Ten years after the last Robocop film (part 3), Lion's Gate is releasing on home video the first part of a new Robocop mini series that originally aired on the Sci-Fi channel here in the states. There's a little bit of the old Robocop here as well as a bit of the new, unfortunately it's always got that same old made for TV vibe all the way.

While the public and post media frenzy seem to be less impressed with Robocop (Page Fletcher) now more than ever, it seems that there's really not much left for a half human half cyborg super cop to do in Delta City. With little to no interest in the man machine (they even try to hock a video of his greatest moments on home video during the nightly news) poor Robocop is pretty much just left in the dust. That is until Bone Machine (the saving grace of the film) makes an impressively so awful it's great appearance and begins to terrorize the city at large. Meanwhile the company OCP (which pretty much controls the police force) is experiencing profit problems (no money honey) so they devise a computer system that will give them near complete control of the city (whatever that means) and at the same time, more of that lovely green. Robocop is on to the fact that Bone Machine and OCP may be in cahoots with one another and the only person he can trust is his disgruntled ex partner John Cable. The problem is that OCP is on to Robocop as well and wants to put a quick fix to his meddling ways (or something like that).

It may sound a bit long winded and "all for nothing" but one must keep in mind that this is the first part of a mini series. Why Lion's Gate opted to release just the first part instead of the whole series is beyond me, and I have no idea if their intentions are to release the rest of the series in the future (only sales will tell I suppose). I found as I was watching Robocop: Dark Justice (the series is called Prime Directives) that much of what made Robocop work as a concept and a character has to do with the time of its original release. The idea of the future that Robocop has to contend with back in the 80's doesn't work so well nearly 20 years later (10 years since the last Robocop film). Unfortunately not much has changed since the last Robocop as the bleak vision of a corrupt corporation controlled America is still there and at this point, the ideas and visions brought forth feel a little bit like been there done that. The film does get a bit confusing as we jump around from past to present (flashbacks galore), I guess it would all make a bit more sense within the scope of the entire mini series and Robocop seems to be off screen or sitting in a chair motionless more often than he's kicking some much needed ass.

On a plus note, the villain this time around (Bone Machine) holds his place as kind of a cross between Skeletor and the Ed 209 from the original Robocop, this I dug. I also liked the films wicked sense of humor like the odd tie in ads with the nightly news (hocking the best of video mentioned earlier for example) or the fact that as soon as someone of importance was knocked off there would be a rolling ad on the screen for a TV special and book for sale on his/her life almost immediately. It's this type of satire I feel has been missing from films like this, and I haven't seen it used this effectively since Starship Troopers. There's also a great bit in one flashback segment that pays a nice bit of homage to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (intentional or not, I bought it) and the end battle sequence is certainly not without its merits.

Once again, I have to state that it is very difficult to get past the TV Movie mode on Dark Justice. It looks more like a made for TV film than anything else and many of the explosions scream cheap computer effects. Performances are about what one would expect for a presentation of this caliber, nothing to get excited about but not as bad as other low budget TV efforts. We've pretty much got passable TV character actors all the way.

Quality wise, we're treated to a pretty decent transfer. The 16X9 widescreen image is sharp with no real noticeable print damage (I don't even know if this was shot on film or not... I'm thinking not.) Colors are quite sharp and vibrant while only minimal amounts of artifacting creep up from time to time. Considering that much of the film is presented in the dark or low light scenarios, black levels are handled quite well.

Audio is presented in a solid Dolby Surround mix with nice use of the full stereo spectrum. Once again, this is certainly nothing to get excited about but it does serve the production at hand quite well.

Extras = trailer 'nuff said?

Overall the presentation is quite solid while the film itself remains not so solid. Robocop fans will most likely want to give this title a try. Others may want to give it a rental first, that is if the curiosity bug bites your butt. It's a shame that the whole mini series wasn't released as a bargain set on DVD with a few add on extras. It certainly would have added more value and appeal to the title at hand.