Review of Chappie (2015) by Vortex Shadow — 23 Apr 2016

I'm already a massive fan of Neill Blomkamp's films, District 9 was one of the best debut movies from a director in a very long time (and it was sci-fi...win!) and personally I thought his second movie, Elysium, was a lot better than the critics thought. So why it took me this long to get round to watching Chappie I'll never know. Enter my very very good friend who loves it and who has been quite insistent I watch it, and hey presto, I'm left head in hands thinking "why the f**k didn't I watch this sooner?!".

It's quite superb. It's essentially a film about Artificial Intelligence and the moral and ethical issues it raises, and it also raises a lot of very deep 'human' questions too. Blomkamp has stuck to his own particular view of the future which he is becoming famous for; dark, dirty, nasty, brutal, cyberpunk. It's funny at times as we watch Chappie 'grow up', but I also found certain scenes hard to watch as Chappie is 'bullied' in a manner of speaking, and such is the depth of Sharlto Copley's mo-cap performance that I was literally welling up and saying "Leave him the f**k alone will ya!!" at the screen.

The film is basically debating what it is to be concious before our eyes, and is it possible to transfer that conciousness...is that evolution or technology? Is it nature or nurture that moulds us? Can a good person be taught to be bad?

For me personally there was only one tiny aspect of this movie that let it down, and that was Blomkamp's use of the South African rap band Die Antwoord as main actors in the film. He uses their music a lot anyway, and they look the part for near-future cyberpunk gangsters, but I'm afraid they're pretty awful actors, and with slightly better casting Chappie would have been catapulted into being a classic. I must give Blomkamp credit though as at least he is bold enough to try something like this.

Personally I loved this, and can't wait to see what he comes up with next, but I think it's likely to be considered a 'marmite' movie!!