Reimagining the Reboot (now Remade)

The trailer for RoboCop appeared online recently, and a few of my friends mentioned that it would definitely lack the flavor of the original — satire. And they had an excellent point in assuming that — I think this version of the film will definitely not satirize 80s industrial/business culture. If it did, that would kind of suck.

One of the things sci-fi is good at, though, is taking on the issues of our time. RoboCop did that in the 80s, and I think — from what I’ve seen so far, anyway — the new film will do the same thing with our current culture.

Consider out interconnectedness with our devices in recent years. Sometimes, we don’t really make a distinction between where our brains end and where Google begins. Now, look at the bits of plot laid out for the new RoboCop — they’ve designed him to be machine-controlled, but to make him think his decisions are motivated by his own free will.

Skeptics could say we’re very much the same — in that we think we make decisions that the Internet or Apple or Google really influences us to make. Where does the human end? Where does the machine begin? It’s a relevant question now, and if the new RoboCop film does a half-decent job of exploring that, I think it has a shot of being decent.

Of course, it could still suck regardless. But I’ll go see it anyway.

What do you think was the best sci-fi exploration of modern culture (at least, modern at the time the work was produced)? What tried and failed miserably?