Chappie

By all accounts, Chappie should not work, yet somehow it does.  It's an ungainly film, simultaneously trying to tug at the heartstrings and throw gobs of graphic violence up on the screen.  It's as if co-writer and director Neil Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) couldn't decide if he was making a movie targeting younger kids, or a violent look at a dystopian society, so he decided to split the difference.  The movie can be messy at times, but it holds your attention, and is quite entertaining for the most part.

The star attraction is Chappie himself, who is a robot brought to life by a combination of special effects and a motion capture performance by Blomkamp regular, Sharlto Copley.  He starts the film out as a Scout, a special police robot who has been designed to aid the human officers in fighting back against the violent uprising of crime that has overtaken the South African city of Johannesburg.  The Scout robots break into gang hideouts like Robocop (the Scouts even talk in the same kind of robotic monotone as Peter Weller did in those films), and round up the criminals quickly and effectively.  Due to the success of the Scout project, their creator, Deon (Dev Patel), is enjoying the accolades from his fellow scientists.  Not everyone is happy, though.  There's a rival scientist named Vincent (Hugh Jackman) who keeps on giving Deon dirty looks.  He created his own police robot, but his superior (Sigourney Weaver) considers his design too expensive to be feasible.  As Deon's fame increases, Vincent becomes all the more jealous.  The fact that Vincent carries a gun with him at all times is pretty much a not-so-subtle sign of future trouble.

But Deon dreams of more than just keeping the peace.  His main goal is to create a sentient robot that can think for itself, learn, feel, and even create and recognize art.  He thinks he's cracked the secret to this lofty goal, and steals a damaged Scout from the factory without the permission of his superior, who quickly shot down his idea of a sentient robot when he brought his idea to her.  He plans to take the damaged robot home and try out his new sentient program chip, but before he can, he is kidnapped by a trio of criminals.  Two of these criminals are played by South African musicians, Ninja and Yolandi Visser, and their characters even share their real names.  The third criminal, Yankie, is played by Jose Pablo Cantillo.  They want to pull off a heist, and want Deon to program the damaged robot to aid them in the heist.  When Deon inserts the sentient chip into the robot, it turns into a free-thinking innocent who behaves like a child at first, but quickly learns, and even begins to consider Yolandi its "mommy", as she and Deon bond the most with its new personality.

Now with a personality of its own and a unique name ("Chappie"), the robot begins to learn about the world and its ways.  This is an idea in Science Fiction that has always intrigued me, and we get ready to experience this artificial lifeform to learn and grow.  Unfortunately, the screenplay by Blomkamp and his wife, Terri Tatchell, is not as interested in this idea as it should be.  It's more interested in throwing Chappie out into the cruel world, and have him experience terrible things, such as pain and death.  These violent moments are awkwardly inserted amongst some moments that are intended to be cute and lighthearted, such as when Chappie discovers the old He-Man cartoon, or when Yolandi reads him a bedtime story, and teaches him about human souls.  This is when the movie feels like its being pulled in two different directions, and the drastic tonal shift can sometimes be jarring.  And yet, I think the film does find a compromise.  It never feels like one aspect is overpowering the other.  While I do think the mix of the whimsical and the violent aspects of the film could have been handled better, it's not handled ineptly, and I never lost interest in the story that the filmmakers were trying to tell.

Chappie sets itself up to be a story about a robot who creates his own identity by learning about the world, but it ultimately ends up being an action story with some big and violent gun battles that are good for what they are, but somewhat routine.  The scenes revolving around the robot learning and discovering are handled so well, you want the movie to focus on that the entire time.  Chappie himself is not just a marvel of effects work, but the performance by Copley is what really sells the character.  With his sing-song robotic voice and innocent nature, it's impossible not to fall in love with the character, or feel for him during the film's sadder moments.  His character and the motion capture performance are a big part of what makes the film work.  Through all of the movie's imperfections, we are fascinated by the character, and follow him through his various trials.  The movie allows the robot to go through the wide range of emotions  (joy, sorrow, anger), and it's a credit to the effects artists and Copley's performance that we believe each and every one of them.

If only the human characters had been treated as well, this movie really would have been something.  Most of the characters, such as Deon and Vincent, are sketchy or one note at best, while others are almost non-existent, particularly Sigourney Weaver as the head of the robotics company behind the Scouts.  The three criminals who ultimately teach and bond with Chappie during the course of the film are given some nice moments with the robot, but when they are alone, they basically act as one entity.  I do find it odd, however, that the movie never gives a lot of time between Chappie and his creator, Deon.  They get some nice moments together late in the film, but they are largely kept apart during the entire middle section.  As for Jackman, he does what he can with his villain role, but the script offers him no favors.

Looking back over this review, I fear I may have strayed from my original opinion, and may be stressing the negatives too much.  I am fully recommending this film.  What it does, it does extremely well.  Yes, the movie lacks focus at times.  But, it does work.  It did for me, at least.  I was engaged, and I wanted to keep on following the story even when it was on less than stable ground.  Chappie succeeds a lot on its titular character, and the effects used to bring him to life.  This is what special effects should do, create a believable character who cannot exist in our world, and make us feel for it.  They should also make us forget that we are watching a computer generated character, and just accept it as being part of the movie's world.  This film understands that, and creates one of the more intriguing special effects creations in a while.  Chappie himself is not only fully believable, but likable, and has been given a lot of personality by the artists that created him.

Do I think this movie could have been more than what it is?  Absolutely.  Am I disappointed with it?  Not really.  Chappie may be a messy film, but there's a lot here that works, and what does work is enough to carry it.

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