Despite seeing this film on opening night, I already had caught word that it could potentially be a disaster. I otherwise saw the movie completely blind, knowing only the loose concept and the director/writer Neill Blomkamp.
Blomkamp captured lightning in a bottle in his 2009 debut feature, District 9, which remains one of the greatest modern science fiction movies in the way it serves as an allegory for the racial divide of South Africa, but also a high concept science fiction piece, not to mention a terrific action movie. Elysium, on the other hand (released in 2013), had an impressive concept but ended up as a rather hollow movie. Chappie, unfortunately, has more in common with the latter, primarily in that it never escapes the shadow of District 9. In so many elements, it feels like an attempt to recreate the wow-factor of that film.
In the end however, I did enjoy the film, knowing it was flawed beyond belief but at least it didn’t feel generic or bland.
The first confusing element is whether or not the film is supposed to take place in the future or in an alternate present day. There isn’t enough establishment of the world to verify either one. Chappie tells the story of a corporation’s brilliant young genius (Dev Patel) going rogue and making his own type of robot that isn’t the fighting machine it was intended to be. Chappie (a mo-cap performance from Sharlto Copley) is born, and must learn the nuances of humanity through the underground culture of Johannesburg. What works well are the small moments, such as Chappie learning English and early communication. But for all of those, an equal number of them feel incredibly hokey. The supporting characters are absolutely ridiculous in two different ways; The two main characters are played by rappers Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser from the South African rave-rap group Die Antwoord. Neither one has previous acting experience, which makes for brutally uncomfortable performances until finally you get used to them. The rest of the cast consists of notable actors (Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver among others) who give their all toward undeveloped or misguided characters.
For what it is worth, the film is unpredictable in many ways. Especially since I avoided trailers, the story took many directions I did not expect. I was intrigued through the lengthy runtime, but also made painfully aware of its cringe-worthy bad moments. Ultimately, the film is weighed down by how implausible some of the decisions are and how little the details are developed, much like Elysium before it. If that sounds interesting to you, then by all means go see it, but if you’re looking for a well developed, quality project, you’re going to have to wait for something else to be released.
I find it interesting that this film is produced by Sony. For one thing, it means that you’ll get more blatant product placement than any film outside the Transformers series. It also feels like the type of project that is a hit on paper, but is undeveloped and misguided in its execution. In the end however, I did enjoy the film, knowing it was flawed beyond belief but at least it didn’t feel generic or bland. I hope that Blomkamp steps farther outside his safety net on the Alien franchise, which he is slated to direct next. If he takes the same approach as his last two films, it will similarly feel ambitiously interesting but hollow and misguided.
