Every once in a while, a film remake can be good. But this doesn’t happen a lot, as many film remakes tend to fail, due to not re-imagining the story effectively, or not doing something unique with the pre-existing material. Luckily for film director Jos`e Padilha; his new remake of “Robocop,” will not go down as a bad remake.

In this new “Robocop,” a reliable cop is killed by a car bomb explosion, which was set-up by a enemy, that this cop had. Officer Murphy; the cop that was recently killed, is later brought back to life as a half human / half machine hybrid, through some new robotic technology, that worked it’s way to the U.S., after being very successful through law enforcement, within other countries.

Though Officer Murphy is very successful as a “Robocop,” he later begins to have human feelings again, his old memories from his human life are coming back, and he even overrides his system at times, to be able to comfort his family; when needed, and to figure out his own murder case, so he can track down the criminal responsible, that made him live this robotic life.

Many viewers will love the deeper emphasis on this cop’s family life, in this “Robocop” remake. It is very tragic and emotional, and most viewers will probably feel that way also. The action scenes involving Officer Murphy learning how to shoot criminals in dark environments, via a computer simulation, are incredible to watch. Some of the film’s set-up, such as the debate whether law enforcement should be handled by human or robot cops, also made the film more intriguing.

Though this film is quite a good remake, there were still some aspects that could have used improvement. The film suffers from some one-dimensional characters, such as Officer Murphy’s partner cop, and the film’s main antagonist, who both feel very under-developed. Many viewers might find Peter Weller’s interpretation of Robocop from the original 1987 film, to be way better than Joel Kinnaman’s approach on the character in this remake. The film also suffers from a sloppy ending, with too many last-minute ideas thrown into it.

Unlike Gus Van Sant’s infamous 1998 “Psycho” remake, this re-imagining of “Robocop,” is by no means bad. For viewers who like cop films, and robot films, this new “Robocop” film is worth seeing.