RoboCop didn’t make our Top 20 anticipated movies in 2014 (it got an honorable mention), but remake stigma aside the film doesn’t seem so bad on its own terms – how it compares to Paul Verhoeven’s original, that remains to be seen. Still, the setup remains the same (and relevant as ever): an ordinary Detroit cop is critically-injured, then resurrected as a cybernetic law enforcement “product” developed by a powerful corporation.

OmniCorp is the technology organization in question, and a new viral clip highlights the company’s newest creation: the RC-2000, a machine with the conscience of a human being, in the form of good-guy police officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman). The footage is reminiscent of the Weyland Industries TED Lecture viral video from the marketing for Prometheus and (to a lesser degree) the Oscorp recruitment videoreleased as buildup to The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012.

The end of the above video directs you to the OmniCorp website, which will continue to add new features over the next few weeks leading up to RoboCop‘s theatrical bow. One portion of the site, titled “Ushering in a New Age,” references the “leading expert in biomechatronics,” Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) – Robo’s inventor in the remake, essentially.

Check out Dr. Norton and other key figures in the film – like OmniCorp founder Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) and weapons specialist Mattox (Jackie Earle Haley) – in these hi-re versions of previously-released RoboCop stills:
 

Viral material for a film like The Amazing Spider-Man is useful for better fleshing out the series’ universe, in a way that will please fans who are interested in playing in that sandbox outside of what’s shown onscreen. Problem is, whereas the presentation for a fictional corporation like Oscorp – the “evil empire” behind all the conflict that will be featured in upcoming Spider-Man installments – has been more organized, it seems that the RoboCop marketing for OmniCorp is more inconsequential; and thus, it feels more haphazard and less planned-out (read: less entertaining).

Then again, if the RoboCop remake is successful enough to warrant a sequel, then it’ll be helpful to have more backstory for OmniCorp established ahead of time. First things first, though, as we need to see how everyone feels about director José Padilha’s re-imagining first, before we continue to talk of how to properly shape this franchise any further.

RoboCop opens in U.S. theaters on February 12th, 2014.