Chappie
Each year there are quite a few movies that come out that are expected. There are always the big blockbuster franchises churning out endless sequels, which will be entertaining for the most part, but often the intrigue comes with the unexpected. What new angle or new presentation of an idea will come out to capture our wonder. Chappie seemed intriguing from when its first trailer came out – a brilliant designer who takes the next step to turn his algorithmic machines into a full fledged artificial intelligence. The film is directed by Neill Blomkamp whose past directorial credits include District 9 and Elysium. The film stars Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, and Sharlto Copley.
Stories of artificial intelligence have been told and retold for a long time. They continue to instill wonder because there are so many different ways events could unfold. No one knows what the future holds. The film takes place in South Africa where for some reason there has been a significant rise in violent crime. A brilliant engineer develops automated combat robots to augment the country’s police force. The robots work out fantastically, violent crime gets under control, and the company that makes the robots is raking in cash. However, the brilliant engineer is more interested in pushing the envelope than money and pushes forward with his development of an artificial intelligence.
What follows from there is mostly disappointing. The biggest problem with Chappie is that it has an identity problem with two possible options. Option one is that at it’s core, Chappie is a movie about the ultimate corrupting power of humanity. Option two is that Chappie is such a meshed up mess of ideas that it has no core. Obviously neither are good options. It’s always hard to judge what a movie will be like based on it’s trailer, but the pre-release information seemed to indicate the movie would follow the conflict between the idealistic engineer pushing for his AI creation against others who view the AI as dangerous. Instead, most of the focus of the film is about degenerate people who squander, demean, and debase a wonderful invention.
People who are interested in exploring “what if” scenarios involving artificial intelligence will be let down by this film. Chappie instead seems to be more designed for those looking for a mindless, casual action-ish film. To cap it all off, the ending is so immensely bizarre and out of place that the theater literally filled with laughter at how bizarre it was. You can’t be all things to all people and maybe that’s what the problem is. Chappie is definitely the type of film that you probably won’t ever bring up or mention again after seeing.
