Chappie

Review By: John Delia

Turning what could have been just another I, Robot into a winning sci-fi thriller, director Neill Blomkamp gives moviegoers Chappie.  The film opens with exciting action and continues on a rollercoaster ride only slowing down to create new characters.  It’s the first dynamo of the year and opening during a Spring Break weekend.  While seventeen years old and over includes a large college crowd that will fill theaters, the movie is not for kids with its display of strong violence and language. What Chappie gains in electrifying thrills though it  lacks in emotion and charm.

The film opens in Johannesburg, South Africa with the city’s robot police force taking care of crime.  The fierce fighting robots are called Scouts, a project headed up by Dion Wilson (Dev Patel) at the Tetraaval Corporation.  But, Dion wants more than a controlled robot. So, he attempts to make one that can think for itself. His working diligently on his new artificial intelligence program has been noticed by his boss Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) who’s watching the budget and doesn’t feel a need for change.  Meanwhile, his competitor at the company, Vince Moore (Hugh Jackman), has the lead on a super robot prototype 473. He would like to see Dion fail as it would give him more funding for his project. When a street gang made up of Yolandi “Mommy” (Yo-Landi Visser), Ninja “Daddy” (Ninja) and Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo) get an idea that they could kidnap Dion and get control of the robot police, things start to get out of hand.

The film moves along at a fairly good pace and we finally get introduced to Chappie (Sharlto Copley), a child-like robot with artificial intelligence. Director Neill Blomkamp who delivered the films District 9 and Elysium to the screen helms this thriller using a lot of what he gathered in the aforementioned movies. I like what he has done with his police controlled Scout robots in Chappie making them take control of even the most dangerous situations while protecting human ground troops. His superbot character isn’t anything new ;however, just a huge bot that we’ve seen in many of the superhero films and that’s a bit of a letdown.

Blomkamp is also the co-writer of the screen story for Chappie. While I do like all the action and the continuous excitement, I’m not totally convinced about the script, especially the coming of age of Chappie. It’s hard for me to grasp that if you have a robot and can install artificial intelligence, why not just provide all the data? There’s a world of knowledge that could have been fed directly into the brain of Chappie without “bringing him up from a child.” His premise actually works against the film rather than enhancing the cuteness. You be the judge on this when and if you go to see the movie.

On the bright side, I did like the performance of Dev Patel as Dion the lead creator of the Scout robot police. He takes control of the film with some very good acting, gives it a realistic look and even adds some comic relief. His intensity increases as the film goes on trying to protect his newest invention now up against his own Scout police force. You will probably recognize Patel from Slumdog Millionaire and The Best Marigold Hotel in which he is featured star.

Two performers that do an outstanding job as hoodlums are rapper/singers Yo-Landi Vissir who plays “Mommy” and Ninja who plays “Daddy” to Chappie. The South African natives are very good actors. They show two sides of their characters being tough crass rebels surviving in an abandoned warehouse and also caretakers for their new found “son.” Their performances provide the only scenes of empathy, comedy and emotion in the film. Just as a quick note for those who are not familiar with the South African rap band Die Antwoord, Yo-Landi Vissir and Ninja are the two lead performers of the group. Check them out at:

http://youtu.be/vcMHkvEVgVo 

Chappie has been rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.  The violence gets intense and the language very strong so think twice about allowing anyone under 17 see the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: An exciting film that should pacify sci-fi addicts until the summer blockbusters roll-in. (B-)