646f9e108c Thirteen years after the original Robocop, Delta City, considered to be "The Safest Place On Earth!", has become a futuristic city owned and operated by OCP, and RoboCop, Alex Murphy has begun to feel his age. Murphy finds himself nearly obsolete, and must deal with the fact that his now-grown son James is an OCP executive, unaware that his father is still alive. Also, Murphy's former partner, John Cable, has returned to Delta City as its new Security Commander. But slowly, new enemies arise, and Murphy and Cable begin an investigation into a mysterious villain known as the Bone Machine, unaware that they are coming dangerously close to exposing an evil group of OCP executives known as The Trust... which James Murphy is a part of. Desperate to prevent their sinister plans from being revealed, The Trust programs Murphy to kill John Cable... I think, unlike some people that this TV series is good in its category: low budget TV film with more or less unknown actors and actresses, who are not absolutely bad here. for example page fletcher is surprisingly good especially in those few scenes, where Murphy's previous life is shown, before being killed. the action sequences are correct, I like in them the simplicity: no overemphasized visuality, just shooting, chasing etc. The only problem with the story, that I could have missed the saint-mad scientist elements. Having the other conflicts ( two robocops against each other, the family drama between alex and jimmy murphy, a wanted robocop, etc) would have been enough. and the very very few visual effects were unnecessary: they made people notice the cheapness of the film. that's all what I think... Three movies, a live action TV series and two cartoons later, ROBOCOP returns with a made-for-TV miniseries "ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES". This miniseries consisted of four movies which attempted to bring back the gritty and darker tone of the first movie, as well as some social satire. For all intents and purposes, what we have is an ambitious project limited by lack of budget and inexperience of the creative team.<br/><br/>Our story begins 10 years after the first movie (ignoring the continuity of the other movies and TV series). Robocop is obsolete and weary of his years trying to bring peace to the crime ridden Delta City. The megacorporation OCP, who runs the city, is experiencing inner turmoil among the management. Due to new policies preventing use of lethal force by the police, a crime wave is sweeping the city. From Kamikaze gangs to a psycho in Halloween armour armed with machine guns and rockets, this town is going to hell. Fortunately, they have a new kick ass police commander JohnCable; a dual pistol wielding ol fashioned cowboy cop. Oh, and Robocop, the supposedly invincible enforcer of law who spends the entire miniseries getting owned.<br/><br/>Every character goes on about how awesome Robocop is, every criminal mentions his name in fear, you never see that. What you get is Robocop being blasted, kicked down, smashed, electrocuted and pummeled in every other combat scene. He only manages to take down people who refuse to take cover in a firefight.<br/><br/>This brings me the portrayal of Robocop himself played by Page Fletcher. Fletcher is a fine actor, able to convey heavy emotions with his voice and mannerism. He is not, however, I anyway suited to the role. For starters, he is short. As in really short. And the bulky oversized armour only makes him look shorter. Everyone including the old female scientist is taller than him. His Robocop is a stumbling dwarf, always marching with his fists balled up. On the flip side, with his helmet off, Robocop looks like an old man and even acts like one. Nothing is done to make him machine-like. He very visibly pants when tired, swallows hard when scared, he even sweats.<br/><br/>So a crappy Robocop headlines 4 made-for-TV movie length episodes of the miniseries. On the bright side, what the 4 episodes do is attempt to remake and redo some very classic elements from Robocop media history. You have a new more advanced Robocop, something Robocop 2 should have been about. You have a advanced Artificial Intelligence meant to automate the entire city, like th pilot episode of the 90s TV series. Lastly, you have a tale of a machine regaining his humanity. Throughout this story is the tale of James Murphy, son of Alex Murphy, who is now a young executive caught up in the turmoil in OCP. James must come to terms with the discovery of his father's identity as Robocop as father slowly reunites with son.<br/><br/>The overall story is good for its drama. The actors are spot on in their portrayals and it is generally well written with many of the themes inherent in the original films. Of particular note is the hammy Kaydick and the absolutely obnoxious Damien. A huge plus is the miniseries return to R-Rated violence rather than the kid friendly style of fighting in the TV series and Robocop 3.<br/><br/>Sadly the execution is less than sub-par. Director Julian Grant brings a lazy hand to the directing and seems to have this obsession with skip-frame slo mo (the kind of jerky slo mo you get when shooting something at half the usual Frames Per Second). The overall low budget look to the production is heightened by dated special effects, unremarkable camera-work and crappy costumes. The New cyber terrorist villains have the fashion sense of the Matrix characters, all tight, black and trench coats. They have cartoony electrical powers and can move at super speed with a basic blur effect. The low budget is most obvious in the Robopcop suits. During action scenes, they come apart at the seams letting you clearly see the black leotard underneath.<br/><br/>With this, Prime Directives sounded the death knell of the classic Robocop franchise. Perhaps in this new century of movies with fast kicking kung fu combat, high tech special effects and tighter narratives, the concept of classic Robocop as a walking tank is in itself obsolete. With this sad closure to a once remarkably original franchise, perhaps the new reboot in 2014 would be a much welcome revival of the concept. Robocop 1(2015) Robocop 2(2015) Robocop 3(2020) Robocop-TV Series(2020) Robocop:Prime Directives(2028) <br/><br/>