Wow! This is really terrible!

 After (over)using him to make a Hard/Classic run completely trivial (up to and including the bonus boss), I had forgotten that Python actually kind of sucks. Or at least, it's hard to actually use him without a good dose of nurturing and favouritism. Even in a Normal run where there was no one else to fill the archer niche, what with both Tobin and Kliff being Mages. Speaking of, that's probably a questionable reclassing choice (at least, it made poor Luthier even more useless than usual), but Mage!Kliff never let me down, and Sage!Tobin has Excalibur and Physic in his bag of tricks. There is no such thing as too many Physic users. On the other hand, I also used them at Delthea's expense. Oh well, you can't have everything. And I suppose Physic was all the more useful to pull off the reckless tactics of a (relatively) quick run. Really, the 500 turn medal isn't hard to get in Normal, even when I still had enough honour to play in Classic mode, and even while doing everything to keep Python and Forsyth in the endgame team -- though even then, I didn't expect them to have the most kills of all the army once again.

And with that, until I muster the courage to do a Hard/Classic Blitzkrieg (which probably means dropping Forsyth and Python and doing all kinds of unorthodox stuff), I think I can count the game as thoroughly finished. Now I suppose I should go back to Fates, but while the battles are more varied, they're also much harder... and that game didn't really give me anyone to care about (on top of having so many characters I can't even get all the Nohrians' names straight).

I'd buy that for a dollar!

 OK, last post actually was from last year. I returned Adèle's 3DS and went back to watching films way too many times in succession. 

Honestly, I'm surprised now that I didn't pay RoboCop any attention earlier. I mean, stories about resurrection and loss of identity are my favourites. I suppose until then I thought Robo wasn't organic enough. 

Anyway, I think I looked up the first film in the midst of an Oddworld binge, because someone pointed out that Stranger's "Dead or alive, yer ass is coming with me" is a RoboCop reference. (And I'm super hyped about SoulStorm, but that's for later) And what can I say? I got hooked up. In a way, I guess it's good that I didn't watch the film earlier, because now I've accumulated enough readings (and have enough interest) in the dysfunctions of American society to enjoy the satire. The films, I should say, plus the live-action series. For some reason, some twelve years ago I had seen and remembered the first three minutes of one early episode of the series, which we must've taped somewhere on a VHS (probably by accident), but aside from that, I was going in blind. And all I remembered from that was the caption "Time: The Near Future. Location: Detroit, Michigan", three obese people robbing a store, Robo's "Veuillez descendre du véhicule s'il vous plaît", and the NoGain ad. Odd baggage, I know. 

Surprisingly, the French versions of all of these (well, save for Prime Directives... maybe, I haven't looked. Save also for RoboCop 3, mostly because, for all intents and purposes, that film does not exist) are actually decent, and with some good adaptations to boot ("Y a du métal hurlant dans l'air !"). Sure, it's damn near impossible to recognise Marc Cassot's voice coming out of Dick Jones' mouth (at least not for someone who only knew him from his acting in La Caméra explore le temps, shot more than 25 years before), they didn't dare give Clarence a nasal voice, "Come quietly or there will be... trouble" apparently defies translation and someone decided to ruin the climatic reveal of Murphy's identity by having Patrick Floersheim (I suppose) read out everything on the computer screen, but hey, these things happen, and as long as Murphy's voice is on point (which it usually is), que demande le peuple? 

... Upon reflection, I demand that translators stop turning "mills" into "moulins" when we're clearly talking about a steel mill. Moulins only process flour or paper, you idiots. 

I didn't even particularly dislike the reboot, if only because it takes Murphy's existential horror in another, equally interesting direction. That said, not only was it less funny (I'm still waiting for something as memorable as "Can you fly, Bobby?"; and I'm not even that difficult, because I consider "Bad cop, RoboCop" a funny line), it doesn't feature anything as visually stunning as Peter Weller's 3rd act makeup (and as a specialist of bare human faces on inhuman bodies, I don't have enough words for how much I love that design*). And it's kind of a shame they overcame the practical limitations that required putting a rope-thin actor in the original Robo suits, because much as I love Swedish actors out of principle, Joel Kinnaman's physique just isn't that remarkable. It's also less rewatchable if only because there are no good stories of behind the scenes, so no reason to try and notice all the tricks they used to get around what the suit could and could not do (for instance, get out of a car or climb up stairs).

Speaking of excellent lines in otherwise unremarkable to bad adaptations, Prime Directives at least gave us "I'm composed of titanium. I don't suppose you are." And, relating to my above complaint about the reboot, I'd probably be more forgiving of it if the make-up artists had actually put more effort (or any effort at all, really) into the junction between the human face and the robot's head. It was probably even more important to "stretch" Page Fletcher's face because otherwise his nose looks just way too large. Of course, there's also the even more glaring problem of his short stature, but enough people have commented upon that. Presumably that was too distracting for them to point out that godawful make-up. Once again, it's a real shame because (as was also noted multiple times) Page Fletcher makes for a decent human Murphy, and it's very interesting to think about how Murphy must be feeling after spending so long as a cyborg, especially since he must have been a great deal lonelier than in the previous series (what with Lewis being out of the picture and no one but Frost knowing about his real identity). That, and the father/son drama, and those few scenes of Murphy and RoboCable actually helping each other, just make me wish all these plot treads had been handled by a more competent team. 

*sighs* And now that there's talks of a new adaptation, I'm contractually obligated to be on the lookout for it and watch it when it comes out. 

* It certainly doesn't hurt that Peter Weller has a face somewhat similar to Thierry Lhermitte's, not in the detail, but with these clear blue eyes and sharp cheekbones.

PS: Holy Christ, is that really Marshal Ney as the Old Man?