Chappie
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman
120 mins; Class 15;
KRS Film Releasing

Johannesburg, South Africa, in the not-so-distant future (2016, to be precise).

The police force is reinforced by a series of high-tech robots, deployed to help reduce the violent crime that plagues the city.

Chappie (Sharlto Copley) was once a member of South Africa’s elite robot police force. Severely damaged while in the line of duty, the robot is saved from the scrap heap by engineer Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) whose years of experimenting with artificial intelligence have finally yielded a breakthrough.

And thanks to Deon’s research, Chappie becomes the first robot with the ability to think and feel for itself. Initially behaving like a child when it first experiences self-awareness, Chappie soon falls under the influence of those around him, including a couple of society’s rejects involved in some gang warfare. When the authorities learn of Chappie’s existence, however, things for the robot and his maker get rather sticky.

Chappie is the latest sci-fi extravaganza from Neill Blom-kamp, director of District 9 and Elysium; the former a thoroughly entertaining slice of sci-fi action-adventure, the latter not as exciting.

The director’s third venture into the scientifically fictitious loses more points, the end result coming across as a hybrid of the worst excesses of the Transformers series (especially in its final act, with a giant robot wreaking death and destruction in its deafening wake) with the concept of artificial intelligence thrown in.

The script by Blomkamp and his co-writer Terri Tatchell feels like it’s trying to cram too much in. With a succession of action sequences which seem to get more violent as the story unfolds, an ensemble of characters it is hard to really care for, and an ultimately muddled storyline, Chappie never quite gets off the ground.

The action is a mind-numbing rehash of what we have seen all too often before and the depiction of the underlying premise of the dangers of AI pall in comparison with the recent Ex-Machina, which treated the subject in a much more intelligent and engaging manner.

As a character he is too one-dimensional

Chappie as a character is interesting enough, but can’t really register with the audience on an emotional level given the chaos that surrounds proceedings.

Sharlto Copley does some solid work in giving the robot life, but as a character he is too one-dimensional. And although his first interactions with humans are rather funny he never develops into a fully-fledged character from those initial childlike meanderings, and we never truly get the sense that this is a sentient, thinking being.

Dev Patel is the only member of the ensemble trying to add some depth – his aim was to create an intelligence that can appreciate art and poetry and he becomes increasingly desperate as those around him try to use Chappie for nefarious means.

These include gang members Ninja and Yolandi – they are certainly colourful characters in terms of looks, but as played by the members of South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord, their casting feels more like a stunt than anything else. They are loud, violent and rather unpleasant and their eventual relationship with Chappie as putative parents and the ensuing faux-sentimentality doesn’t really convince.

It was recently announced that Blomkamp will be directing the fifth Alien movie with Sigourney Weaver – the actress here seems to be warming up for this experience with Blomkamp, but one hopes her return to the iconic role of Ellen Ripley will give her more to do than she has here. Hugh Jackman has a little fun as villainous rival scientist Vincent, but again, the role gives him little space to do something different.