CONNOR BURTON
Special to The Leader
“Chappie” is the latest film from director Neil Blomkamp. He is best known for directing “District 9” and “Elysium.” “Chappie” shows the director playing around in the same sci-fi territory while trying to tackle socio-political and philosophical ideas. Unfortunately, “Chappie” doesn’t live up to the standards he set with his impressive debut of “District 9.”
The film starts in a not-so-distant future set in Johannesburg, South Africa. A weapons development company has created an efficient robot police force that has been able to cut down crime. Dev Patel plays Deon Wilson, the engineer behind the robots. He is obsessed with cracking the code for the next evolutionary step: artificial intelligence.
Hugh Jackman plays a fellow engineer whose robot prototype is rejected and starts to catch onto what Wilson is up to. Members of the South African hip-hop group Die Antwoord play the gangster leads who kidnap Wilson and keep Chappie, a robot, after Wilson successfully brings him to life.
Most of the human characters in the film are either annoying, aggravating or don’t have much depth. Chappie, though, is the most human character in the movie, ironically enough. He is childlike as he learns about the world around him and, because of his innocence, he is easily manipulated by Ninja, the gangster lead, to help carry out his crimes.
While this movie is flawed, Blomkamp delivers with the action and special effects. That has been his one consistent trademark. The action is well choreographed and exciting. The movie moves along at a fairly speedy pace over its two-hour runtime. Despite its issues, it is entertaining and intriguing.
The issue seems to be that Blomkamp is great at coming up with intriguing concepts and knows how to film action, but when it comes to writing a narrative or characters as compelling as the concepts, he comes up short.
Chappie, himself, is a great character that wins the audience over right away, but the rest of the cast feels wasted. Especially aggravating is Hugh Jackman’s character. His performance is fine, but the character that was written for him is uninteresting. His character just isn’t really an interesting villain.
I was really excited for “Chappie” because after “District 9,” it’s apparent Blomkamp is capable of great things. The potential is evident, but at the moment he comes off as a one-trick pony.
Next, Blomkamp will be directing a fifth “Alien” film. Signourney Weaver, who plays the CEO of the weapons Development Company, is going to return as Ripley and reteam with Blomkamp. The sequel is said to pick up after the second — and arguably best — film in the franchise. Hopefully, Blomkamp learns from some of his mistakes with “Chappie” and lives up to his work in “District 9.”
“Chappie” is worth checking out, as it has received polarized reviews, with some hating it and some loving it. It is entertaining enough to recommend and has some really cool ideas, but the numerous flaws in the execution make it difficult to recommend as enthusiastically as I had hoped.