STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In a futuristic South Africa, crime has spiralled out of control, and robotic police-droids have been dispatched to the streets to keep things under control. But a scientist named Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) has developed a droid seemingly capable of human emotion and feeling, who comes to be called Chappie. When Wilson finds himself and his project kidnapped by a gang of renegades with their own agenda, they come to see Chappie as a means to their own ends, while he further develops his own thoughts and feelings. But things all come to a head when embittered soldier Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) tries to use his own monstrous super-droid to eliminate Chappie when he's set up for crimes he did not do.
The concept of a machine developing feelings has been a theme explored many times before, but one which never loses it's ability to have an impact on the audience, and to make them care about the story and the characters more than they might have. With this, his latest project, South African director Neill Blomkamp re-ignites the formula again, giving it a more modern edge in more unstable times. In an unseen role, Sharlito Copley manages to elicit this effect from the android in this film, stirring the emotions and giving the film it's more dynamic, driving edge, despite being pretty average in most other ways.
As adequate as the film was, I still felt a little short changed by judging a book by it's cover, as the poster to this seemed to promise something absolutely breath-taking, a throw-back to some of the great monster mash up robot films from years ago, and while it's not without it's fair share of exciting action scenes, it still came off as a little under-whelming compared to what could have been. Some other flaws include lead star Patel, who looks a little too young for the role, not to mention some logic/implausibility flaws present.
Yes, it's a mish mash of other films that have gone before it, Short Circuit and Robocop springing to mind, but it's all done with just enough flair and heart, despite the flaws, to pass muster. ***
In a futuristic South Africa, crime has spiralled out of control, and robotic police-droids have been dispatched to the streets to keep things under control. But a scientist named Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) has developed a droid seemingly capable of human emotion and feeling, who comes to be called Chappie. When Wilson finds himself and his project kidnapped by a gang of renegades with their own agenda, they come to see Chappie as a means to their own ends, while he further develops his own thoughts and feelings. But things all come to a head when embittered soldier Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) tries to use his own monstrous super-droid to eliminate Chappie when he's set up for crimes he did not do.
The concept of a machine developing feelings has been a theme explored many times before, but one which never loses it's ability to have an impact on the audience, and to make them care about the story and the characters more than they might have. With this, his latest project, South African director Neill Blomkamp re-ignites the formula again, giving it a more modern edge in more unstable times. In an unseen role, Sharlito Copley manages to elicit this effect from the android in this film, stirring the emotions and giving the film it's more dynamic, driving edge, despite being pretty average in most other ways.
As adequate as the film was, I still felt a little short changed by judging a book by it's cover, as the poster to this seemed to promise something absolutely breath-taking, a throw-back to some of the great monster mash up robot films from years ago, and while it's not without it's fair share of exciting action scenes, it still came off as a little under-whelming compared to what could have been. Some other flaws include lead star Patel, who looks a little too young for the role, not to mention some logic/implausibility flaws present.
Yes, it's a mish mash of other films that have gone before it, Short Circuit and Robocop springing to mind, but it's all done with just enough flair and heart, despite the flaws, to pass muster. ***