Chappie is flashy in presentation and sentimental, but lacks in plot and logic. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
By Eileen McClean
Chappie is a sci-fi thriller written and directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium). It stars Sharlto Copley (District 9) as the title character, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Hugh Jackman (the X-Men films) and the members South African rap group Die Antwoord. After a robotic police force is put to use in Johannesburg, the creator of the robots, Patel tests his new artificial intelligence technology on one of the robots.
District 9 (2009), Blonkamp’s first film, is one of my all time favorite films. Because of this, I had high expectations for Elysium (2013), that were unfortunately did not meet. So going into Chappie, I was not sure what to expect; was it going to be another thought-provoking sci-fi masterpiece, or another heavy-handed, plot hole riddled mess?
While Chappie is a slight improvement over Elysium, it definitely falls under the latter category. Chappie wears its heart on its sleeve, often becoming overly sentimental and failing to actually connect with the audience’s emotion. There are interesting ideas behind the story, but the film is very heavy-handed in its presentation.
The main fault of the film is the screenplay. Some of the dialogue is laughably bad. The story contains huge plot holes, and many of the decisions made by the characters do not make sense and some pivotal moments hinge on implausible coincidences. I spent much of the time being baffled at the sloppiness of the story.
Ninja and Yolandi of Die Antwoord are not professional actors and it shows in their performances. Copley, who was excellent in District 9, does a decent job as the voice and the motion capture for Chappie, but he is limited because you cannot see his face. Jackman gives it his all as the movie’s main antagonist and is probably the most entertaining part of the film, despite his character’s motivations being so vague and underdeveloped. Patel does his best to bring the film some humanity, but he can only do so much with such a poor story and bad dialogue.
For me, Blomkamp is similar to directors James Cameron and M. Night Shyamalan; all three have a lot of creativity and directing ability, they just fail to execute them well in their screenplays. If stylish and thoughtful science fiction is your preferred film genre, Chappie may be worth a watch, but otherwise you can skip this film.
