Frank Miller's original vision for Robo Cop 2 was far worse than the end result. Be thankful we were left with what we got.
Again, I still prefer the original, and was kind of expecting more from the director of The Empire Strikes Back. I felt it relied too much on violence and shock moments, and the satire wasn't as effective as the original's. But, to each their own.
Also, the music of the original is just too epic to top:
I'm here for our date, Rose!
I think 2 is pretty weak, and it also manages to derail both Robo and the Old Man. Some fun sequences, though.
Robocop 2 really had to strain logic for its plot to work, starting with why they felt screwing with the original Robocop instead of simply killing him was needed to convince the execs to sign on for the next cyborg attempt is the first misstep, the second being why they thought a Complete Monster criminal was a logical step for a law enforcement tool is the next. And while the stop motion was top notch it was used so excessively that even at that time it must have seemed off.
It did manage to get a few interesting bits in, foremost Murphy being loaded down with 200+ directives based on focus group results interfering with the primary purpose of Robocop. But a lot of the ultra-violence in the original had a distinct purpose to it and was part of the satire, the violence in 2 was either comical or just depressing. Comparing Murphy's death in the original shaped how we viewed his revenge later on, the disturbing disassembling scene in 2 didn't leave much of an impact on his character (the directives served that purpose a lot better.
Speaking of 2, here is a great audio commentary on it, which also helps to explain all my problems with it:
The Political Correctness and Moral Guardians satire was priceless and perfectly on-key with the first, as well.
edited 10th Feb '13 12:36:45 PM by Ronnie