Chappie has all the right ingredients to be a delicious film: a stellar cast, a unique setting, impeccable visual effects and great cinematography. Unfortunately, it comes out underdone and leaves a bitter aftertaste.
Neill Blomkamp is at the helm, famed for his short film, District 9, that became a massive feature. Since then he has since failed to recapture the magic and the essence of what made that a modern-day classic.
Chappie is such a promising concept. Deon Wilson, played by Dev Patel, is the ‘creator’ of the Scout Program – a robotic police force in Johannesburg that has rendered human officers redundant. He formulates a long worked-on algorithm to create artificial intelligence (AI) that is able to think and feel.
Simultaneously there is a gang of zany misfits criminals played by notorious rap-rave musicians, Die Antwoord, whose character names (Yolandi and Ninja) are also their real life celebrity names. Needing a get-rich-quick scheme to pay off a gang lord, they plot to kidnap Deon and get control of the police drones.
What unfolds from the kidnapping onward is a cliché fest of so many sci-fi tropes. Once Yolandi and Ninja stumble upon Deon’s creation, a naïve robot named ‘Chappie’ and decide to use him to aid their criminal pursuits.
There’s a saying in film, ‘show, don’t tell’. Blomkamp ignores this. The script feels like it is stuck in draft #2, and throughout the movie the dialogue is janky and filled with too much exposition. As well as every character vocalising their feelings when they are alone, the movie considers the audience too dumb to figure out things themselves.
Most disappointing is the sense of how well everything could have gone. Having the corporation run by an ‘evil’ and ‘greedy‘ boss (Sigourney Weaver) and giving Hugh Jackman’s villain jealously as a primary motivation are frankly cheap plot devices. The only character development comes from the best character in the film by far: Chappie himself.
Voiced by Charto Copley, an old friend of Blomkamp, Chappie steals the show as the loveable robot with the mind of a child who learns the world around him. There’s a great contrast between being raised as a criminal by Die Antwoord, and on a more moral footing by kidnap victim, Deon. Although, why Deon seems to be able to come-and-go from the gang’s hideout as he pleases rather than going to the police, is something of a mystery.
Validating the movie’s tired attempts to freshen stale ideas, is the very satisfying end fight. It culminates with law enforcement, the Gang Lord and his cronies, Die Antwoord, Chappie and the rest makes for a solid climax. Sadly, although this scene is entertaining it doesn’t hold its momentum all the way to the credits screen
For many, by this point of Chappie it’ll be too late.
