Review of Chappie (2015) by Leon B — 19 Jul 2015

Review:

I quite enjoyed this movie but the acting was pretty poor and I thought that Hugh Jackmans character went a bit overboard. The film is set in the there near future and there are robots in the police force, helping them to cut down crime. When one of the robots gets severely injured, he is set to be crushed but the promising programmer of the robots, comes up with a new chip so he rescues the robot so he can use him to test the new chip, against the organisations wishes. On the way back from collecting the robot, he gets kidnapped but a bunch of thugs that want him to give them the switch to turn of the robots so they can commit crimes to pay of a huge debt. They then find the robot (Chappie) in the boot of the programmers car so they threaten him to programme Chappie so he can join there gang and help them to commit crimes. He then installs the new chip into Chappie and he gains the ability to think and feel for himself but he is in the baby stages of his life so the thugs bring him up as there own. The programmer tries to teach him right from wrong but the head of the gang teaches him violence and theft so they can get the money to pay off there debt. The programmer is also fighting against another programmer who can't get his robot off of the ground because of funding and the fact that the existing robots are welcome in the police force. Once the rival programmer finds out about Chappie, he makes it his mission to destroy the robots, just to prove that his robots are the best. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with the storyline but the robot was brilliant. It made me laugh when he was acting like he was down with the crew and the car jacking scenes were also amusing. There are some emotional scenes, like when his mum was reading to him in bed but it really needed some decent actors to make it more emotional. Personally, I think it was a bit too close to Robocop, especially when the big robot came into play but it's definitely worth a watch, just to see the mannerisms of the robot. Watchable!

Round-Up:

With big names like Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver in the cast, the director really didn't get the best use out of them. Jackman, who was sporting an awful haircut, was going way overboard to prove that his robot was the best and Dev Patel wasn't the best choice for his role. Sigourney Weaver is hardly in the movie, which is a shame and the rest of the cast was really awful, except for Chappie of course. Apart from that, the CGI is brilliant and the robot looked like he was really there. It did remind me a lot of District 9 and Robocop but I liked the emotional scenes between Chappie and his new found family. The director, Neil Blomkamp, has only made another 2 movies in his career, which are District 9 and the Elysium and at 35 years old, he really can't complain about his career so far. He made a healthy profit from this movie but his real claim to fame has to be District 9, which was his first movie. Sharlto Copley has become famous from his movies and he voiced Chappie very well. It was a bit of a weird ending, when Chappie started to turn people into robots but the action scenes were quite impressive and you can't fault it for originality. .

Budget: $49million.

Worldwide Gross: $102million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/sci-fi/thrillers about a newly programmed robot who gets brought up by a gang who shows him how to commit crimes. 6/10.