I’ll admit it, when I first decided to write this review, I was ready to tear apart an awful reboot. But fortunately, “RoboCop” surprised me not only with its new story and graceful transition from a cheesy gorefest to something more, but also with its sheer goodness as a movie. It doesn’t lean too heavily on its past and isn’t not trying to make clever nods back to its past, but instead, it acts as a standalone movie, as opposed to a reboot. Don’t get me wrong, this movie isn’t perfect, but I’d say it’s worth a watch.

The plot is the same. There’s this guy, Murphy, who’s a good cop, but he is killed (by a carbomb this time). To save his life, as well as bring tons of money to the failing Omnicorp, he becomes the RoboCop, a crime-fighting soup can with a really awesome voice. The entire point of  Omnicorp’s RoboCop project is that they create “peacemakers” who are currently dissipating tensions in the Middle East, and are way better than your average donut-eating boy in blue. However, the people of Detroit don’t want the peacemakers, and want human cops instead, with “hearts” and “souls” and other things that just hold you down in the whole law enforcement field, and life in general.

So Murphy becomes RoboCop, the perfect blend of peacemaker and human. He then goes onto the mean streets of Detroit and proceeds to stomp on crime, much to the happiness on the people of Detroit and the CEOs of Omnicorp, who see Murphy as no more than a walking marketing opportunity. The action is great, and there’s a story too that’s actually pretty good, dealing with the whole idea of what makes us human, and how Murphy’s life is forever changed as a result of becoming the RoboCop.

The jump that this movie made is incredible, going from the corny bloodbath of the 1990s to an equally entertaining plot-driven story. And in some ways, nothing symbolizes this jump in progress, if you can call it that, more than RoboCop himself. The 199os version was a bumbling tank, dressed in bright silver armor, speaking in stutters and pauses like a fifth grader giving a book report, watching bullets bounce off him, laughing like a jammed printer, spitting out awful puns and turning all who opposed him into a red mush that could maybe pass for a smoothie. Meanwhile, in 2014, we have a new, modern, Murphy, who seems more…human. Decked out in all black, this new Robocop seems less like a brick with legs and more like a human being. Gone is the voice that sounds like a broken copy machine, replaced by a slightly bassier, human sounding voice that is able to form coherent sentences and not sound like an idiot. It’s also made clear multiple times throughout the movie that Murphy isn’t invincible, and he can be defeated, as opposed to the tank that was the “old” Murphy. This new Murphy jumps around, dives, rolls, instead of standing still and letting bullets bounce off him. Overall he just seems better. He also has the bonus of a solid story that actually makes you care about him. If Omnicorp’s goal was to make a more human peacemaker, they succeeded, because I found myself actually worrying about Murphy, as opposed to laughing as he punched a guy into a wall.

In the end, “Robocop” seems impressive as being a huge jump forward that bridges decades. But in the end, if you look through all the layers of nostalgia and action, this movie isn’t really anything to write home about. Yes, there’s a plot, and yes, there are great fights, but in the end, when I sat down to write this article, I had trouble thinking of a memorable moment that stuck out to me. It seems to me that this movie just rode its legacy to success, and if you look hard enough, you can see the truth of “Robocop”. It is, at its very core, a cheesy action movie, just like its predecessor.