"There are a lot of things to like about this remake"

For many teenagers and people in their early twenties they wouldn’t have been born when Paul Verhoeven introduced Alex Murphy a cop who turned into a half man/ half killing machine to the world. So when it was announced that there was going to be a remake it was a chance for the Dark Knight Trilogy generation to see what they’ve been missing, turns out not a lot.

This film has used Christopher Nolan’s modern classic as a blueprint, it’s easy to spot from Joel Kinnaman odd deep voice to the black suit Murphy wears, also the red light on the black suit makes him look like the front of the Knight Rider car and for god sake it’s got Michael Keaton in it.

Set in 2028 the world has become a safe place thanks to OmniCorp – fronted by CEO Raymond Sellars (Keaton) – and their soldier drones, but Americans are unwilling to have faceless robots controlling the streets but after Murphy (Kinnaman) gets blown to pieces OmniCorp have a chance to change the American public opinion and thanks to Dr Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) Murphy lives and OmniCorp have their “product”.

But when they try and control their toy they hadn’t taken into account how strong the human will was and when put in front of his wife (the lovely Abbie Cornish) and young son it makes the character more relatable but does push it into the 'just add piano for emotional effect', however when he goes into action mode to investigate his own murder he becomes a bad ass.

There are a lot of things to like about this remake; Samuel L Jackson puts in a decent and funny performance as Pat Novak – a reporter that would make Daily Mail proud with biased to the machines and his monologue-heavy propaganda brings much needed humour. Keaton is also on great form playing a true Dark Knight and shows his true colours under his calm, cool businessman attire.

However, there are a few things that are wrong with it starting with Oldman’s character, he is just basically a Doctor version of Jim Gordon and where Jackson makes you laugh sadly Jay Baruchel’s (yeah the dude from This is the End) one liners just miss the mark and are cringy.

The scene showing what’s left of Murphy is pretty graphic and it feels it should have pushed the film up to a 15 certificate but it’s much less violent then the original.

Finally the script feels a little dull and predictable you can easily split the film into three acts and makes it just another action film which is a shame because José Padilha has done a good job in his first English speaking film.

Verdict – Fans of the original may not like this up to date version but for newbies and people too young to watch the 1989 classic it’s a fun, watchable retake of man vs machine.