Chappie misses out by miles on what it set out to achieve. The trailer promised an epic tale of Sci-Fi with A.I. in its vanguard manifesting right bits of drama. Unfortunately it belied the actual prosaic content.
Taking Elysium’s mediocrity into consideration, Neil Blomkamp’s robot with a mind of his own doesn’t go far either. You can munch on your popcorn pointing out at the clumsiness of the machine, but that’s pretty much it. It isn’t outstanding. At the same time it is entirely bad either.
The plot of the flick unfolds brilliantly at first however midway ends up being insipid. The story is very predictable to the point you might actually end up saying: I saw that coming! As the movie reaches its laughable climax, you just wonder out loud if the director was really serious going in for the bizarre cessation.
Chappie was written poorly in mediocrity. The only thing that works pretty well for the movie is its visual effect. Details on the robot are extremely well fabricated. Also some action visuals look pretty dope.
Chappie cannot be compared to the likes of any good artificial intelligence movie. Nowhere near A.I. or Her of course. Its drama isn’t at all moving. Screenplay has nothing much to offer and every projected bit seems deliberate – to make the movie work of course.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
To begin with, Chappie lacks focus big time. There is literally no time spent on character development, and we are forced to jump into a pyre of a chaotic backdrop with a news report showing glimpses of quintessential elements in the tale. You are shown a tattered robot receiving an engineering treatment. The amount of focus it receives tells us it must be our protagonist. (Very obvious direction!) You have a creator (Dev Patel), an antagonist brimming with malice (Hugh Jackman), and a boss (Sigourney Weaver) that doesn’t do much for whom both are working. For an A.I. to learn stuff, Neil throws Chappie into an abyss of gangsters to spice things up, with an unusual home to influence his mind with outrageous stuff and contrasting moral values. Although to our surprise the lady gangster starts playing mommy out of the blue. A softer side emerges in her and that too without any drama.
Whilst Chappie is learning stuff, at first things are a tad cute, but as we dig deeper it becomes downright sad. Dev Patel seems to be in a constant fit. He looks like he is heading for a nervous breakdown. Hugh’s presence was supposed to make things powerful however Neil doesn’t offer him much to act on.
Neil’s obsession with Sci-Fi has become sheer pathetic. He seems to be trying to assemble a golden egg like District 9 but unfortunately he has simply ran out of juice. He doesn’t surprise us anymore. With Chappie coming in strong as a bland and lacklustre movie, I wonder what would he do to his next best thing – The Alien project?
Chappie
Pros
- Great visuals
- Humorous at times
- Chappie's inept behaviour lights you up
Cons
- Poor direction
- Proper focus missing
- Vapid tale
- Pathetic editing
- Bleak screenplay
