CHAPPIE – The Review

Neill Blomkamp is full of good ideas. He’s a visionary. With three features now under his belt the South African filmmaker has quickly become one of the most recognized names working in the sci-fi genre. However, CHAPPIE proves, much like his previous minor failure ELYSIUM, that that’s all he’s good for. Ideas are just that without a proper framework to support them, and CHAPPIE is not even close to being a sound structure. In a lot of ways a comparison could be made to George Lucas. Both men have strong concepts and vision but shaky when it comes to fleshing out the ideas. They can deliver to the head of a major studio a solid logline with the possibility of potential. But now with two big budget misfires in a row, the potential and talent we saw in DISTRICT 9 seems further and further in the past – with a future that’s not looking too bright.

Deon (Dev Patel) is a software developer who works for a company run by Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) that has created a robotic police force to battle the rise of crime in a near-future set Johannesburg. After an exciting opening action sequence that puts one of the robots out of commission, Deon uses this as an opportunity to secretly test out a new program on the defunct robot that makes the machine act and feel more like a man. Things go awry though when Deon and his new creation are kidnapped by a pair of criminals, Ninja and Yolandi (they make up the rap group Die Antwood). Meanwhile, a jealous software developer (Hugh Jackman) that works alongside Deon thinks he has the answer to solve crime with his bigger and badder creation.

Much like the dirty and detritus filled worlds that we’ve seen now for three films in a row (I like his aesthetic but can this man envision a different sort of environment?), CHAPPIE is a cobbled together hero’s journey of self-discovery that bares far too many similarities to ROBOCOP. From the extreme gang violence, the abandoned factory locations, the idea of a robot vying to feel human, to a final battle with a larger robot called The Moose which even resembles the ED-209, I was constantly perplexed as to why Blomkamp chose to go in such a similar direction, even after the remake which came out just last year.

His heavy-handed attempts at sentimentality are even more egregious. The robot Chappie is presented as child-like and wanting to know about the world. Chappie quickly learns that the world is a pretty rough place. This is all well and good if there was an ounce of subtlety to the life lessons. Between witnessing him getting picked on and beat-up (in glorious and dramatic slow-motion mind you) to seeing Yolandi (who he calls “mommy”) tuck him into bed and explain that what’s important is “in the inside,” I constantly felt the film’s manipulative pull at my emotions. Sadly for the film, I didn’t once empathize with the hackneyed displays of cheap melancholy.

The characters make it even harder to feel anything for CHAPPIE. Structuring a film around a colorful cast of miscreants and criminals is a pretty ballsy move in my book. Setting aside the moral implications of rooting for the “bad” guys in-lieu of an entertaining story feels like something out of a 1970’s drive-in movie. The problem is that CHAPPIE is so littered with repugnant characters that it’s hard to love or be entertained when you’re constantly repulsed by everything on-screen. It’s even hard to like Dev Patel’s pseudo-good-guy when you see him try to force Chappie to paint just because he wants a “cultured” robot. Isn’t the whole message about finding out who you really are in the inside?

There are in fact two saving graces in the film: Hans Zimmer’s soaring score and Trent Opaloch’s sumptuous photography. The screen is filled with rich imagery. A particular attention is made at capturing the environments, such as the graffiti lined walls of the crime lair. The bright colors and graphic Hello Kitty meets Heavy Metal art direction creates an always exciting backdrop for our metallic friend. Some might argue Zimmer goes a little overboard at times, but due to the obtuse emotions displayed by the dialogue and action, the swelling score was the least of my worries.

The poster for CHAPPIE states, Humanity’s last hope isn’t human. This is certainly misleading in a couple of ways. For starters, never in the film’s story is all of humanity at risk. At most you could say the city of Johannesburg is in danger but that’s not really accurate to put that on Chappie. The entire army of police droids is shutdown causing panic in the streets, but the film doesn’t place Chappie in the role to stop that. He’s meant to just protect his friends and creator from the evil, mullet styled Hugh Jackman. So not only does the film attempt to manipulate your emotions, the poster too creates a false scenario that isn’t even present in the film. Chappie himself isn’t going to save humanity and the film CHAPPIE is definitely not made to do so either. Blomkamp may love the idea of bringing “big” sci-fi ideas to mainstream cinema – even if these ideas are far from new and aren’t really big – but his film will only satisfy genre fans that are willing to look past rusty mechanics and an artificial heart.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5

CHAPPIE is now plying in theaters everywhere