Chappie Review

Chappie is the latest sci-fi movie from director Neil Blomkamp who has already given us District 9 and Elysium. First of all Chappie has a fantastic cast with great actors such Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman and Sharlto Copley as Chappie. Arguably the main characters in the movie are the band Die Antwoord who play a gangster version of themselves.

To be clear going into this film I was not a big fan of Neil Blomkamp.  I though Disrict 9 was an interesting movie but the characters lacked personality and Elysium was great visually with a rather boring plot. The character development in District 9 and Elysium was near enough non-existent and sadly it’s the same in Chappie. This is a film I was initially interested in from the trailer as it looked like a kind of Robocop/Iron Giant crossover however unlike those films you don’t care about anyone in it especially due to the fact the film focusses mainly on these band members who are two of the most unlikeable “actors” I have ever seen in a film. Worryingly the character I found myself siding with was the villain played by Hugh Jackman as I just wanted him to kill this band Die Antwoord. Chappie himself is likeable enough but spends a long part of the film as part of the gang’s plans which is such a waste.

What frustrated me most about Chappie is that Blomkamp always talks about how he creates original movie universes however Chappie is anything but original. It doesn’t only borrow the basic plot of the Robocop reboot but it also uses its villain robot. Even though the director has said that the Moose is inspired by Robocop’s ED-209 I think the resemblance is a bit too close. Take a look for yourself.

Moose 

Ed-209

Yeah tell me they are not the same 

Overall Chappie is just lacklustre. The only positive thing I have to say is that as always with Blomkamp it is beautifully directed and the final action scene was fairly entertaining. Neil Blomkamp better pull his socks up for his next Alien project which I am now really worried about.

Score : 4.5/10