"Chappie"
is not Neill Blomkamp's worst film. That honor still belongs to
"Elysium." However, "Chappie" is rife with the same problems and
issues. There's the haphazard, not-quite-thought-out social commentary,
the messy narrative, the rampant cribbing from other media, the
paper-thin villains, the grating misuse of good actors, and the
increasingly detrimental involvement of Sharlto Copley. There's
downright terrible writing everywhere you look. And yet, "Chappie"
manages to create a good central character, and makes good use of
some interesting concepts. By the end, the film won me over, though it
was a very close call.
Chappie (voiced by Shalto
Copley) is a rabbit-eared police robot, one of a group that has been
created by the Tetravaal company to replace human officers in
Johannesburg. Chappie's creator, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), has been
working on creating a true artificial intelligence, and uses Chappie to
test his work. Unfortunately, both are kidnapped by a gang of thieves
led by brutish Ninja and motherly Yolandi (South African rappers, Die
Antwoord, playing versions of their stage personas). Deon is forced to
turn over custody of the newly sentient Chappie to the gang, who intend
to use him to commit a big heist. Chappie, however, is mentally an
infant and needs time ot learn and grow. So Deon, Yolandi, and Ninja
tussell over Chappie's education and development, each trying to instill
their own values in him. Meanwhile, Deon's rival at Tetravaal, Vincent
Moore (Hugh Jackman), hatches a plan to sabotage the existing robot
force, so that he can push his own creation, a larger and deadlier robot
sentinel.
Nearly everything about "Chappie" feels
like it's been borrowed from somewhere else. The plot is "Short
Circuit" crossed with "Robocop." The robot design was clearly lifted
from Masamune Shirow's "Appleseed." Blomkamp also includes many of his
favorite elements - a hero whose life is on a timer, a heartless
corporation as the big villain, and uncouth street criminals as smaller
ones. This wouldn't be so bad in the right hands, but here all of it is
mashed together in a story that frequently feels like it's struggling
to get the characters from one plot point to the next. The script ties
itself in knots to put Chappie into the hands of Ninja and Yolandi, but
still accessible by Deon, and somehow on Vincent's radar, but not
Tetravaal's. Chappie is obliged learn at an astonishing rate, yet still
be dumb enough to fall fro Ninja's simple deceptions, to enjoy
acting gangsta, but not actually want to commit any crimes. Yet he does
commit crimes thanks to Ninja, whose attitude toward Chappie is
constantly changing depending on what the movie needs him to do. And
poor Dev Patel seems to be constantly running from one place to another,
trying to keep up.
At least he comes off like
he knows what he's doing onscreen, which is more than I can say for the
Die Antwoord members. Yolandi Visser kind of works as Chappie's
"Mommy," in spite of her odd affectations, but her role seems
purposefully limited. Ninja, who is obliged to do much more, is often
painful to watch. I'm not sure if it's his accent, his overly broad
mannerisms, the paper-thin gangster character, or the crummy dialogue,
but Ninja's just a hot mess. I'm tempted to compare him to Tommy Wiseau
in a couple of scenes, he's so off the wall weird. Then there's the
moustache-twirling, villainous cliche that Hugh Jackman is playing, and
the totally blank Tetravaal executive Sigourney Weaver has to work
with. There's an awful exposition scene with both of them in the third
act, where I was actually getting upset at how badly Neill Blomkamp
was wasting these actors.
Oh, and we can't
forget about Sharlto Copley. The Chappie character's biggest flaw is
his voice. He's often described as a child, but doesn't sound much like
one except for a few mild verbal tics. He doesn't really sound all
that much like a robot either. He sounds like Sharlto Copley with his
voice through a filter, and Copley has demonstrated time and time again
since "District 9" that he's good at playing exactly one type of
character, and has trouble when he strays too far from that persona.
Here, Copley plays Chappie way too big, often barking his lines, so that
he comes off as mentally stunted rather than naive. It takes far, far
too long for the film to establish that Chappie is inherently
a good soul, worthy of our affections. And yet, in spite of all the
contradictions and all the shoddy construction and Sharlto Copley, I
found I liked Chappie very much.
The CGI in
Blomkamp's films is still gorgeous, and Chappie is an absolute marvel to
watch as he moves and interacts with the world around him. Even if the
film got nothing else right, it gives its title character a strong,
solid emotional arc. It gives us reasons to empathize with him and root
for his survival. I think it helps that nobody is saving the world or
mankind or anything so lofty here. We're only asked to care about one
person, to care about the choices that he makes and the lessons that he
learns. And though the telling of it is often rushed and messy and
compromised, in the end I found myself fully invested in Chappie's story
and ultimate fate. It doesn't matter what kind of tired, action movie
nonsense he's obliged to fight through, or the ridiculous human
characters he's stuck with as a makeshift family - Chappie works.
So
I found the thirty-odd minutes primarily featuring him outweighed the
hour and a half of additional dreck. Barely. I'm sure it didn't for
many viewers, though, and understandably so. There's way too much here
that's just lazy, uninspired, and downright bad filmmaking. Neill
Blomkamp remains a terribly talented director, and a terribly
disappointing one.
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