CHAPPIE

Chappie

Grade: B+

Starring: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Sigourney Weaver; with Ninja as 'Ninja', Yo-Landi Vi$$er as 'Yolandi', and Sharlto Copley as Chappie

Premise: A pioneering robotics engineer creates a ‘consciousness’ for robots in defiance of his corporate superiors’ orders, and plugs it into a simple scout droid. Almost as soon as the scout begins to walk and talk, it is hijacked by a group of thugs who want to use it as protection while they rob a bank.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, intense emotional content, some scary moments and drug references, and a brief nude image

South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp burst onto the scene in 2009 with his Oscar-nominated sci-fi adventure District 9 and followed it up with 2013’s underrated post-apocalyptic thriller Elysium. His newest film, Chappie, is the latest in a long line of films (Bicentennial Man, The Iron Giant, I-Robot, Wall-E, Big Hero 6, etc…) in which a mechanical humanoid is given a realistic human personality. However, unlike those other films in which a robot was plunked down in a fairly innocent setting, Chappie sees a mechanical being thrust into the run-down, bullet-ridden Johannesburg ghetto, becoming both an important player in a gang war and the ultimate MacGuffin for a pair of competing scientists.

I had seen the trailers for Chappie many times, to the point that I was quite weary of seeing it and, at one time, swore off seeing the movie. With the awkward robot of the title shown doing various childish things while different characters muttered solemn platitudes like “I brought you into this world” and “you can do anything you want to do”, I thought it might be some dopey fable about, basically, a kind of grown-up Wall-E. It isn’t that. It’s closer to a robotic Frankenstein tale, set in a unique, gritty setting with a unique cast that gives it a kind of naturalistic, anti-blockbuster vibe. Despite my initial reservations, this disorienting and uncouth atmosphere started to draw me in, only to leave me awash in adrenaline with a tremendous action-packed, edge-of-your-seat final third. It’s not perfect, but Chappie was far better than I expected, a welcome surprise in my first trip to the movies in almost a month.

Plot

It’s 2016, and crime in Johannesburg, South Africa, is at an all-time low thanks to the addition to the police force of robotic ‘scouts’, human-like figures able to take commands, kick down doors, tote guns, and arrest criminals. Though the scouts have helped save lives and stop crimes and make his company a fortune, the scouts’ creator, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel, of Slumdog Millionaire fame) isn’t satisfied. He’s as interested in creating a robotic consciousness—the ability for robots to think and learn and act for themselves—as he is in continuing to turn a profit for weapons manufacturers. His CEO (Sigourney Weaver) scoffs at the notion, as does rival robotics inventor Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman), who, wanting to one-up Deon and his scouts, has created a bigger, more powerful robot called a Moose, which a human driver can control by wearing a helmet that forms a connection with the human’s neural transmitters. However, with the scouts’ success, the Moose isn’t needed, and Vincent remains second-class.

           

 Even further down the food chain are a local gang of petty criminals, Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo) and sweethearts Ninja and Yolandi (South African actors/musicians Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er), who have run afoul of a notorious, deadly gangster, Hippo (Brandon Auret). Though their lives were spared by police and robot scout intervention, Hippo escaped, too, and he holds them to a significant debt. Ninja figures the best way to pay Hippo what they owe is a bank heist, but with impervious robot scouts stopping crimes everywhere, their prospects of pulling one off seem hopeless. It occurs to them to try stealing a robot and figuring out a way to reprogram it just as Deon smuggles a damaged robot scout out of his company’s headquarters and tries to bring it to his home, where he can implant the new consciousness program he’s created. He’s hijacked halfway by the gang, who are delighted to learn they can teach and influence the robot however they want once the consciousness is implanted. It’s Yolandi who names the robot once he comes to life and begins to warm to their presence, calling him a “happy chappie”. Deon has to go to work each day, but he gets off whenever he can to help teach the robot. So, Chappie (voice of South African actor Sharlto Copley) gets a unique dual influence—the gentler Deon and Yolandi want to teach him nice things, like how to read and paint and draw and appreciate beauty, while Amerika and Ninja want to teach him how to wield guns and knives and knock down walls. Meanwhile, an increasingly-obsessed Vincent has begun dogging Deon’s steps and his trips away from the office, and, infuriated at the idea that giving the robots a human-like consciousness could make them even more popular and profitable, he begins hatching a wild scheme to discredit the scouts, and Deon, once and for all.

What Works?

There are a lot of things I’d like to praise about Chappie, but the main reason the movie is so effective is Chappie himself. Sharlto Copley is, at this point, best known for playing a pair of extremely vindictive characters, the stop-at-nothing hit-man in Elysium and the scheming, power-mad king in Maleficent. Considering that’s the major impression of the actor, the humanity he infuses in Chappie through just the power of his voice and movements (thanks motion-capture animation!) is both indelible and incredible. He generates laughs, tears, and even gasps of fright, and does so without exaggeratedly gooey material (props to the gritty and moving screenplay, by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell). You feel for Chappie, you care about him, you hope he’ll spare someone’s life at one point, and you hope he’ll save the day by grabbing a gun at another. He’s a wonderful creation, as effective on a personal level as Wall-E or Beymax or any of the other popular movie robots. The animators of the film deserve a huge hand, as well; not even once, from the very start of the film, does it occur to one that Chappie, or any of the other dozens of robots in the film, are mere CGI. Chappie seems every bit as real and present as any other popular CGI character of recent years—Gollum, the Na’vi from James Cameron’s Avatar, the new Planet of the Apes simians, any.

It would be easy, however, for the makers to have simply invested all their time and energy in a robot and left the plot and other characters out to dry. Thankfully, they haven’t. Dev Patel shines in what is probably his best role since Slumdog, convincingly taking the ride from nebbishy inventor to avenging creator. Hugh Jackman, able to speak in his native Australian brogue, is also supremely effective as Vincent—obviously known the world over for his portrayal of the tough, gruff-with-a-heart-of-gold Wolverine in X-Men, Jackman is rather surprisingly convincing as a sneering villain. I won’t be the only Jackman fan cheering for the actor to get pummeled late in the film, as his diabolical schemes unfold. The three unknowns who make up the gang that takes Chappie in deserve a huge hand as well. It takes a few scenes for one to get over Cantillo, Ninja and Yo-Landi’s bizarre appearances and thick accents, and all eyes are on Chappie from the get-go, but when all the characters end up in mortal danger late, you realize how much you care about them (random fact: the basically-playing-themselves Ninja and Yo-Landi are former real-life romantic partners. They have a daughter, and they front the South African rap-rave group Die Antwood). None of these actors will win Oscars or anything, but, as stated, their naturalistic appearances and layered portrayals greatly enhance the story. It is thanks to their contributions that the movie’s pell-mell, high-stakes action sequences are as gripping as they are.

What Doesn’t Work?

I don’t have a whole lot of criticism, other than the fact that the movie’s first 15 or so minutes are, as mentioned, rather disorienting, given that the early approach seems so different from what was shown in the trailers (including an enormous time jump). Blomkamp’s choice to subtitle a number of scenes in which characters like Ninja and Hippo speak heavily-accented, gangster English is also a questionable one; it feels like a gimmick, which isn't a great way to start a movie. For my money, they should either just have them speak regular English in a heavy but discernible accent, or have them speak a completely different language and subtitle it. Other than that, however, I can’t think of any other issues—Chappie is about as good as it could’ve been, and I want to praise Blomkamp for, just as he did in Elysium, coming up with a sort of feel-good ending that doesn’t feel cheap or phoned-in. His movies are quite ingenious.

Content

If you can discern the dialogue, you’ll be able to discern plenty of cuss-words. There’s also the fact that, as was also the case in Elysium, when the going gets tough, the going gets bloody. The violence in Chappie tends to be fierce and brutal, though it does have a point and you do keep track of the characters in it. This movie, uncouth and gritty as it is, can be tough.

Bottom Line

Chappie is not a perfect movie, but boy was it a surprise! Engaging, well-written, thought-provoking, exciting, and electrifying, this quasi-real-life fable from South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp (who made the similar District 9 and Elysium in recent years) outperformed even my best expectations. Hugh Jackman’s great in a non-Wolverine role, a bunch of unknown South African actors make invaluable, memorable contributions, and Chappie himself proves to be every bit as engaging and believable a CGI creation as Gollum from Lord of the Rings. There’s laugh-out-loud humor, there’s white-knuckle action, and there’s a point to all of it. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Chappie (2015)

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell

Rated R

Length: 120 minutes