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Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) and written by comic book legend Frank Miller, you’d think that RoboCop 2 would be vastly better and more interesting than it is. But for just another inferior sequel, it’s not half bad. The disjointed script eventually boils down to a big confrontation between RoboCop (Peter Weller) and the latest model from his makers at Omni Consumer Products, aptly named RoboCop 2, a bigger and badder robot culled from the psychotic remains of a notorious drug addict (Tom Noonan).

Whereas the first RoboCop functions on multiple levels, marrying a thrilling plot with a compelling character arc, the sequel barely pokes beneath the surface. There are cool concepts at play — like the unresolved situation between Robo and his wife, who can’t decide whether to hold on or move on. Miller’s script also takes place in a community being torn apart by both drugs and corporate greed. Is that prescient, or what? There’s even a scene where the mayor of Detroit (Willard E. Pugh) visits OCP only to be informed by the Old Man (Dan O’Herlihy) that since the city is in debt to the company, the company now owns the city and plans to immediately privatize everything. I mean, that horror is going on in real-life Michigan today!

I also kinda admire RoboCop 2 for its sheer audacity. The humor doesn’t land quite as well as it did in the first film, but I like seeing a blockbuster take risks with dark humor. My favorite gag is a failed RoboCop experiment in which the model is announced and unveiled with fanfare, only to tear it’s metal helmet off, revealing a screaming skull underneath. It’s also a hell of a violent flick. I read once that RoboCop 2 features more gunfire than any other Hollywood studio film ever made, and the highest on-screen body-count for the year of 1990. When national politics focused like a laser on movie violence in 1990, RoboCop 2 was one of a handful of bloody flicks that were dragged through the mud. I think RoboCop 2 was the tipping point, because we really haven’t seen a commercial film as unabashedly violent from a major studio since.

So even though it’s a messy movie and pales in comparison to the original masterpiece, RoboCop 2 is still interesting, both in historical context, and also as an amped up sort of grindhouse flick.

Nancy Allen makes the most of her greatly reduced returning role. The practical effects by Rob Bottin and stop-motion animation by Phil Tippet are, as always, pretty awesome. The score by Leonard Rosenman is hit and miss, especially when a women’s choir sings outloud ‘RoboCop!’ during the main theme.