Editing RoboCop 2 (section)

== Thematic analysis ==
Bryan Kristopowitz described ''RoboCop 2'' as a parody of its predecessor.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kristopowitz|first=Bryan|date=September 26, 2018|url=https://411mania.com/movies/the-gratuitous-b-movie-column-why-robocop-2-is-awesome/|title=The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: Why Robocop 2 Is Awesome|work=[[411Mania]]|access-date=13 February 2021|archive-date=October 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181008182336/https://411mania.com/movies/the-gratuitous-b-movie-column-why-robocop-2-is-awesome/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Politics and corporations ===
Kershner took the offer to direct ''RoboCop 2''.{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|pp=45–46}} ''RoboCop 2'' continues the first film's [[RoboCop#Thematic analysis|critiques on American capitalism, corporate power and its resulting militarization and other perceived negative impacts]];<ref name = "SocialistWorkers"/>{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|pp=45–46}} the city's greedy politics continue to benefit only a few, while other citizens have to face problems of crime, pollution, and infrastructure dilapidation due to inadequate restructuring and police strikes.<ref name = "SocialistWorkers">{{cite web|last=Johnson|first=Craig|date=21 February 2014|url=https://socialistworker.org/2014/02/21/robocop-and-the-surveillance-state|title=RoboCop and the surveillance state|work=[[International Socialist Organization]]|access-date=13 February 2021|archive-date=February 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212034412/http://socialistworker.org/2014/02/21/robocop-and-the-surveillance-state|url-status=live}}</ref> Unlike the predecessor which had a self-aware tone and was hopeful the human race would last due to its rebelliousness, ''RoboCop 2''{{'}}s take on the corporate and political system is cynical, and more in the forefront of the story, with more staff of Omni-Consumer Products (including its CEO) becoming antagonists.<ref name = "SlantTrilogy">{{cite web|last=Cabin|first=Chris|date=October 26, 2010|url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/robocop-trilogy/|title=Blu-ray Review: The ''RoboCop'' Trilogy on MGM Home Entertainment|work=[[Slant Magazine]]|access-date=February 13, 2021|archive-date=December 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204212709/https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/robocop-trilogy/|url-status=live}}</ref> It also includes a few humorous pokes at [[Neoclassical liberalism|bleeding-heart liberalism]], such as OCP recoding RoboCop into an environmentalist role model.<ref name = "SlantTrilogy"/>

The creation of a second RoboCop to repeat the success of the original cyborg can be interpreted as a take on [[Planned obsolescence|companies making their older products quickly out-of-date in order to keep selling new ones]], and RoboCop 2's uncontrolled murdering of humans showcases how corporate entities devalue human life to a variable in an equation.<ref name = "SocialistWorkers"/> More mock advertisements are seen, such as the MagnaVolt security system that electrocutes car thieves, and the Sunblock 5000, a blue-and-green skincare product which can cause skin cancer itself to prevent getting [[skin cancer]] "ever since we lost the ozone layer."<ref name = "SocialistWorkers"/> Noonan's idea behind Cain being a hippie was that a love for sex and drugs and hatred for law enforcement (common aspects of hippies) were negatively impacting a 1990s' Detroit.{{Sfn|Counts|1990|p=45}}

=== Humanity and masculinity ===
''RoboCop 2'' also elaborates on [[RoboCop#Humanity and death|Officer Murphy's remaining humanity]] and the tech's impact on it,<ref name = "Psychreg">{{cite web|last=Guttman|first=Maxwell|date=11 December 2019|url=https://www.psychreg.org/robocop-2/|title=How Robocop 2 Overlooks the Psychological Canon of Modern Cinema|website=Psychreg|access-date=February 12, 2021|archive-date=January 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123135241/https://www.psychreg.org/robocop-2/|url-status=live}}</ref> another reason Kershner wanted to direct; he found the conflict a symbol on real-life society becoming programmed and "roboticized" by outside forces unconsciously.{{Sfn|Persons|1990|p=22}} Kershner's intention with ''RoboCop 2'' was to focus more on human depth and emotions and less on violence than the first film: "It's really the violence of the soul, the violence of human interaction that counts, and that's all there."{{Sfn|Johnson|1990b|pp=45, 63}}

Weller summarized that the character, after "finding out" in the predecessor, is now "reaching out for ways to return to who he was."{{Sfn|Persons|1990|p=18}} A scene depicts RoboCop spying on his former wife's home that brings back memories of his previous life; the [[Point-of-view shot|camera presents from his point-of-view]] in these set of memories, which end with Murphy seeing his human face in a bathroom, changing his expression from a smile to frown, and [[match cut]]ting back to the helmeted face of RoboCop in the police car.{{Sfn|Roche|Schmitt-Pitiot|2014|pp=125–126}} [[Fordham University]] social professor Maxwell Guttman suggests that while having memories doesn't make RoboCop more human than any other regular cyborg, the addition of unnecessary, lengthy and conflicting directives by Dr. Juliette Faxx symbolizes how complicated human behavioral science is.<ref name = "Psychreg"/>

David Roche and Isabelle Schmitt-Pitiot interpreted mirror sequences in ''RoboCop 2'' and its predecessor as showing identity problems in the [[hypermasculine]] figure,{{Sfn|Roche|Schmitt-Pitiot|2014|p=125}} mourning the loss of a "natural" masculine identity;{{Sfn|Roche|Schmitt-Pitiot|2014|p=127}} while the first film's sequence showcased a mixture of a fake human face and electronic parts on his head as him having a fragmented identity, the second film's memory scene showcases two separate identities, where the real human one is no longer a part of him.{{Sfn|Roche|Schmitt-Pitiot|2014|p=126}} The re-programming of RoboCop's code and use of it for a different RoboCop also presents masculinity as changing, taking various forms, and revealing hypermasculinity to not be a good form in comparison to others.{{Sfn|Roche|Schmitt-Pitiot|2014|p=127}}