Editing RoboCop 2 (section)

===Critical response===
[[File:HobRoboCop2.png|thumb|left|[[Gabriel Damon]] as the gun-wielding, kid drug-dealer Hob in ''RoboCop 2''. Several critics, such as [[Roger Ebert]], condemned the use of a killer child as "beneath contempt."<ref name = "RogerEbert"/>]]
''RoboCop 2'' received mixed reviews from critics.<ref name="metacritic" /> While the special effects and action sequences are widely praised, a common complaint was that the film did not focus enough on RoboCop and his partner Lewis and that the film's human story of the man trapped inside the machine was ultimately lost within a sea of violence.<!-- quote: "the soul beneath the suit is lost amid a sea of sensational death." --><ref name="Westbrook" />

In his ''[[Chicago Sun Times]]'' review, [[Roger Ebert]] wrote: "Cain's sidekicks include a violent, foul-mouthed young boy named Hob, who looks to be about 12 years old but kills people without remorse, swears like [[Eddie Murphy]], and eventually takes over the drug business... The movie's screenplay is a confusion of half-baked and unfinished ideas... the use of that killer child is beneath contempt."<ref name = "RogerEbert">{{cite news |date=June 22, 1990 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Robocop 2 |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/robocop-2-1990 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |access-date=12 August 2020 |archive-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730150104/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/robocop-2-1990 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The film "reset" RoboCop's character by turning him back into the monotone-voiced peacekeeper seen early in the first film, despite his reclaiming his human identity and personality by the end of that film. Many were also critical of the child villain Hob; David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews stated: "That the film asks us to swallow a moment late in the story that features Robo taking pity on an injured Hob is heavy-handed and ridiculous (we should probably be thankful the screenwriters didn't have RoboCop say something like, 'Look at what these vile drugs have done to this innocent boy')."<ref>{{cite web |last=Nusair |first=David |title=Robocop 2 |url=http://www.reelfilm.com/robocop2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040820143648/http://www.reelfilm.com/robocop2.htm |archive-date=2004-08-20 |access-date=22 August 2020 }}</ref>

[[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote: "Unlike ''RoboCop'', a clever and original science-fiction film with a genuinely tragic vision of its central character, ''Robocop 2'' doesn't bother to do anything new. It freely borrows the situation, characters and moral questions posed by the first film." She further adds: "The difference between ''Robocop'' and its sequel, [...] is the difference between an idea and an afterthought." She also expressed her opinion about the Hob character: "The aimlessness of ''Robocop 2'' runs so deep that after exploiting the inherent shock value of such an innocent-looking killer, the film tries to capitalize on his youth by also giving him a tearful deathbed scene."<ref>{{cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Maslin |title=Review / Film; New Challenge and Enemy For a Cybernetic Organism |work=[[New York Times]] |date=June 22, 1990 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C0CE7D71139F931A15755C0A966958260 |access-date=2010-08-17 |archive-date=July 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711213429/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/22/movies/review-film-new-challenge-and-enemy-for-a-cybernetic-organism.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Variety (magazine)|''Variety'']] wrote: "This ultraviolent, nihilistic sequel has enough technical dazzle to impress hardware fans, but obviously no one in the Orion front office told filmmakers that less is more."<ref>{{cite web |date=1 January 1990 |author=Variety Staff |title=Robocop 2 |url=https://variety.com/review/VE1117794521 |website=Variety |access-date=August 24, 2020 |archive-date=July 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711213502/https://variety.com/1989/film/reviews/robocop-2-1200428262/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Peter Rainer of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' panned the film.<ref>{{cite news |date=1990-06-22 |first=Peter |last=Rainer |title=An Overhauled 'RoboCop 2' |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-22-ca-46-story.html |access-date=2020-08-22 |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818222051/http://articles.latimes.com/1990-06-22/entertainment/ca-46_1_robocop-movie-films |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Jay Scott]], of ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', was one of the few prominent critics who admired the film calling it a "sleek and clever sequel. For fans of violent but clever action films, ''RoboCop 2'' may be the sultry season's best bet: you get the gore of ''[[Total Recall (1990 film)|Total Recall]]'' and the satiric smarts of ''[[Gremlins 2: The New Batch]]'' in one high-tech package held together by modest B-movie strings. ''RoboCop 2'' alludes to classics of horror and science-fiction ''([[Frankenstein (1931 film)|Frankenstein]]'', ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'', ''[[Westworld (film)|Westworld]])'', for sure, but it also evokes less rarefied examples of the same genres–''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', ''[[Godzilla]]'', and that [[They Saved Hitler's Brain|Z-movie about Hitler's brain in a bottle]]. It's ironic that the directorial coach of the first ''RoboCop'', Paul Verhoeven, went on to ''Total Recall''; couldn't he see that the script for ''Robo 2'' was sleeker and swifter than Arnie's cumbersome vehicle? His absence in the driver's seat is happily unnoticed because Irvin Kershner, the engineer of sequels that often zip qualitatively past the originals (''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'','' [[The Return of a Man Called Horse]]'', and the best [[Sean Connery]]–[[James Bond]] of all, ''[[Never Say Never Again]]''), has tuned-up the premise until it purrs."<ref name="Scott (1990)">{{cite news |last=Scott |first=Jay |author-link=Jay Scott |title=RoboCop 2 |newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=22 June 1990 |page=C.8 }}</ref>

Review aggregation website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] retrospectively collected 40 reviews to give the film a score of 28%, with an average rating of 4.70/10. The site's consensus reads: "A less satisfying rehash that generally lives down to the negative stereotype of sequels, ''Robocop 2'' tries to deliver more of everything and ends up with less".<ref name="tomatoes">{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes |id=robocop_2 |type=m |title=RoboCop 2 |access-date=July 27, 2023 }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]] the film has a score of 42 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref name="metacritic">{{Cite Metacritic |title=RoboCop 2 |id=robocop-2 |type=movie |access-date=February 16, 2021 }}</ref> Audiences surveyed by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade B−, on scale of A to F.<ref name="CinemaScore">{{cite web |url=https://www.cinemascore.com/ |title=CinemaScore |publisher=[[CinemaScore]] |access-date=April 16, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220413083139/https://www.cinemascore.com/ |archive-date=April 13, 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The film received attention in 2013 from news media, due to its plot predicting [[Detroit bankruptcy|Detroit filing for bankruptcy]] in the future.<ref name="post">{{cite news |last=Gross |first=Max |date=2014-02-09 |title='RoboCop' predictions that came true – and those that did not |work=New York Post |url=https://nypost.com/2014/02/09/robocop-predictions-that-came-true-and-those-that-did-not/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415063601/https://nypost.com/2014/02/09/robocop-predictions-that-came-true-and-those-that-did-not/ |archive-date=April 15, 2018}}</ref>