I watched 1987's RoboCop over the course of the week. I kept falling asleep during it. Again, that's just a sign of what a sleepy fellow I've become in my 40s, not a reflection on the film's quality. I'd seen it before, of course, but when I was a kid. I found the two parts I remembered best remain my favourite parts of the film; ED-209 coming down the stairs, and one of the thugs falling apart when his body's exposed to some kind of toxic waste.
The animation on ED-209 was worthy of Ray Harryhausen (but it was actually Craig Davies). You can sense it thinking as it stands at the top of the stairs, weighing the wisdom of actually pursuing RoboCop down the stairs. One can't help but interpret it as hubris when it makes the fatal decision to go ahead.
The thug melting in the big action sequence at the end is one of those random details that effectively push an action sequence to another level. I remember on the Godfather Part II commentary or in an interview, Francis Ford Coppola remarking on the scene where Vito kills that crime boss and a light bulb just happens to break. Having some random but plausible surprise in your action sequence really breathes life into it. The melting man in RoboCop adds to a sense of an untethered nightmare symphony. I love it.
The RoboCop movies are currently available on Amazon Prime in Japan.
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