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Robocop: The Prime Directives
01/12/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
DVD Region 2: pub: Prism Leisure PPA 1225. 2 double-sided DVDs. 4 * 90 minute films. 360 minutes. Price: £ 3.97(UK) - really cheap price). stars: Page Fletcher, Maurice Dean Wint, Gerant Wyn Davies, Maria Del Mar and Anthony Lemke. Buy Robocop: The Prime Directives in the USA - or Buy Robocop: The Prime Directives in the UK  check out website: www.prismleisure.com/
You know how it is. You get handed a CD of a TV series and remember where you can buy a copy of it cheap in town. In this case, it's the 2000 series 'Robocop: Prime Directives'.
I have to confess that I left it on the shelf consciously thinking that it would be more of a follow-up to the TV series which considerably lightened the violence of the 1987 film. On the contrary, I was surprised at the violence and probably accounts for why it never appeared on British terrestrial television. These four TV films really do rock.
Divided into four ninety films, 'Dark Justice', 'Meltdown', 'Resurrection' and 'Crash And Burn', it is actually one long story. It is now a decade since Robocop was created by OCP and still serving the city, fighting crime. Few people know its Alex Murphy under the helmet, least of all the new head of the Delta City Police Department, John Terrance Cable, Murphy's ex-partner when he was in Detroit and ex-husband of an OCP executive. OCP is also running a non-violence policy when it comes to policing which doesn't help that the criminals don't know this and shoot anyway.
OCP is after something to raise their credibility and one of the executives unveils prematurely an AI system called S.A.I.N.T. that can take over the running of Delta City. In the meantime, there's a covert OCP group called The Trust that is behind a renegade called the Bone Machine and also re-programs Murphy to kill Cable, who is then made into a second Robocop - an improved version and used to blacken the original's name. I couldn't quite understand why no one thought there might be two Robocops when the second one used two guns. Still, they say the media is blind or just dazzled by the two ladies giving the news.
Did I forgot to mention there were also two covert terrorist groups out in the city with designs on OCP technology, both using stealth devices to escape. Murphy's son is also now an OCP executive by the way and is discovering that his dad is still alive but is determined to end Robocop's life as well figuring it isn't really his dad. It's easy to see why 'The Prime Directives' needed four films to be told.
Neither Robocops escape uninjured when OCP orders the police to destroy them but each are rescued by the two different terrorist groups with two different agendas. Lucky for Murphy that he was on the more benevolent ones. The malevolent one wants to install a virus programme into S.A.I.N.T. and wipe out Delta City. Robocop and what is left of his new team have to break into OCP headquarters and put an end to it.
There. Can I say any more without giving anyway the ending?? Well, yes. Watch the scenes with the credits. As commented above, this is a really violent set of films but its also nicely staged and plotted so everything serves a purpose rather than being that gratuitous. The money is certainly on the screen. Oddly enough, the actors do actually pull off their roles better than I expected. Actor Page Fletcher is, if memory serves, the fourth actor to play Murphy and with flashbacks we see him as a human so at least there is some contrast to his cyborg appearance. If you liked the original 'Robocop' film, then there's a fair bet you'd also enjoy this DVD set. After six years, you can buy that for a dollar...well, four actually.
GF Willmetts
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