http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/is-the-robocop-remake-already-in-trouble/

Well, here’s one I didn’t see coming: apparently Robocop will be taking on those pesky Al – Qaeda types in the upcoming remake of the 80’s classic from Jose Padilha (director of the excellent Elite Squad or Tropa De Elite’ series).

Now, RoboCop is one of my favourite films of all time: it’s brilliant, lurid and above all subversive, being as it is a insightful critique of corporate greed and morality as well as being a riff on the ‘Frankenstein’ motif and even Christianity. It was also prescient with it’s vision of a police force privatised as public services were auctioned off to ever more powerful private interests. Today it doesn’t seem at all far fetched.

The whole point was that it was against the narrative of the times.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hate Al – Qaeda MORE than the next man, since as a Muslim they give me bad press with their retarded actions. However, it is obvious that they have been made the moral bogeyman of the age at the expense of all others. Seeing the Robocop mythos buy into that narrative is rather sad.

Like ‘Iron Man’ (who sucks anyway) where they explicitly stated that the U.S had gotten involved to help with the civil war in Afghanistan. WTF? That film also featured Iron Man laying waste to ‘terrorists’. And lets not forget that Frank Miller was going to have Batman take on Al – Qaeda before DC Comics presumably saw sense. Like it or not, this kind of ‘meta-narrative’ does not help at all: it alienates Muslims since they CAN’T EVEN PICK UP A COMIC BOOK without being spammed with the whole terrorist thing. It probably helps them by into extremist conspiracy theories; ‘See, they hate you’.

That said, Padilha may turn it around: he is friends with Fernando Meirelles, the guy who directed ‘The Constant Gardener’ and his previous works are rather anti-establishment.

UPDATE: After seeing the final film I can report that Padilha did indeed turn it around and subvert expectations! Phew!