Chappie (2015)

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nChappie (2015)

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nDirector: Neil Blomkamp

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nCast: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley, Ninja,nYo-landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver

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nWhen you see Chappie, you immediately know it’s a NeilnBlomkamp movie. It has his signature all over it. Let’s see, it was shot innAfrica (like his previous two films) it stars Sharlto Copley and it has robotsnengraved into the story, all elements we’ve seen in his previous films. What Inlike about Blomkamp’s films is that they always have something to say. His filmsnare very socially conscious; they are never just empty spectacles. For example Districtn9 (2009) spoke of racism, Elysium (2013) spoke of classism and now here we havenChappie, Blomkamp’s third film. What does this talented director have to talknabout this time?

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nChappie is all about these armor plated attack robots thatnare used by the South African police force to pacify and protect the country.nThese robot cops have proven effective in reducing crime in the country. DeonnWilson, the robots designer, has invented a chip that can make the robotsnsentient. In other words, he can make these robots think and feel on their own.nProblem is that his ideas sound too radical for his superiors, so they deny himnthe permission to move forward with his sentient chip. In a desperate move ton“shape life and not let life shape you” he decides to steal a robot that wasnmeant to be scrapped and installs the chip on it in this way jump starting thenfirst sentient form of artificial intelligence. Unfortunately when the robot becomesnconscious, it has the intelligence of a child. It learns fast, but it is verynnaïve. What happens when Chappie ends up with the wrong crowd?

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nBlomkamp infused Chappie with elements from many films thatnhe grew up watching. For example, the first idea that popped into my head whilenwatching Chappie was that Neil Blomkamp should have been the director for thenRobocop (2014) reboot. Here’s a guy who really, truly understands the themes that anfilm like Robocop plays with. In fact, one look at Chappie and it’s obviousnthat Blomkamp’s a huge fan of Paul Verhoeven’s original Robocop (1987), especially those scenesnwhere we see the robot police force at work. When Chappie’s taking the worldnin, like a little baby, it reminded me of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit (1986),nespecially in those scenes in which Chappie is learning all about life andndeath. All I could think about was Johnny 5 saying “Johnny 5 is ALIVE!” Thosenscenes in which Chappie is taken advantage of by a bunch of hoodlums to donquestionable things reminded me of those scenes in Edward Scissorhands (1990)nwhen Edward is dooped into committing a felony without even knowing it becausenhe is so naive. Those scenes where Chappie goes up against a huge clunky robotnbrought to mind the climactic confrontation in Robocop 2 (1990), where Robocopndestroys the city as he fights against a bigger Robocop. In fact, if we’re tongo even deeper into Chappie’s influences, we discover that it plays with thenideas of transferring consciousness into an artificial body, a theme we sawnplayed out in Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995), hell, Chappie even hasna little bit of Appleseed in its design, I’m speaking of Chappie’s rabbit ears ofncourse.  As you can see, Chappie hasnelements from many films that deal with similar subject matter. 

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nOkay, so Chappie is influenced by a gazillion movies (whatnmovie isn’t these days?), but what is it about? As it turns out Chappie talksnabout some very important themes, it speaks about the importance of who bringsnup a child. One of the theories of human learning says that Humans learn bynimitation, we copy others behavior. This is true with children who repeatneverything we say and do everything they see us do. Some of us get decent rolenmodels, but some of us get terrible parents who are terrible role models. Thenquestion Chappie asks is what happens when our role models are violent peoplenwith no morals? What if our role models believe stealing and killing is okay?nWill we grow up to become robbers and killers? Chances are we will. The filmnstresses the importance of good parenting, good education and good role modelsnin our lives. The movie goes into deeper territory when Chappie’s knowledgengrows and he starts to ask ‘the big questions’. Why must we die? Why make usnwith an expiration date? It’s no coincidence that Chappie’s creator is callednDeon, which sounds like Deus, which is Latin for God. So we have the creationnasking its creator for more life. Like the androids in Blade Runner (1982),nChappie also wants more life. So yeah, Chappie has its themes. It’s not annempty shell.

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nThe cast is an eclectic bunch. We have the participation ofnDie Antwoord the African rap/rave band, who by the way also supply the musicnfor the film, not the best performances in the film, but also not terrible. DevnPatel does good as Chappie’s creator. We have Hugh Jackman as a ‘villain’ whichnis a first for Jackman who never plays villains. Sigourney Weaver is on boardnas the head of the corporation that builds the robots. She has a small role, whichnlately is all she’s been getting, but that’s okay with me because due to hernsmall part in Chappie, she’s just started working with Blomkamp on the nextninstallment of the alien franchise, which I’m all kinds of excited about. Everynalien movie is different, because there’s always a different director behind thencameras. I’m looking forward to Blomkamp’s take on the alien universe, I’m surenrobots will be involved somehow.  As farnas Chappie goes, it was an enjoyable entertaining ride with something relevantnto say. The effects work was fantastic, I loved the way Chappie looks, it’s ancool design. Chappie looks very similar to the robots on Blomkamp’s early shortnfilm Tetra Vaal (2004); which by the way served as the basis for Chappie. Sonfar, Blomkamp hasn’t let me down as a director, looking forward to his futurenfilms. It’s fantastic to count with a director who so far has totally devotednhimself to the science fiction genre, haven’t had one of those in quite somentime.  

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nRating: 4 out of 5 

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