Review of Chappie

Initial Thought: Since District 9 Neill Blomkamp has been on the radar and he brought Sharlto Copley with him. This one looked fun although not entirely original. The fun here is seeing the way they go about it. Also when I saw that Die Antwoord was in it I was quite intrigued.

Characters/Acting: Sharlto Copley returns in another feature from Blomkamp. I have to say this guy really does seem to enjoy an expansive amount of unique character roles. Die Antwoord who is one of the strangest bands I have seen seem to play a big role here which I think is pretty interesting. I have a strange crush on Yolandi because she is just so unusually appealing. Hugh Jackman plays the villain here which we don't see too often from him. Slumdog Millionaire Dev Patel returns to the slums in a futuristic setting. Also Sigourney Weaver is in this making me more excited to see Blomkamp's take on the Alien saga. Unfortunately with limited acting experience Yolandi and Ninja aren't the best of actors here, but I have seen much worse. In fact as the movie progresses they seem to do quite a bit better. Chappie is just plain adorable. I thought he really makes you care about him. It's hard to believe it's Sharlto Copley as the voice as it sounds nothing like him. I wouldn't say Hugh Jackman necessarily played a conventional villain. He was more like the outcast nerd who just wanted to get noticed in this worst way possible. Also that hair I wonder if he had it like that because of Die Antwoord or just to show how out of touch he is.

Story: A robot with a personality who grows up in the ghetto. How can this not be a fun and crazy watch? Anyways this is quite a bit like Robocop and even uses the voice from Robocop for the scout droids. The only difference is that Chappie is not human and is working with criminals. I see there are references to Die Antwoord's songs as well as the radios always playing their songs. I have to say this is basically a glorified Die Antwoord movie. For me that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I really enjoy the duo in their music and in this. The problem is most people probably didn't like all the focus on them. They came for a movie about a robot named Chappie. So I can understand why critics and audiences were really disappointed in this movie. For me though I didn't mind it. The ending felt very much like District 9. You will know what I mean if you watched both.

Directing/Writing: Neill Blomkamp is definitely rising up in Hollywood after District 9. I also really enjoyed Elysium despite the average ratings. I am also excited for his upcoming Alien saga entry. This guy is an interesting one to watch. His movies are always so visually stunning and quickly paced. His wife who wrote District 9 returns to write this with him as well. With her this was rated higher than Elysium. I suppose the people are trying to tell him he needs his better half with him to make his films more enjoyable. With or without her I am quite fond of these movies.

Final Thought: I really enjoyed this. I think it's my favorite Blomkamp movie so far. The main characters are pretty likeable even though they aren't all good people. If you aren't a fan of Die Antwoord you most likely will hate this movie. While it is called Chappie they seem to be in this a bit more than him. Visually this was excellent. I feel like Chappie would be awesome to hang around if he wasn't just a movie character. Anyways this may not appeal to the massed, but it sure was fun in my opinion.