Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
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I don't remember anything about the first movie, I am not even sure I ever saw it entirely (or at all), it's been too long.
The movie worked for me, and that didn't have anything do with low expectations. There was actually something I kinda expected or hoped for and I got that.
The Scientist
I really liked how the scientist played by Gary Oldman did go further an further away from his ideal to "save" the project. It was a great performance and it felt very... believable.
It was not as if he was evil or anything. He had good intentions, but under the pressure he basically cracked.
He started with finally agreeing to the project at all because he was promised money for his regular research to help people.
When Murphy woke up and asked the Doctor to kill him, he didn't just refuse, he talked him out of it, basically manipulating Murphy.
Then Murphy fails to compete with the drones. And he goes a step further - he takes away Murphy's control - Not Murphy made the decisions, it was the AI, but he gave Murphy the illusion that he made that decision.*
And when Murphy breaks down as he reviews his own murder, he manipulates him again, manipulating his brain chemistry so he stops feeling.
I would have not been surprised if he, at this point, was really willing to kill Murphy for the sake of the continuation of his original research. That he did not was certainly not guaranteed. I am not sure if this makes him the anti-hero or the anti-villain?
The Illusion of Free Will This is the part that I was hoping for.
*) The part where Murphy lost his free will to the AI was also very powerful for me because some research in brain activity suggests that this is how it really works - the body already has done something, and only then do you get the feeling that you decided to do that. Seeing the principle applied in the movie resonated very strongly with me.
Of course, eventually Murphy does overcome all this. I think there is some relevance to the fact that he didn't start recovering until he realized that his son how his father was critically hurt in the bomb explosion.
Drones & Politics
I honestly don't find it very likely that the US citizens would be so adamant against the use of drones for police services, but I could be wrong.
But this premise certainly made the whole story of making a cyborg cop believable in the first place. Because there really isn't a good reason to do it otherwise. It's costly, risky, painful. You can just hire a new cop if the old one becomes an invalid, and you won't find many people even willing to go undergo such a procedure. Making it a test bed to circumvent a law worked for me.
I found the Terrorist/Drone Police Force in the beginning of the show very interesting. We are still far away from this magnitude, but the concept is there. I figure the "natives" in that scene don't really care all that much whether drones or soldiers are controlling them. But it probably adds a bit of extra terror to know that if you would fight back, you'd just destroy or damage a few expendable machines, while likely losing your own life. (It's not as if the drones took any prisoners there...) We all know that a powerful argument for drones is that it means less dead soldiers for the side using the drones. Is there also the hope that it will demoralize resistance against oppressors or "peace-keepers"? Will we still be able to distinguish the terrorists and mad-men from those that just wish self-government and independence, and would we care?
Interestingly, I don't think the movie tried to give us all the answers, even if Samuel L. Jackson's character was obviously portrayed negatively. Because despite his potrayal - the drones really lived up to the expectations and promises of the corporation making them. The were impartial. The did keep the media reporters in the beginning safe. They kept the civilians safe. They didn't shoot Murphy's partner when he acted as a human shield. They really only hit the legitimate targets. They were probably genuinely more effective than a real soldier or police man would. And while I found the scene in the beginning somewhat unsettling, with the natives so under control - Imagine the same scenario with real soldiers...
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