“Chappie” was a total letdown. I was hoping for director Neill Blomkamp to recreate the sophistication of his film “District 9” (with robots instead of aliens) but I should have known that this film would not be the same. Or even close. I now understand that much of the acclaim garnered by “District 9” was due to its documentary style, which allowed it to transcend the realm of fantasy and become reality. Removing that style leaves us with little more than a sci-fi-robot-action-fantasy film whose R-rating blocks out the young teenagers and families that should have been its target audience. The film opens with a lot of promise by revealing a unique South African setting in which a rampant crime wave has been completely shut down by a robotic police force. It also introduces interesting themes that involve artificial intelligence and the characteristics that make us human. Even without the documentary style, I was intrigued. The design of Chappie was cool, Dev Patel developed a character that we could really support… and then they introduced three of the most annoying characters that I have ever encountered in any movie. The cast includes Sigourney Weaver (who receives about 5 minutes of screen time), Hugh Jackman (who receives about 20 minutes of screen time), and wastes TWO HOURS of our time on three obnoxious gangster wannabes. They remind me of the bad guys from a children’s cartoon, but the film obviously is not geared toward children with its annoyingly excessive amount of unnecessary profanity. Then there’s the titular character whose design looks amazing on a movie poster. And then he spoke… They really overdid the idea that Chappie is “born” with the intelligence of an infant. He could have had an adult style of speech and learned “like” a child but they elected to have him learn “as” a child, which is almost as annoying as the three gangsters that teach him. I think that it gives us an idea of what a Jar Jar Binks standalone film might look like. There are a few interesting twists toward the end but they aren’t enough to redeem the painful journey that we travel to get there. “Chappie” had enormous potential with its concept, big names, setting, and special effects, but some major script issues and poor casting decisions make this film completely unremarkable.
[Pictured: "Chappie" looked good enough to bring people into the theaters but the story wasn't good enough to make it memorable]
