Chappie (2015)

In the near future, crime is patrolled by a mechanized police force. When one police droid, Chappie, is stolen and given new programming, he becomes the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself.

Director:

Neill Blomkamp.

Writers:

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell.

Stars:

Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman.

Storyline

In Johannesburg, the police department reduced the high rating of criminality using robots from the Tetravaal Company, designed by the engineer Deon Wilson. The former military Vincent Moore is envious of Deon, since he has developed another project called Moose, but neither Tetravaal nor the police department is interested. Deon has just developed an Artificial Intelligence but the Tetravaal's CEO Michelle Bradley asks him to abort the project. Deon decides to bring the damaged Robot 22 that was sent to be crushed to test his A.I. However he is kidnapped by the criminals Ninja, Yo-Landi and Amerika that want him to stop the robot cops. When they see the damaged robot in the van, they force Deon to program it to heist banks with them and they call it Chappie. However, Chappie acts like a child and need to be trained to learn and grow. Meanwhile Vincent follows Deon and plots an evil scheme to activate his robot.

Chappie Movie Reviews

Chappie is exuberant, playful, funny and perhaps one of the most human characters to grace the screen in years. He's an unwilling action hero that one can both identify with and admire. His story is gripping and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Unfortunately some of Chappie's brilliance comes at the expense of the world around him. Plot holes and logical fallacies abound, and although some of it can be written off to the imperfection of humanity (a central theme in the movie) there are enough "Wait, why the would he/she/they do X."" moments to be a significant distraction.

Many reviewers have complained that Chappie Cliché. In an era where the majority of box office darlings with >8 star reviews are remakes, reboots or result of the Disney/Pixar/Marvel equation the majority of those reviewers are clearly either hypocrites or they don't know what cliché means. Chappie is soaked in the Blomkamp style and while that style was new and fresh with District 9, its unreasonable to expect a director's primary product to be novelty.

Overall it's a good movie, certainly more interesting than most of the box-office-safe fare out that's been out there.