Simply A Masterpiece

Absolutely Fantastic

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Terrible. Terrible movie. It is one long "Die Antwoord" music video loosely based on RoboCop and Short Circuit.

I was 45 minutes into Chappie, and I had to turn away from it, because it was not what I was expecting. THIS is the reason for all the negative reviews, I can guarantee. If you're expecting something, fooled by the trailers, and you don't get what you want, it tends to bring out the anger in some. Knowing ahead of time what type of film this was, I watched it on a night when I was "in the mood" for the type of film it was. And what type of film is this? Emotional depth. If you cannot accept emotional depth, you probably will have trouble accepting Chappie. The acting is not the best ( South African pop/rap group Die Antwoord cannot act to save their soul. It worked in Chappies favor, I will explain here shortly.) Chappie borrows a few elements from obvious films, such as Short Circuit and Robocop. However, it still manages to come out with something unique. The acting, again, is not the best, but it works in the movies favor. The only thing that stands out, is Chappie, and as long as you're not judgmental towards his actions, you can feel for him. Sure, he does bad things, but that's the problem: The viewer has to keep in mind that this prototype was stolen, and is forced into a lifestyle its creator did not intend. He is programmed to do things, even against his own nature, and his creator constantly has to remind him that he belongs to him, not the criminals. It's not Chappies fault that he is forced to rob a bank, etc. And Chappie is just like a human, he does have feelings, he does have choices, he does think intelligently, and he does not like being lied to! Chappie aims at an entertainment level, not a logical level, so don't try to see things here that do not exist. There's plenty of action and violence in the last hour, and the movie makes up for the steam that it loses in the first hour, so there's no repenting that needs to be done there. This was a fine, unappreciated piece of work from Neil, who helped create District 9. And to be honest, the first time I tried watching this, I didn't like it too much either. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, I didn't like it. When I gave it a second chance, it won me over: I loved it!

Its not the same old "Artificial Intelligence taking over the world" kind of a story, but begins with the inevitable and obvious,disruption of human society. What leads to this you ask?watch the movie and find out. Its my first Neill Blomkamp movie, and I must say I relished every single moment of it. The concept of AI had to be introduced by some nerdy-brainy scientist-programmer and that role was played by Dev Patel. Ex-military turned engineer, the main antagonist Hugh Jackman was the main reason I wanted to watch the movie in the first place. And of course, not to forget the main lead, Chappie himself, voiced by Sharlto Copley. The fact that this movie doesn't take place in New York, or any other part of the States prone to alien attacks or rise of deadly zombies, is comforting. The evolution of the character Chappie is a beautiful journey. A loving and caring mom, and a drunken mean father, also a understanding uncle, are the roles played by the supporting cast. The story does show the ugly side of human nature, with every single person being self centred. The 'maker' Dev Patel wanted to test his newly developed AI program and used Chappie as a test subject. Ninja plays the role of a daddy who again tricks Chappie into crimes for his personal gain, and looks at him like he is nothing more than a pile of talking metal chunk. Hugh Jackman, jeopardizes the safety of the whole city, just so that he can test his own "superior drone" and taste success,on which Dev Patel was basking till now.His superior drone, is literally over-kill and ruthless, literally cutting a man in half. In all this self-centeredness and mayhem, Chappie doesnt lose his humble and kind hearted nature. Not only that he makes you love him by his childish antics in the beginning, makes your eyes moist as he feels pain(actually he can't) but he surpasses his creator, his 'maker' and creates something bigger, better, something which only can be dreamed of. Exactly that should be the purpose of AI, to go beyond capabilities of humans to create something more. Every other film,(or at least many of them) focus on the dark side of AI, but this one shows that if nurtured with love, AI can help solve the ultimate question, making fiction into reality. One more thing that I really like, in any movie is to end it with a question which makes viewers want more, which keeps the possiblity of the second part alive, which can continue to live on its legacy and take it forward. Chappie is a really under-rated movie, and if you want to watch something beautiful such as a robot more human than its creator himself, then this makes up for a really touching and rewarding affair.

'Chappie' is Blomkamp's third film, after 'District 9' and 'Elysium' and easily sits between them in terms of quality. It's a near-future tale of artificial intelligence and how this could play out on a small and large scale. It's nothing new ('Terminator', 'Short Circuit'), but it is done in an interesting way. Deon (Patel) develops "scouts" (basically literal robocops), which Vincent (Jackman) wants to supersede with his mech-warriors. When Deon creates an AI "conscious", Chappie is "born".Unfortunately for Chappie, his "parents" are Ninja & Yo-Landi from 'Die Antwoord', a South African rap-rave "band" (thanks Wikipedia. If you haven't heard them before, don't bother!) I can only assume Blomkamp loves their music (god knows how) and asked them to be in this as a favour. Their faux-gangster act forces Chappie into doing things he doesn't want to and disaster ensues. Jackman is adequately douchey as the Aussie-redneck, Sigourney Weaver is massively underutilised, Patel is solid and Copley is great as the South African-accented voice of Chappie, providing most of the laughs due to his interpretation of sayings.The visual effects - particularly of Chappie and the other scouts - is superb. There's not too much philosophising on the impacts AI could have on humans/the world. The ending was a little drawn-out and obvious - not necessarily good or bad.