Chappie Review

RYAN: This is a new sic fi, action film from the same writer/director of District 9 and Elysium.  And it features Hugh Jackman with a mullet.  Actually all of the hairstyles in this movie have to be the worst in film history.  It takes place in somewhat near-future South Africa and fashion has apparently devolved into punk rock.

MIKE: Maybe they were trying to be more regional?

RYAN: They only wear mullets in Africa?

MIKE: (laughs) I’m just kidding.

RYAN: This movie didn’t really do it for me.  It affected me, for sure, but I didn’t love it.  It’s emotionally manipulative because the robot Chappie is written to tug at your heart.  It’s like an E.T. for a modern age with an emotive robot instead of an alien.

MIKE: They blend a lot of movies.  There’s a bit or Robocop meets Short Circuit.  Story concepts and design were evocative of those movies.

RYAN: And then Transcendence.  I was into it at times and I like this director… and this cast.  There’s always Sharlto Copley.  But while I was appropriately frustrated by things at times, I just didn’t connect to any other character aside from Chappie.

MIKE: One of the more interesting scenes of the movie is when Chappie first comes online and you see him evolve as the AI concept.  He takes on human qualities and they treat him like a baby and thats’ when you start to feel something.

RYAN: It’s obviously manipulative but clever too.

MIKE: Yes in order to care about a robot you have to believe the robot has feelings.

RYAN: The movie takes an action’y and violent turn and it’s rated R.  I’d rather have seen a version of this movie as PG or PG-13 where it concentrated more on relationships and characters instead of crime.  It’s could have been a live action Wall-E.

MIKE: I see what you’re saying.  I found some moments obvious, but others were not as predictable.

RYAN: You definitely figured some things out before me in this movie but I wasn’t far behind.  And some of the things I really expected to happen by the end, based on how most movies go, never happened and I’m left feeling very unresolved and unfulfilled at the end.

MIKE: The plot lines we thought would develop, didn’t.

RYAN: I couldn’t differentiate between the main plot and the subplots during it.  Sigourney Weaver harkened back to her role in Working Girl which was fun but I wanted more of her.

MIKE: She was under utilized. She was one dimensional.

RYAN: I can’t say you have to run out to see this in the theater.  Netflix it someday.

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