RoboCop is known for its snarky anti-consumerist message and tepid criticism of privatization which made it enjoyable despite still being pro-cop and pro carceral justice. The sequel, RoboCop 2 is a pale imitation that seeks to reproduce the original's successes without any of its dark satire or charm. What we get is some of the most blatant, soul-crushing copraganda in sci-fi.

The movie begins with the OCP-owned police force on strike and as a direct result of their absence, seemingly normal citizens of Detroit have become craven, violent criminals. With no law enforcement authority to "put them in their place", the populous devolves into stabbings, muggings, robberies, and general mayhem. What seems to be the worst moral failing of all is drug addiction, in particular an addiction to Nuke, a narcotic that doesn't seem to be psychoactive or harmful at all but must be stopped at all (human) cost. The person responsible for its production and distribution is Cain, the soft-spoken cult-like figure played by Tom Noonan, who wants everyone to do Nuke all the time and give him money. This turns out to be completely unimportant to the story despite being an excellent foil for the unscrupulous CEO of OCP who has been orchestrating the deadly chaos in the city so that he can **become its sole owner and authoritarian leader**.

Even worse is the awkwardly brief subplot that has RoboCop himself being reprogrammed to take a "softer" approach to law enforcement. Instead of immediately pulling his gun out to blast some "creeps", he is a friendly and polite walking tank who acts like a loopy, senile old man. He was close to non-lethally disarming a gunman who posed no threat when his partner popped up to do ~~an extrajudicial murder~~ a heroic head shot. Just in case you weren't convinced that his brain is broken, he reads Miranda rights to the man's corpse! Haha, funny robot man is such a goof! His partner isn't having any more of it though, and asks RoboCop's doctor what it would take to go back to being a gun happy corpse junky. Lots of electricity, the doctor says, but it could kill him! Rather risking death than having to deal with **restrictions on his power to violently enforce laws**, RoboCop shocks himself with the building's mains. When he gets back up, he's his good old self again, murdering the baddies without even looking at where he's aiming like a super cool hero dude. Anyways, Robo mutilates Cain who then gets turned into an even bigger murder bot, murders his friends, and then embarrasses OCP by doing a public massacre before being destroyed.

The movie isn't at all interesting, save for Noonan's performance and the terrifying design of his robot form. I think we could have been better off without this sequel.