Top 10 Superhero Movies That Aren’t Based On Comics

#5 RoboCop (1987)

I don’t want to give RoboCop praise it doesn’t deserve, but this is one unintentionally awesome piece of entertainment. The idea to extend the dutiful, almost robotic concept of being a cop to creating artificial superheroes that are actually robotic was brilliant, Reagan or no Reagan. It’s this kind of poetic storytelling that makes a “sort of alright looking film” into a cultural touchstone.

True, RoboCop purports itself to be more of a sci-fi action romp than anything technically heroic, and you can blame that on the practically post-apocalyptic future setting of Detroit and anti-Reagan commentary. But for as long as anyone can remember, the best of comics and science fiction have always had a significant overlap in the first place, especially when it comes time to do the origin story. It certainly helps that RoboCop blends its agendas so well, you can make a good argument for both.

But right down to it, RoboCop represents some of the best original 80s filmmaking. It has a pitch-perfect attention to location detail, its characters are fascinating to watch, the violence is brutal, the humor is even more brutal, and it’s one of the few action movies that makes you think without explicitly beating you over the head with its cautionary themes (i.e. Terminator).