In a violent future, Johannesburg South Africa’s law enforcement turns to the Robocop movies for assistance – didn’t they actually see any of those films?
These new metallic officers boast artificial intelligence and heavy armament. They are capable of taking a beating and delivering lessons, and with so many violent criminals on the streets they need to make time for both. The welcome offered by the media and public is mixed, sure it’s good that someone is fighting crime and reducing the casualty rate within the police force, but more robots taking people’s jobs?
When robot #22 takes one too many rounds and ends on the scrap heap, tech developer Deon (Dev Patel) proposes a reboot that will enhance the robot’s artificial intelligence. Head of security Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) resists change. She is happy to have the robot forces between her and the bad guys. But Deon has an idea… And with a spark and a buzz and a little Short Circuit (plot theft) Chappie is ‘born’.
Like Danny the Dog, Chappie starts as a blank canvas, albeit one with incredible learning capacity and amazing capabilities. In Chappie’s formative days Deon cannot risk him being discovered by Michelle, nor by Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) a rival weapons developer with a mean white trash mullet. So he is forced to leave his ‘baby’ with stringy bogan scumbags Ninja and Yolandi, who dub themselves Mummy and Daddy and start raising Chappie as their own child – and future robot weapon for hire.
I’ve been on Neil Blomkamp’s side since day one. With the excellent District 9 and the middling but still promising Elysium. Chappie plays too much like a rehash of those films, with similar plot devices peppering the action; an innocent taken, abused and escaping near the end. In other news, it is alarming that his three films have all seen a decline in quality so far.
Chappie has too many characters, all of whom are drawn so lazily that their destinies are laid out as soon as you meet them, and the tussle between what the ‘nice’ and ‘naughty’ sides will do with such a high tech ‘asset’ feels very familiar, mainly because it is what happens in. Every. Robot. Movie.
Chappie has his moments, as does the film that bears his name, but this story has been told so many times already, and just once I wish it would play out differently.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Hardly a factory recall, but this machine needs far more work before it goes into production.
