'Chappie' Movie Review

Chappie Movie Review:

The Robot Works

BY IAN TAN

           

              Neill Blomkamp brought us the inventive and original District 9 back in 2009 and the slightly underwhelming Elysium in 2013. Despite the mixed response towards the latter film, the sheer intrigue of the posters and trailers for Distrcit 9, Elysium and Chappie all show that Blomkamp is no stranger to intriguing sci-fi concepts. For District 9, Blomkamp’s compelling premise coupled with a good script and story led it to critical success. When Elysium came out, however, the script, story and editing didn’t match up to it’s ingenious premise and production design. Fortunately with Chappie, Blomkamp gets both aspects of his filmmaking process right, mostly.

            Chappie is set in a world where law enforcement has become almost entirely mechanical, with robot cops (RoboCops? Heheh) called Scouts showing great promise in the decrease of crime rates in Johannesburg. Deon, the inventor of the Scouts, plans to enhance this technology and create conscious, living Scouts, and through a series of circumstances, Chappie is born. But not all is happy and cheery, as Chappie not only has to face the cruelty of the real world and the gangsters that inhibit it, but the determined-to-ruin-Deon’s-career Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) as well.

The OGs from da hood

   

                  The performances here are great. Dev Patel is sympathetic and likable as protagonist Deon while Jackman makes for a hateable antagonist as Vincent Moore. Supporting cast members such as Watkin Tudor Jones and South African deejay Yolandi are memorable in their respective roles as well. The one who deserves the most praise, however, is Neill Blomkamp’s muse Sharlto Copley as Chappie. Copley does wonders not only as the voice of Chappie, but as an animation reference as well (the “poor man’s motion capture” as Copley calls it). Some of the more heart-wrenching and emotional scenes - both dramatic and subtle – are elevated by Copley’s performance. Chappie can now be added to Hollywood’s list of most likeable robots in film.

Chappie in action

            As good as the film’s story, script and performances are, it isn’t without a few drawbacks. One of which is the editing by Julian Clarke, which either spends too long a time on certain scenes and too short a time on other, arguably more important scenes of drama. Scenes between characters like Deon and Vincent seem far in between, making their presence feel almost absent for the middle chunk of the film. Had the editing of the film focused a little more on the bitterness between the characters, the final confrontation towards the end would’ve had a much bigger emotional impact on audiences. Besides that, the ending of the film did feel a tad too much like District 9’s ending, and may annoy some audiences in how the events towards the end of the film happen without a deeper explanation to it’s plausibility. I can’t really say much about it without spoiling it though. Another nit-pick I have with the film is the Moose robot (that one created by Hugh Jackman’s character as seen in the trailer), which seems a little too familiar to the ED-209 from RoboCop.

"I'll claw ya, bub." 

            With fine performances, some good sci-fi drama and storytelling, Chappie is Blomkamp’s second best picture to date, just behind District 9. Despite being bogged down by a few editing issues and a questionable ending, on an emotional and story level, Chappie works.

Final Verdict

Chappie gets 8 out of 10 stars – Well worth your money. No need to catch this one in IMAX though (unless you like cool robotic sound design), I’d save that for Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.