How do I describe Chappie? Picture a scientist, who develops a program capable of thinking for itself, learning faster than a human can,and the story of how he bonds with a robot he tests this program on....then throw in a crap ton of gangsta rap, ridiculous gangsta dialogue, gangsta crime sprees, gangsta gun poses, gangsta walking, gangsta bling bling, gangsta gangsta gangsta and even more gangsta! Yeah if you can't already tell this is a pretty silly film. It has some fun concepts, and a lovable robot, I can't lie there, but Chappie does have a lot of shortcomings, and the resulting creation, is a film that has much more forgettable elements than memorable ones. Side characters that contribute little to nothing in the story, actors that cannot act, story elements that are poorly explained, and music that is out of place here. And the fact that this has come from a director, who has given us two films that I very much enjoy, I gotta say I was slightly disappointed by this film.
It's 2016, and we're in an South Africa, which I personally found odd as Africa was where "District 9" took place, but I won't nitpick too much. One year into the future and all law enforcement has been replaced by these humanoid robots, with hack-proof systems and titanium bodies that make them very hard to penetrate. Crime rates go down, and all human officers are relieved. We are introduced to the mastermind behind these robots, an inventor named Deon Wilson, who is developing a program to run artificial intelligence that will think for itself, learn for itself, develop emotions, opinions, a personality. Thing is when his boss refuses to let him test it on a robot set to be destroyed (which I will call BS, the guy behind his robots isn't allowed to perhaps further his research?), he jacks the robot to do the test anyway. We are also introduced to these absolutely laughable gang members who run into a financial crisis. They are planning a heist, and decide to kidnap Deon to see if he can deactivate the robot law enforcement. A thing he cannot do, claiming it not to be possible. Instead they decide to build the robot with that AI program he developed, in hopes that he can be taught to perhaps help them in their big heist.
And Chappie is born...or created, which I will say is a lovable robot almost immediately from the start. He's curious, nervous, and acts very much like a child, as we are told he would start out as. And he quickly learns how to do impressive things such as painting, and whatnot (even though I will say they took the painting style from "I, Robot"). He's told by Deon that he shouldn't let others tell him what to do or decide what he can do, that he has a free mind and that he should use it. Thing is, and this is a thing I really like about this film, he's around bad influences. He is almost forced how to shoot a gun (in a ridiculous scene, I must say [there was NO WAY that gangster would have as much accuracy as he did with that ridiculous pose]), he's around people counting drugs, and talking in nonstop profanity...which itself can get ridiculous, and you can tell how it affects him. This is the thing that holds this movie together. Chappie is lovable, and wonderfully developed...even if it can be a bit over the top. I never thought I'd see a robot wearing gangsta bling bling outside the cartoon Futurama.
You've noticed how much I've used the word "gangsta" in this review? Well there's a reason for that. That's because the amount of stereotypical gang culture in this film is ridiculous. And it doesn't help that the two main gang members are played by two members of a rap group I know nothing about. In fact, apparently their music is heard throughout the film. I'm not really one for gangsta rap as a music genre but the acting choice of these two and the inclusion of their music makes this film seem more like a selling point for music than an actual story. Their roles in this movie are a near complete joke, and they're only surpassed in the roles that are a joke by the people out to get them. The antagonists in this film are forgettable and contribute nearly nothing to the story other to remind us that they do bad things. Theres a scene in this movie where a corrupt coworker disables all the police robot units (despite Deon earlier in the film telling us that this wasn't possible, hence the creation of the Chappie robot), to field test this "Robocop" enemy robot ripoff. But before they field test it, there's endless rioting in the city with zero law enforcement, and the enemy gang members just kinda pull the card that the city is now theirs. No other gang in town? No explanation why everyone just goes along with him? Seriously it makes me think like I'm watching an online session of Grand Theft Auto than an actual movie. Oh and on that note some of the weapons in this movie look like they came straight out of Call of Duty. Who fights with a schoolbus yellow machine gun?
But honestly, the biggest thing that gets me wrong about this movie is again..,like Transcendence...the ending. Now I will give it credit, it's no where near as stupid and annoying as the ending in Transcendence, but it's still very silly. If you don't want a spoiler, skip this and the next paragraph. The biggest thing in Chappie is the fact that Chappie is tested on a damaged robot, damaged beyond repair. They cannot replace his battery and it's near failing. Chappie goes on this quest to try and find a new body and find a way to transfer his consciousness into that body. Which is all well and good. And he apparently finds a way to do that through this neural helmet which was made to help control the robot that was supposed to be tested. The thing is, it would make sense for him to be able to do that in a sense. He's a machine. I copy and paste date in flash drives all the time. I'm sure AI can find a way to do that. But they jump the shark and once Deon is fatally injured, Chappie finds a way to transfer his consciousness into a blank body of a robot! What?
First of all, human consciousness isn't that simple I'm guessing. Transferring something from an actual organism to a machine in the way that they do it is just silly. "Transcendence" at least put some thought into how they did those same ideas. Secondly, they threw out so much potential with this dumb move. Chappie in this movie is very much like a learning child. What could have been a really hard lesson of life for him, was just brushed away. Why not have a dying Deon tearfully explain to his finest creation that there are just some things in life that a machine can't fix? Why not help make Chappie a stronger character overall with him having to emotionally deal with not one, but two deaths in this movie? Yeah, one of the gang members he calls his mother and grows really close to dies. And that would be sad, but the thing is they frigging bring HER consciousness back too! And the way they did it is even more irritating because when they transferred Dean's consciousness, his body was instantly killed. Earlier, we see Chappie and "Mommy" playing with the neural helmet, but she is killed onscreen by getting shot repeatedly. Then the film brings up this "twist" of how Chappie backed her consciousness up on a flash drive. Yeah. A flash drive! Why didn't it kill her when he did the transfer there? If this movie wanted me to feel bad about this character's death in the first place, why would they bother bringing her consciousness back? This movie literally killed any sense of remorse you're supposed to feel with the death of a character, when it could have been a much stronger movie if it had left death in as a factor of life.
When all is said and done, most people can watch this movie and see how silly it is. Again a lot of the stereotypical gang culture in this movie tends to give that away, and in fact it almost turned me off to this movie at all. But the movie isn't terrible. Yeah it suffers from plot problems and again, the ending is one I really don't think I approve of too much, but unlike "Transcendence", this movie did have a bit more to offer. As much as I didn't like the gang stereotypes, they made me laugh at just how ludicrous it got. And of course, the robot Chappie is a very lovable character, and executed well. I just feel like he doesn't belong in this movie. He seems out of place almost. There was a lot of potential here and a lot of it was not met. The film does succeed in hitting some points home that would make this movie fun, but it's far from a masterpiece, and at times, it's just laughable at how bad it can be. At times, I'm wondering exactly what this movie wants to be. The poster itself seems a bit misleading to me. "Humanity's last hope isn't human." That's the tagline for this movie. But never in this movie is the fate of mankind even played upon. What the hell?
Chappie is a two and a half out of four stars for me. It's slightly above average. Slightly. Despite some wonderful characters, the story isn't fully told. I feel like it was thrown at us with no reason to question our believability. Believe this because it's a movie. No logic needed. No rhyme or reason. And that's just not how it works with me. I want to know how they could have done some of the many things in this movie as they did. It could have been something along the lines that "District 9" was, but it's just not. My friend, who loves this film told me that it's probably meant to be taken as a the cheesy film it is, like "Robocop" was back in the day. I don't know if that's the case or not. What I do know is that it is watchable, and can be fun to watch. But it's one I don't see myself watching again in the very near future. With all that said though, I am happy to have seen it. I just hope this little fluke doesn't become a norm for director Neill Blomkamp.
Please feel free to suggest any film I should watch. Leave a comment down below telling me your thoughts on the film, and as always, thanks for reading.
Final Verdict: 2.5/4
No comments:
Post a Comment