Chappie

Chappie is a dramaturgically failed hybrid of Mad Max, Robocop and Short Circuit, with the worst casting disaster in many years (Hugh Jackman). All of the characters are totally unbelievable, regardless of who plays them. And that includes the motivation and actions of the robot Chappie. Neill Blomkamp had an top-tier budget, technology and actors, but his directing skills here are at the level of the guys from The Asylum. (17/03/2015)

Those who like Neil Blomkamp's style will love Chappie and even want to be friends with him. The film beautifully illustrates the problems of today's society and what it is like to bring life into the wrong hands. The very ugly and unlikeable villains, the ugly and dirty housing estates, the landscape, all come across as very ugly and you tell yourself I wouldn't want to spend the night in this ghetto. Fortunately, Chappie is a sweetheart, cute, sweet, innocent you can't help but love him, so the empathy works 150%, and many times you want to shed a tear. The action is decent (even bloody a couple of times), accompanied by a great soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, the humour and the emotions work here, so for me a really decent film with a very nicely thought out ending. Even though it's more of a grittier fairy tale, it's great to watch and there will be a sequel will be here, of course. 80% (16/03/2015)

I appreciate Blomkamp for always being identifiable by his chassis and design, but even with Zimmer’s boost helping his performance here, the genre-mixing fuel tends to sputter, and smoke occasionally rises from the script's errors. Looking at the Indian origin of the creator and the winking metal above the lovably robotic eyes, it’s hard not to recall Short Circuit. If I were Ben Jabituya, I’d say: "I’ve seen it, and it wasn't all that great." (21/07/2023)

My friends ask me what Chappie was like, so I'll post here on FilmBooster what I usually tell everyone: Not great. Apparently the director tried hard to make another District 9, only with robots, and it didn't work out so well. There's too much violence for my taste, especially violence against Chappie himself (not just physical, but psychological as well). Apparently, to make it less drastic, the director added some comic elements, in which he makes the robot a gangster. Unfortunately, it was funny only once; after that I found it rather awkward. Another problem was that Chappie is a film where there isn't a single likable character I could relate to – I hated them all, even Chappie himself (that is, only from the middle of the film; he was just a cute little kid at the beginning). The action was okay, Hugh Jackman as the bad guy was for me a role I've never seen him in before, so more or less a nice bonus. He played the maniac pretty convincingly. Unfortunately, I felt that the already rather contradictory film ended as if someone had pulled it out of their hat (I would say “out of their ass" to my friends, but I won't use such foul language here!). Apparently they don't have hospitals in Johannesburg. It has logical flaws; it has no hero. From a feeling point of view, I absolutely disliked the film (I kept telling myself that this is wrong, it's not supposed to be like this). Don't let the kids see it, show them Short Circuit instead. (13/03/2015)

Neill Blomkamp lived up to his standard and finally added a static camera, which makes Chappie his best movie in terms of technologies. The fact that he cast the gang from the band Die Antwoord into some of the leading roles is also a big plus for me. I cannot think of anybody else from Johannesburg who could play bigger gangsters and creeps than Yolandi and Ninja. They are so extremely crazy, rotten and their music is so aggressive that nothing could fit into this movie better. I am a bit surprised that the director once again portrays Johannesburg as the worst place to inhabit, where not even the craziest Scandinavian murderer would want to live, as in Scandinavia, they treat murderers in prisons better than what the inhabitants of this town get on a daily basis. That is the only thing that bothered me about this film and the only reason why I didn’t rate it with five stars. Watching this city full of cement lots overgrown with thicket, teeming with human filth, is not really the peace and quiet my brain needs. Everything else was almost flawless. (20/05/2015)