The brilliance of the film is that it starts with a video broadcast of the news that is in the low-fidelity of the TV of old. But then it cuts to the full glory or future Detroit (which apparently was shot in Dallas TX) the sharp, sprawling details of the wide angle lenses shooting low angled city skylines is like the current trend of cutting from 35mm film to spectacular 70mm IMAX (like what Nolan did with THE DARK KNIGHT). It's like night vs day, small vs big, TV vs cinema. The 4K output to 1080p HD is excellent and it's as if Verhoeven shot it in IMAX or with that IMAX sensibility of composition (I'm exaggerating a little but it's to make a point).
Now as much as I've always loved ROBOCOP, even as a kid I found the ED-209 stop motion to be a little off-putting - it always looked like a scale model and the motion always looked jittery. But here's where I was surprised the most. At native 24 frames per second and at full HD, ED-209 looks incredibly detailed and menacing. The stop motion is much less distracting than when I watched the film in SD resolution telecined to 29.976 fps. I really think the telecine process is what killed a lot of the model work in ROBOCOP but this Bluray rectifies that. I don't even think a CG ED-209 would be that much of an improvement and that's also because Verhoeven and company utilized a full scale model in many shots. Of course there are a handful of stop motion shots that still don't quite deliver but they're not critical shots in my opinion.
And here's another revelation I had watching this film as a filmmaker. Blanks and Squibs and performance. ROBOCOP is not just a film that used real full flash blanks and real blood-pack squibs, but it's a film that went big with explosives. And you can see this in how the actors really squint - not only when they get hit and a squib explodes, but even when they just shoot a gun the muzzle flashes are so big and sparky and smokey that actors squint and flinch with every trigger pull. That makes a huge performance difference to me when compared to all the digital muzzle flashes and blood hits being added to gunshots these days (and I've done my share of CG gunshots!).
Finally, the sound is decent. The 1st time ED-209 fires his guns they sounded a bit hollow which worried me. But when Robocop fires his signature 3-burst hand canon, it's nice and bassy and has that distinct sound of bad-assery that I remember.
I could go on about the merits of the film itself: the tight writing, the memorable lines, the iconic performances, the timeless visuals. But I enjoy conversing about those details over writing about them. And this Bluray really brings out the best in those conversations. So check it out, enjoy it, then call me - we'll talk then.
Oh and seriously, f*** the remake.
