It was another Saturday night and after getting roped into watching some weird ass movie the week before on HBO, I decided to not follow that pattern again and instead turn on Netflix and see what I could watch. I went through my list twice, twice and decided to pass on everything. I hate it when this happens, but this is my own fault since my list is basically filled with shows and not actual movies. Anyway, I did some more scrolling and found Chappie. This was one of those moments where I was like, “I wanted to see this movie when it came out!” I was quick to press the play button so keep reading to see if it was what I expected it to be.
Chappie is about a time in the future, not too far in the future though, where the police use robots to patrol the streets of Johannesburg and take crime levels down to basically nothing. This is all because of the company Tetravaal which is run by Michelle Bradley, played by Sigourney Weaver, and the creator of these police robots Deon, played by Dev Patel. Deon has other plans for this robot though, he wants to create the first ever robot who can think and feel for itself and that’s where Chappie, voiced by Sharlto Copley, comes in. After being hit with an RPG during a police raid, unit 22 is unusable, but Deon has other plans for this unit and implants a new chip in unit 22 to make him human, to make him Chappie. Chappie unfortunately ends up in the hands of some criminals that want to use him for criminal activities, while back at Tetravaal, Vincent, played by Hugh Jackman, is trying to come up with his own robot very unsuccessfully. This will push him to challenge everything that Deon does and do everything possible to destroy Chappie.
While this movie has the feel of Short Circuit, kudos to you if you actually know this movie, it’s actually a lot deeper. This was surprising as it is an action and adventure movie, but has a deeper meaning to it especially when it talks about death and what happens when you die. While I wasn’t expecting that and didn’t mind it, it made the movie more interesting and thought provoking, I will tell you that I was ready to shut the movie off if Chappie asked “Does this unit have a soul?” Luckily he didn’t and I continued to watch and ended up really enjoying this movie. Chappie’s main goal is to basically learn and in learning he wants to be able to allow people to live forever which would mean moving their human consciousness into a robot form. Basically this movie had a little bit of everything. Those thought provoking moments, those action and adventure sequences, some comedy thrown in for good measure, and unfortunately a sub-plot thrown in that could have brought this movie down. For some reason it didn’t though and I actually found myself upset when this movie ended because I thought it could have been a little longer if they would have cut out the un-needed sub-plot.
The acting in this movie isn’t great and that’s hard to say because I’m a huge fan of Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman, and Dev Patel. It’s just that this isn’t their best movie, but it doesn’t hurt the movie either. The acting seems kind of forced and really out of character for Hugh Jackman and Dev Patel, while it seems that Sigourney Weaver takes up a role that she’s taken up in several other movies. I was really surprised that since these are the three main characters that this didn’t hurt the movie and it’s rather strange when an actual plot of the movie can be that good that the acting really doesn’t matter. Anyway, there was also the three street thugs who were Chappie’s teachers and of course they were way over the top and unbelievable. I don’t think that street thugs act that way, but this is just a movie.
Overall I give this movie a 3 out of 5.
So the acting for this movie is bad. I’m going to put that out there right now, the sub-plot is also bad, but the main story, the story about Chappie, his learning process and what he turns into, is the most interesting part and will keep you immersed in this movie for the over two hour run time. If you’re in it for the action and adventure, I would say to pass on this movie, but if you want to watch a movie that provides a spin of answers on what would happen if an AI had actual consciousness and touch base on what happens when people die and can their consciousness be transferred so they can live on then this is the movie for you.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 