maurice Dean Wint. His wife, Sara Cable, reminds me of Clarance Boddiker in a few ways as well.

However, some things just don't work: Page Fletcher is physically wrong for Murphy. He's 5 ft 7. Hardly intimidating. Even his son towers over him and his nose is massive, although he does a good job of handling the emotions. The idea to have Robocop constantly shutting down and jumping when shot like an epileptic gets tiring after a while.

Ultimately, a worthy effort.

This has got stuff going for it. It ignores the two sequels, and uses the Verhoeven movie as the basis(it, in fact, appears to be in love with it, and uses it wherever possible, most noticeably in the spoken lines), that proves they had the right idea. The satire is also quite present(albeit it tries too hard, worst in the last credits, where it could not possibly be more obvious that they're talking directly to the audience, not to mention how it often underestimates their smarts, and spells it out, same as in the second flick). Moreover, there are plenty of gunfights, as well as some martial arts and car-chases(not all of these are fantastic, if they tend to stay above the level of passable). Each episode seems to start with a bang(there are those that would call them grabs for attention). On paper, this sounds an awful lot better than it is, which is not at all to say that it is all poor. It has several scattered things wrong with it, that unfortunately add together and make the whole less than excellent. For example, the plot is good, and remains so through the mini, but there are perhaps a subplot or a couple over the amount there should be, and not everything pays off(a shame, considering the concepts they at least begin to cover). The pacing can be uneven. While there among the characters are truly interesting ones, others are caricatures, and they get considerable screen time. I will say that this keeps getting even better and bigger, without losing anything, throughout, I didn't think they'd be able to top themselves, however, they went and did just that. The very ending, though parts formulaic and tough to swallow, had something great and well-thought out, in my opinion. The performances are so-so(I personally got a kick out of getting to see Geraint Wyn Davies again), and this is not devoid of screamy acting. This does hold a number of *really* awesome moments. There is unintentionally silly material herein. This is exciting sometimes, and certainly had me thrilled, although not constantly. Why do people continue to use small arms fire against RoboCop, and when will they realize it is utterly and completely ineffective? They cover up the limitations and constraints reasonably. There are repetitive actions(get used to seeing a certain individual storm out with determination). The effects are well-done, meanwhile, no one is going to be fooled and not be able to figure out what's CGI and what isn't. The music is... well, let me put it this way, either they saw the title role as a bit of a cowboy, or the composer is big on Ennio Morricone(hey, who could blame them?). Obviously I hope it's the former, but it didn't always seem staged or filmed to fit that. There are marvelous developments and situations found in this. The writing is a mixed bag, both dialog and story. There is violence, and it could be called excessive, in tone and volume. This I would say is genuinely disturbing a handful times, whether or not that is positive is up to the viewer. I recommend this series to any fan of the first of the cinema-releases, and/or of the iron-clad law-man... be aware that there are areas of this that are going to underwhelm; if you can stand those, you're in for multiple cool, fun sequences and not half bad science fiction. 5/10

This made for tv four-parter looks so cheap that it is not even funny any more! In the first part we have BONE MACHINE, who looks like an old HE-MAN action figure. He hides his face behind a mask, that even little children wouldn't find scaring on halloween. Oh yes, he's laughing all the time, because that's really menacing. Right. This tv-movie is as bad as ROBOCOP 3 - only that it looks cheaper. But it actually is WAYYYY better than the cartoon series (which really stinks, by the way). The main problem with the movie is, that the story is not interesting at all. Sometimes ROBOCOP seems nothing more than a sideshow character. Now, they have tried it all: 2 movie sequels, a childish tv-series, 2 animated series and finaly PRIME DIRECTIVES, a mini series, that is quite dark, which is not bad. If they had a decent budget, it could have been a little nicer to watch - despite the lame story. If you think about the original movie, PRIME DIRECTIVES is a shame.

I saw this series the first time it was aired on TV. I watched and recorded the entire thing. The first thing I found upsetting was that Mini Me was cast as Robo, the second being the costume was all cheap looking. But as a huge fan of all of the Robo's, I had to find a way to like it..

I was like 6 years old when I saw the first, and I thought it was one of the best movies I had ever seen, Not the kind of movie that can make another that is as good or even better, but part two stands next to it flawless in every way!! (you can't argue this, don't try!!) Then when Peter didn't do the 3rd and it was rated PG-13 I didn't know what was going to happen. But as I watched it the first time I started off not knowing what to think, then I heard him speak, they computered over his voice a little too much but I could tell he was even more of a fan of robo than I. His every move was as if Peter was really the one inside of the costume! They could make another, and Robert John Burke could do it, and it would kick ass by me!! All in all it will never be as good as the first 2 but it is a close second to them.

And now I find myself with the thought that I will never see another big budget full production live action feature film with the name Robocop ever again, so these 4 DVD's have to do.. I can't turn on my super heros, so I have to stay true to what ever holds the name.. So after that is said, the Prime Directives series is just a continuation of a killer story... I wish it would never end.......

Hmmm, this series doesn't seem to be very popular but on closer inspection the criticism seems to be from the "watched the first 10 minutes then turned off" crew.

I'm unsure how you can fully judge something without watching it but that's the level of mentality here.

Anyway, I think Prime Directives is a great slice of binge entertainment. Nearly 6 hours of action and story set in the Robocop universe and the stories are very interesting too. The usual Robocop themes of family and greed are here but they throw in some plot points about obsoletion as well which I found very cool.

This is a TV production so don't expect any great special effects here but the cinematography is top notch and very moody and it's all absorbing enough to hook you in.

Now it has some bad points and most of that comes from the acting. It's pretty bad right across the board with maybe only one or two standouts but yep, it's really corny. Page Fletcher looks like a poor man's Dennis Hopper and far too short to be Robocop in the first place. He's "ok" as Alex Murphy but honestly he bungles about in the Robo suit looking constipated and his shoulders are so hunched up it loos like he could explode. The rest of the cast fare better but honestly, not by much.

It's surprising because the script, while not the snappiest is really quite good and fuses well with the extended stories and even throws in a some memorable lines here and there.

The best thing about it is that this is the extended runtime. Here we have FOUR feature length episodes all connected to the same skeleton story and it's great fun immersing yourself in the Robocop universe for that amount of time. The 6 hour running time means that the story and plots can really breathe and be fleshed out quite a bit so this adds tremendously to the connection between audience and program.

I honestly think that some people watch this and expect the same quality as the films and that just isn't going to happen.

Regardless aside from some bad acting and Robo himself being somewhat miscast this is a great pieces of quality entertainment that lasts a good while and there is PLENTY to enjoy here believe me so give it all of it) a shot and if you keep in mind it's production you shouldn't be disappointed.

Terrific for tearing into on a binge after the first three films.