By LINDSI HEBERT, Staff Reporter.
Directed by Neilll Blomkamp and released to theaters in 2015, “Chappie” tells the story of why people are terrible and why robots are awesome. More specifically, Johannesburg, South Africa is suffering from gang wars and crime sprees and the police are over run. Enter the problem solvers: Tetravaal, a robotics company that comes up with two kinds of crime fighting robots.
The first of these two types of robots is created by a man named Deon Wilson (Dev Patel). Wilson’s robot is the one that’s been issued to the police forces and has become highly useful and in demand. They’re fully automated and work off of artificial intelligence. His bitter office rival is Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman), an ex-soldier who has basically created the “Chappie” version of the ED-209 from “Robocop”. Huge tanks that can fly and are armed to the teeth for full frontal combat.
Wilson is working on a project to create sentience for his robot, and has finally discovered how to give robots conscious thought. He steals a security robot that was destined for the scrap heap and in that process gets kidnapped by this gang who want his robot for the ultimate heist. Wilson complies and now Chappie (Sharlto Copley) is born.
First off, I can’t write a description of “Chappie” that will ever do it justice. This film is complicated and has quite a few subplots going on. It really is a movie you need to see. The effects are great and the setting couldn’t be better for a movie as rough as “Chappie” can get. The writers were on point with how the artificial intelligence should work, and watching Chappie learn is one of the most interesting and also heartbreaking parts of the movie.
A specific scene has Chappie abandoned in front of a rival gang on the other side of the city. Because his body is that of a police robot, the gang members quickly start beating on him with pipes and setting him on fire with Molotov cocktails all while he’s begging for them to stop and running away. It’s pretty much like watching a three year old get pounded with debris and then set on fire and is an incredibly powerful scene for not only character development, but you get to see just how much of a jackass Vincent Moore is.
The writing in “Chappie” is brilliant. Hands down, probably one of the best movies I’ve seen so far in 2015. The characters are well rounded and do a good job of either making you love them or hate them, and not going to lie, I wanted to punch everybody but adorable gangster robot Chappie by the time the climax hit.
Boy did that climax ever hit. The final fights are incredible, totally engrossing. Your feelings for the gang that stole Chappie will be flipped upside down and dragged through a cactus field of feels. No spoilers, but this movie has probably one of the most creative takes on sentient robots probably ever done. I Robot has nothing on “Chappie”. You may think you know the direction that “Chappie” is going to take, but you are dead wrong and it’s okay, because I was to. It’s also okay to cry over a robot and if you are even the littlest bit prone to getting emotional during movies, “Chappie” will wreck you.
If you’re familiar with Blomkamp’s work (Elysium, District 9), you’re going to enjoy “Chappie” it’s an emotional ride with a kickin’ soundtrack full of South African rap. It doesn’t lack for explosions, or fighting, and will have you walking out of the theater hating the human race. I would love to say more, but this movie can be spoiled and I will not ruin a movie this good. Get out there, go see it again and again and again.
On a scale of one to five gummy bears, with five being the highest, screw the system because “Chappie” gets the entire bag of gummy bears.
