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Grade: B-
Anyone expecting Chappie to match the brilliant political allegories of director Neil Blomkamp's District 9 should know that Chappie is essentially a mashup of Short Circuit, Robocop and assorted direct-to-video action films from the '80s.
The film stars Afrikaans rap-rave psychopaths Yo-Landi Visser and Ninja of the group Die Antwoord as, well, as Yo-Landi Visser and Ninja. Except, instead of musicians they're uzi-toting gangsters who listen to Die Antwoord songs…while wearing Die Antwoord shirts. It also features Hugh Jackman as a mulleted, khaki-shorted, gun-toting Aussie warmonger and Sharlto Copley as a sentient robot who chucks throwing stars and loves rap music. Specifically…Die Antwoord's rap music.
It's all to say that Chappie is pretty fucking stupid. But if you can erase the expectation that Neil Blomkamp movies are groundbreaking, highbrow sci-fi, it's also kind of a blast.
Chappie does begin with some thought-provoking stuff. Set, as was District 9, in the slums of Johannesburg, the film focuses on the timely issue of drone warfare, envisioning a crime-choked city policed by nearly indestructible robots. Their creator, Deon (Dev Patel)—playing god, as all movie scientists must—tries to make them fully sentient with a new AI program.
That pits him against Jackman's ridiculous Vincent, who says shit like "he's as smart as a dunny rat" and is super mad that the drones' success ruined his dream project: a bipedal robot resembling Robocop's ED-209 that's armed with cluster bombs and, um, big scissors.
Eventually, Deon uploads his AI program into Chappie, but only after he's kidnapped by Yo-Landi and Ninja, who want their own robot to help them become "gangsta number 1." What they get, instead, is a scientific miracle in Chappie, who wakes up with the mind of a child, but learns at an exponential rate, starting with words and eventually getting into—wait for it—issues of his own morality and the corruption of the soul.
Before the deep stuff, though, Chappie blows a bunch of shit up, throws a lot of ninja stars, and learns to don gold chains, jack cars and love…Die Antwoord's music. There's probably something to be said about a bunch of white Africans co-opting black American culture and teaching it to their robot slave, but really, that too deep for this movie.
But it doesn't matter because Chappie is a damned entertaining film, particularly in its astoundingly believable CGI; Chappie's greatest achievement is how alive he really seems. Initially skittish, the robot's rabbit ear-like antennae and furrowing brow convey more emotion than Ninja can muster. And his desire to fit in with the street toughs provides the film's biggest chuckles, mainly because he behaves as awkward teenager peacocking for approval while also secretly liking dolls (he has a Yo-Landi doll, because of course).
Naturally, a wonderfully filmed showdown pits Chappie against Jackman's giant robot, and Jackman in particular seems to relish in his over-the-top villain, shredding bad guys with gleeful abandon and the cartoonish sadism of a kid playing Call of Duty.
Blomkamp's film is fun, paying homage (intentionally or not) to '80s trash cinema. It's not as clumsily self-important as Elysium, a film that took ham-fisted to Honey Baked levels. But it still underwhelms— Blomkamp thinks he's telling a much more engaging story than he is, touching on humanity, gender identity and totalitarianism without going deep.
But just when you think it's going to get too mushy, Chappie starts chucking throwing stars and calling people "fucker mother" while blasting Die Antwoord. In those moments, accidental or not, Chappie becomes a weird, disastrous thing of beauty.
WWeek 2015