Chappie

Plot: 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 (summary from IMDB).

Spoilers Ahoy

I might as well state this up front, I really like Neill Blomkamp. He may have a mere three feature films under his belt, but quantity isn't everything, and already his work has struck a cord with me. Originality may not be this director's strongest asset – many of his ideas are pinched from sci-fi concepts tackled during previous eras – however when it comes to his style, he's onto something.

The South-African director's previous two films blended a heavy mix of gritty realism with that of a contemporary video game aesthetic; creating a raw yet fantastical visual landscape for him to bounce ideas around within. His 2009 feature District 9 took real life issues regarding racism and painted it onto a science fiction canvas; exploring this particular topic from an angle resembling a test screening for a non-existent Halo movie. Next up came the 2013 flick Elysium, which brought together elements of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel and Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII to tell a story in which the main protagonist must essentially overcome a series of obstacles in order to make it to the next level of a cinematic video game.

Chappie is no different in this respect, as it loves to take numerous old school concepts and play them out in a style similar to something you'd expect to find perched upon the shelves of your local games store. As was the case in District 9, Blomkamp tries to sprinkle the opening moments of this feature with dashings of authenticity, playing out faux-interview montages with several of the film's characters. Such scenes exist to not only imply credibility toward the story at hand, but to also sneak in some crafty exposition dumps informing viewers of what the movie's all about. No more than five minutes in, however, the dummy interview approach quickly dismantles itself in favour of exploring the ideas of yesteryear's sci fi instead. 

From the opening info dumps alone, glimpses of familiar science fiction tropes already make themselves apparent. We have crime-ridden environments paralleling sets not unlike the grimy streets of Paul Verhoeven's Robocop; obedient androids serving humans in a manner mimicking that of Isaac Asimov's I,Robot, and a military assembly of a mechanized police forces taking us all the way back to the good old days of John Badham's Short Circuit. It's an all-star mash up of classic robo-related sci fi fables; revived and remixed inside the realms Blomkamp's video game universe.

This is how the majority of Chappie plays out. Numerous pre-established ideas rebound off of one another, redone and reused within the playground of this narrative (which is essentially the way I've learned to read this director's body of work thus far).

Some individuals seem to have already started attacking this feature for its over reliance on other works of science fiction, although maybe its desire to tinker with older tales isn't as problematic as some may believe it to be. Its decision to toy around within these fictional idea vistas result in a film which isn't afraid to experiment with the nature of the story it's trying to tell; mixing and matching ideas to get the narrative to where Blomkamp wants it to be.

Furthermore, it lets him have fun with the film at hand; blending various visual elements in order to execute action sequences of his own liking. Take the climactic sequence as an example, in which the Moose resembles what appears to be a disused piece of concept art for Metal Gear Solid 4's Gekko arms unit. It's existence within the story serves solely for the purpose of letting the film have an explosive final battle between Chappie and Hugh Jackman's Vincent Moore.

It's a bit like a kid playing with their favourite toys. They may have a Batman action figure positioned in one corner, Spider-Man perched in another and a Millennium Falcon dominating centre stage; all three ready to go head to head in an all out sudden death match. Blomkamp is arguably the Hollywood equivalent of an over imaginative kid playing with their toys, one who's just gone ahead and made a 120 minute movie ending with Johnny 5 battling to death with a Metal Gear Gekko. I can see why some might get catty with such an approach to cinema, but from where I'm sitting, it's jolly good fun.

As I've mentioned several times over already, District 9 and Elysium were both executed in what are best described as gritty authentic video-games. Both films are structured as if they are autonomous versions of a best-seller Xbox title; one's with detailed landscapes of depth surrounding them. Chappie plays by the same rules, yet again creating a colourful and vibrant dystopia; one including luminously colourful weaponry, characters donning flamboyant costumes resembling that of a cos-play convention and props so visually electrifying that they appear as though they belong in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The larger world surrounding this luminous fantastical narrative has its own historical and social context, one which manages – in much the same fashion as Blomkamp's previous two features – to give Chappie a depth that simultaneously separates itself from this reality and reflects it all in one. The decline in social order, the rise of criminal structures routing their way into the architecture of civilization and the implementation of an artificial intelligence all assist in creating this parallel/familiar reality which encompasses the context of this movie.

Chappie's synth-style score by the ever-brilliant Hans Zimmer, playing along side the vivacious visuals of this gamesque universe, strikes a cord with me in a way neither District 9 or Elysium ever managed to achieve. It's a truly electrifying blend, resulting in the feature becoming what I like to call a Contemporary Eighties flick. What i mean by this is a film which basically couldn't have possibly been made in the 1980s, but feels like it should have nonetheless. Episode two of Doctor Who series eight did something along the same lines; telling a Dalek story which would have fit in perfectly during the mid 80s era of the show, but was a story which could never have been made without 21^st century technology available to assist in the aesthetics of that particular episode. This is what Chappie is. The style nor physical requirements could never have been achieved during that particular decade, however it's a product of such a period nonetheless.

Despite these more positive points, there are also several problems with Chappie as a film. For one thing, the whole authentic faux-interview opening feels slightly pointless and out of place. It initially worked quite nicely in District 9. The subtle transition form pseudo-documentary to third person fiction felt fresh and appropriate when used in that film. Here, however, it serves as nothing more than a cheap info dump trick to explain to viewers what the story's all about.

Which brings me onto exposition in general - it's one of the film's weaker points. Chappie has an annoying habit of providing way too much info-dumping in the form of direct dialogue. Examples being characters explaining in the most overly-detailed manner how they need to find money to pay crime boss Hippo for a previously messed up job; Yolandi's plan to kidnap mech creator Deon so her gang can power them down; and Deon's description of how the moose helmet transfers human consciousness via a remote helmet. It's not that this information isn't important to the plot, it's that it's told not shown. Sometimes explaining story in clear-cut dialogue can work (this ain't no Robert Mckee class), but here the vital info-dumps are delivered so matter-of-factly and so quickly that they are fairly often hard to pick up on. This means when the plot needs to use such information during later parts of the narrative, it has more than likely already been forgotten. To make matters worse, as our Heroes stand around delivering all this plot explanation, the whole business of it feels forced to the point that it's tedious, annoying and obvious that it's exposition. When it comes to the Chekhov's gun principle, it's more effective if the audience can see a gun and not just have some character blatantly declare that “there's a gun over on the wall”.

Next clanger on the list of quarrels is Blomkamp's reliance on yet another one dimensional antagonist. This isn't the first time the director has decided to go for a cardboard cut out baddie, as he's been doing so as far back as District 9 with Koobus Venter. An obvious villian isn't always necessarily a negative character to have in a movie – films and novels have been pulling that trick off since forever - but the whole “angry military brute who just wants to use a giant robot” gimmick is starting to get a teeny bit repetitive in Blomkamp's body of work. For one thing, it doesn't really give Hugh Jackman an awful lot to do in this film, other than storm about in a sulky manner for 120 minutes trying to charm Sigourney Weaver's character – Michelle Bradley – into letting him have the keys to pilot the film's big boss. This movie clearly needs a villain to face off against Chappie, but when you just have an angry ex-military dude stomping about the place because he really wants to shoot shit up with a giant death-machine is a character that grows boring very quickly.

Having said this, however, the transition of Ninja's character from complete-prick to not-as-much-of-a-complete prick is certainly a step in the right direction. It's not perfect – as this character remains more or less annoying from start to finish – however as the narrative rolls on, it is possible to feel at least a tea spoon of sympathy for this dude (to an extent). The existence of such a character suggests Blomkamp is learning to figure out how to give less savoy characters a story arch which challenges their preconceived l moral positions (or maybe this isn't an entirely fair statement; seeing as protagonist Wikus Van De Merwe in District 9 started out as a total jerk before amending his ways).

Final problem with Chappie; the ending. The Avataresque climax – in which most of the protagonists get gunned to oblivion, only to then have their consciousness uploaded into swanky android bodies – felt like nothing more than an ill thought out cop out. Yes, technically this decision wasn't a complete case of deux ex machina, largely because the rules of this neurological transfer are (sort of) explained during an earlier scene with Chappie stealing a control helmet. Only problem is, the explanation is info-dumped via a rapid dialogue exchange between Deon and Chappie. By the time the climax arrives, viewers are hastily reminded these pricey pieces of headgear have a few tricks up their sleeve when it comes to rescuing the deceased; meaning when all those gunned down in previous scenes suddenly skip off into the sunset as happy mechanical people, audiences are left scratching their heads in bewilderment. Basically, it's an annoying cop out. If you're going to spend all that time developing a bunch characters we care for before killing them off in the third act, at least leave the us the emotional punch of such a decision by keeping them dead. Don't reset everything as if it was some sort of shoddy lie to get us to feel sad for a few minutes of screen time. If they're gonna do that, they might as well end by saying the whole thing was a stoned dream. 

All in all, Chappie is a mixed bag of a film, but then that isn't a huge problem here. The film has that familiar Blomkamp style to it, which if I'm honest, still feels like a breath of fresh air. His features give off a vibe as though they were made by a film student donning an outrageous amount of money to shoot their end-of-term project with. This may sound like an insult, but it isn't. It liberates his movies in ways setting these science fiction flicks apart from most of today's other releases. Chappie has this very freedom, allowing it to be a film which can mess around with old ideas, stitch its story together based on the desires of those making it and give its director the ability to design actions scenes that indulge the inner child within.

Such creative autonomy also allows for some rather marvellous moments of uniqueness. One example includes the scene in which Chappie unwillingly assists Ninja in committing grand theft autos whilst demanding his victims “stop stealing daddy's cars”, a moment that is possibly one of the most bizarre yet hilarious five minutes of any film I've seen in recent years. It's difficult to put into words just why it is so great, however its idiosyncratic quality makes it not only weirdly wonderful, but magnificently memorable as well. Another example would be the odd yet hilarious fact that the film's antagonist has a desk only several seats away from the protagonist. Again, words fail to express the brilliance of seeing a muscular Vincent Moore hunched inside an office cubicle while geeky protagonist Deon Wilson works away several desks down.

So whatever, Blomkamp may appear to have a habit of reusing ideas of his own which worked better first time round, has written a script that ties itself in knots from time to time, and creates characters that can sometimes be a real pain in the ass to watch; but that honestly doesn't matter all that much. Things goes frustratingly wrong in this feature from time to time, however the shameless willingness to meander through former science fiction tales in order to tell a story its creator wishes to tell makes Chappie an exciting and exclusive two hours of fun.

Now we just have to wait and see what on earth Blomkamp decides to do with the Alien franchise. Whether it's good or bad, it can't be any worse than the tripe we've already endured from the latter half of that series.