Last weekend, the world was introduced to Chappie, a captivating tale about the worlds first Artificial Intelligence with just a few minor speed bumps along the way.
Ever since 2009, director Neill Blomkamp has been releasing films every two to three years. District 9 being his very first major theoretical release, the film was nominated for Best Picture and several other Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards. In 2012, Blomkamp would release his 2nd major film, Elysium. While the film received average reviews, many audience members expected more from this relatively new director.
Chappie marks Blomkamps third major release and while the film does not stand up to the grand scale of District 9, it still is a very interesting and captivating science fiction piece.
All of Blomkamps works always have an original plot and storyline, and Chappie is no different. In the not so distant future, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa is ridden with crime. To counter this crime without putting the lives of human police officers in danger, a young engineer develops highly efficient and powerful police droids. These droids completely lower the crime rate and save the lives of thousands of citizens.
After years of success, this young engineer additional develops the world’s first Artificial Intelligence and, through unfortunate circumstances, downloads it into one of his broken police droids.
Thus, Chappie is born.
The rest of the film follows Chappie growing up in the underground crime areas of Johannesburg and how he learns, develops, and grows. One of the most interesting aspects regarding this film is that it is technically not that far off from reality. The development of artificial intelligence is something that could, in fact, be achieved sometime within our lifetime and is something that many people are excited and scared about within the coming years.
The acting, unfortunately, is sub-par, with Blomkamps close friend and working companion Sharlto Copley both voice acting and capturing the motions of Chappie being the only notable aspects of acting throughout the entire film.
Blomkamps Chappie is not a bad film, it just was not as fully realized or developed as it could have been. Ever since the release of District 9, Blomkamp has slowly been going downhill with the quality of his films. Hopefully his newest project, the making of a new Alien movie, will be more successful than his most recent projects.
