Chappie
I’ve been a fan of Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9” from the first moment I saw it. His next movie “Elysium” was a bit of a letdown for me, but I still had high hopes for “Chappie”. Sad to report that once again, just like the Wachowskis with “Jupiter Ascending”, maybe it’s better to let someone else write your script. This is pretty much a live action version of a animated kids movie. You’ve seen this type of story before, whether its “Iron Giant” or “Big Hero Six” or “E.T.”, as in outsider learning how to be human from interactions with good and bad humans. Here, instead of a plucky young hero, we get South African Hip Hop group “Die Antwoord”, playing themselves. It’s a bit odd.
They’ve barely come across my radar before, (I think I was supposed to see them at Lollapalooza few years ago) but if you are a fan of theirs, you will probably love this movie. They play criminals who owe a lot of money to the big boss, and devise a plan to get said money, that somehow puts them in possession of an Police Officer android that is being installed with artificial intelligence. The fact that Die Antwoord is playing gangster versions of themselves, while still wearing their own t-shirts in the movie to promote their albums is kind of ridiculous. Unique, but ridiculous.
This movie does have the right ingredients, just doesn’t have the right recipe. So many things here don’t feel right within the execution of the story. Huge plot holes that I could forgive if this was a goofy comedy, but this is supposed to be R rated Sci-fi. Once the big finale starts, you would think this is the part where they really earn this R rating. One really cool violent scene, then it just doesn’t build from there. A better, or at least more traditional story, would have made a huge difference.
Decent performances all around, especially Hugh Jackman playing the Disney type villain with a mullet, but sadly even that can’t help this weak storyline
Here’s hoping Blomkamp doesn’t write his new “Aliens” movie.
