The 2014 remake of RoboCop is disappointing in many ways, but one behind-the-scenes detail makes its failure even more disheartening by showing how good it could have been. The RoboCop remake is, simply put, not a great film. It's often listed among the worst science fiction reboots of all time, and it only has 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. Given the popularity and cult-classic status of Paul Verhoeven and Peter Weller's original 1987 film, RoboCop 2014 was a major disappointment. Even Alex Murphy actor Joel Kinnaman tried to explain why RoboCop 2014 was a failure.

There are plenty of reasons why RoboCop was a bad remake, but one of them unfortunately proved that the movie could have been great. There's usually a wide range of factors that turn a good idea into an underwhelming final product. Everything from difficult developments to outside influences like poor marketing and a bad release date can help...