Theatrical Reviews: Chappie

Neil Blomkamp is not a favorite director of mine.  That may just be due to bad will from all of the District 9 over-hype back in 2009; but that doesn’t make up for the fact that he has given little proof that he deserves his high-profile director position. Every movie I’ve seen from him has been some level of mediocre, and Chappie, his latest, is no exception.

To be clear:  I don’t dislike Chappie; In fact I think it may be the best movie Blomkamp has made so far.  Chappie, like most of Blomkamp's movies, is visually entertaining, intellectually stimulating and, at the same time, horribly written and almost offensively brainless; but unlike his other movies, Chappie has a decent amount of characterization and intriguing plot elements to help keep it on track.

Chappie himself is actually a very endearing character, and the movie focuses mostly on him.  The other characters may seem one dimensional and lame, because they are, but that doesn’t matter as much when they aren’t the focus.  It’s truly heart melting watching Chappie age from robo-childhood to robo-adulthood, and his voice, which is provided by the talented Charlto Copley, adds a lot to what makes him work.  The movie is kind of like a  robot version of Boyhood in this manner, and while that doesn’t work great; it does indeed work. 

What mostly brings the movie down is the script.  The majority of these characters are absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable; and many of the plot elements are laughably ridiculous. 

Hugh Jackman’s villain character is particularly bizzare, and many of his motivations are never made clear; he just sort of seems like a psychopathic jerk.  The character isn’t awful, but that’s not because of the writing; it’s because Hugh Jackman is a good actor.  Overall though, his character feels tacked on to the story.

Almost as bad as the villain; their are two characters played by a couple of famous South African rappers.  Who's characters are a couple of criminals who's names are the same as the musicians who play them; and also they wear their own band T-shirts in the film, decimating the fourth wall, and making me want to puke a little bit.  These guys must be big in South Africa, because they're featured more then Hugh Jackman or Sigourney Weaver.  Fortunately the two of them are passable actors, so it isn't too distracting; but their casting is still baffling to me.

So with all of these bad bits and complaints one might think that Chappie was just as lame as Elysium or (I know this isn’t a popular opinion) District 9, but this time the sci-fi morality tale isn't at the center of the story, A likable character is.  Chappie contains a lot of the moral and social commentary that its predecessors did, but now those things are in the background of an enjoyable story, not at the forefront.  It is encouraging to me that Blomkamp is now trying to put ideas into stories and not the other way around.

I don’t love Chappie, but I do like it, and I’m glad I got t see it.  It’s got flaws coming out all of it’s apertures, but it does a lot of things right to counter balance those flaws.  Is it a good movie?  It might be; I’d recommend buying a ticket and deciding for yourself.