Chappie review

CHAPPIE:

SHORT CIRCUIT MEETS ROBOCOP DONE IN THE STYLE OF DISTRICT 9!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

He is consciousness, he is alive, he is Chappie

            Director Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) returns with his latest low budget sci-fi action film, Chappie and like District 9, the film is based on a short film by Blomkamp released in 2004, Tetra Vaal. I’ve never seen Blomkamp’s original short, but as a movie, I thought this was okay but a huge downgrade from his earlier films. Unlike District 9 and Elysium, Chappie looked more wide eyed and cute when I saw the trailers.

            I got part of that correct, Chappie doesn’t have as much bloody violence as District 9, but the film is still oriented towards older audiences, with its language, violence, situations, and even some robot cruelty, so parents, don’t take your little ones to watch this movie, don’t be fooled by its posters and ads.

             The film is set in Johannesburg (Sound familiar? Well, guess what, there’s no aliens or a giant UFO this time!), in the near future where the law is enforced by a mechanized police force, and now the human citizens are fighting back the robotic officers. When a police droid named Chappie (Sharlto Copley-District 9, The A-Team, Elysium) is stolen by South African criminals, Ninja (Played by rapper, Ninja) and Yolandi (Played by singer, Yolandi Visser) to use him in a heist to get money, he is given new programming by his maker, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel-Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) allowing him to obtain artificial intelligence and can learn to think and act like a human.

            The gang and maker raise Chappie like a human child, teaching him how to read books, paint, and how to use certain objects like watches, dolls, and weaponry. But when an evil competitor to Deon, Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman-X-Men franchise, The Prestige, Real Steel) and the chief of the police force, Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver-Alien franchise, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, Avatar) learn about Chappie, Michelle orders Vincent to destroy him because of the possible damage he might cause to the human race.

            So Chappie must protect his family from Vincent’s high-tech toy, The Moose, a computer controlled mech that resembles the ED-209 from RoboCop before he runs out of battery power and loses his life.

            Overall, Chappie is a step down from Neill Blomkamp's previous work but it has some appealing aspects like the effects and performances. Despite it being released under Columbia rather than the smaller, TriStar Pictures like Blomkamp's earlier films, it does capture the low-budget look of District 9 and Elysium and the effects on Chappie and the robots in general are quite good. 

            The action is solid with lots of robots VS humans brawls, shootings, and Chappie battling a much larger robot that's being controlled by a delightfully evil Hugh Jackman. It also has one of the greatest villain defeats I've seen in a while.

            While none of the characters are anything spectacular, Chappie is a very lovable character as he's learning about the world and human life. Sharlto Copley does a wonderful job bringing Chappie to life and he manages to make the character both dramatic and funny throughout the entire film.

            What brings the movie down for me are the side characters and inconsistent tone as sometimes the film is trying to be cute and heavy at the same time. Like you have a scene where Chappie will do something cutesy and goofy, but then the movie follows it up with a scene of him getting brutally attacked by a gang, it's such an awkward and sudden tonal shift that I think could have been handled better.

            I praised Copley's performance as Chappie and Dev Patel is endearing as his inventor, but Ninja and Yolandi's characters are horrible people as they're essentially corrupting this childish mind inside of Chappie in order to pursue their scheme. When the film was trying to have a family message where he sees Ninja as his dad and Yolandi as his mom, I didn't buy it for a second.

            Speaking of which, the messages in Chappie seem to be very lost and confused as it tries to give Chappie moral fibers and intentions to do good yet he's stuck with less-dickish gang members as parents. Maybe had it been about the maker teaching Chappie to do good and not to use violence, but an incident happens that requires Chappie to make a decision that goes against what he was taught.

            I don't know guys, I wouldn't say Chappie is a terrible movie as there are some impressive and entertaining things about it. But coming off of a science-fiction landmark like District 9 and the moderately thrilling and thought-provoking, Elysium, this is unfortunately a clumsy, unfocused mess and the weakest film from Neill Blomkamp, approach this Bot with caution.