Chappie falls into a droid void
Film & TV
Chappie is the latest film to tackle sentient robots. The sci-fi film teeters on the edge of the intellectual and moral challenges of the modern era, but doesn’t quite address any of them, ultimately lacking the social commentary audiences have come to expect following writer-director Neill Blomkamp’s earlier works, Elysium and District 9.
The film is set in South Africa, where a police force of robots is credited with bringing down Johannesburg’s crime rate. But things go awry when droid creator Deon Wilson is kidnapped by gangsters who demand he reprogram a robot (Chappie) so they can use it to help them commit crimes.
Most of the characters in Chappie are unlikeable. Their motivations are tenuous and the character development is either non-existent or unbelievable – as in the case of the gangster Ninja, whose sacrifice is laughable rather than the emotional plot point that was intended.
The entire movie relies on the emotional and moral growth of the robot, Chappie, yet he is frustratingly inconsistent. And in some ways, he is remains unchanged; although he accesses the entire contents of the internet, for example, it has no effect on his values, decision-making or vocabulary.
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Even Hugh Jackman could not redeem the part of two-dimensional antagonist Vincent Moore, a role which should have driven profound ideological debates. Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel is a standout as the main character, Wilson, and there are a few moments of poignancy in Chappie’s “childhood phase”, but these are far outweighed by the plot holes, poor dialogue and illogical jumps in reasoning.
Visually, the film works, and the movements and design of the robots are appealing. Moore’s enormous militarised weapon is intimidating, with the anticipation of it being activated maintaining some suspense.
There is action and violence, but with no emotional or intellectual pull, Chappie does not hold its own among Blomkamp’s earlier works.
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