Chappie

Chappie follows the title creation, a sentient robot, as he’s stolen and forced to help a criminal gang pull off a daring heist, with the character’s sense of self-discovery eventually putting him at odds with his felonious new owners. It’s perhaps not surprising to note that Chappie boasts (or suffers from) a gritty, grimy visual sensibility that’s reminiscent of both District 9 and Elysium, as director Neill Blomkamp rarely makes an attempt to stray far from the science fiction landscapes of his first two movies – to the extent that it’s not difficult to imagine all three films transpiring within the same universe. The lack of innovation in terms of set design (ie everything’s dirty and rundown) is, at the outset, alleviated by the novelty of the premise, with the movie’s initial emphasis on Chappie’s post-“birth” exploration of his new surroundings certainly as entertaining and engaging as one might’ve hoped. There’s little doubt, then, that the movie begins its steady downhill trajectory as it enters its astonishingly flabby midsection, as Blomkamp’s tiresome emphasis on Chappie’s various lessons (ie a single montage could’ve conveyed this information perfectly) is exacerbated by the increasingly prominent presence of two thugs that’ve kidnapped the sympathetic robot (played by real-life musicians Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser). Both actors are making their feature-length debut here, and while Ninja and Visser do possess a fair amount of charisma, it becomes progressively clear that their acting abilities are virtually non-existent. The padded-out, hopelessly overlong atmosphere paves the way for an action-packed finale that is, to say the least, anti-climactic, and it’s ultimately clear that Chappie, despite Blomkamp’s best intentions, comes off as a fairly substantial misfire that pales in comparison to, especially, 2013’s Elysium.

** out of ****