I still remember vividly six years ago when District 9 first came on the scene and shocked the world. One of the first true Sci-fi masterpieces since the Millennium was here. Nobody had ever seen a movie like it before, and the fact that it came out of nowhere had everyone asking questions about Neill Blomkamp the director: "who made this movie?", "where has this person been all this time" and "what will he do next?".
Blomkamps sophomore effort Elysium (2013) was made with the backing of a major studio, given a massive budget and featured A-lister Matt Damon in the lead. While Elysium is not the classic District 9 is, it's an enjoyable film well enough, with some fine action scenes and excellent visual effects, but despite the amazing technical direction the films script was a mess of lazy clichés and heavy handed social commentary, you cannot be at fault for calling Elysium a disappointment.
Chappie represents and attempt to get back to those roots that flung Blomkamp into the spotlight in the first place. Much like D9, Chappie is set in Johannesburg, features Sharlto Copley in the lead, has a relatively modest production budget, and like D9 is a remake of a short film that Blomkamp made years ago.
To call Blomkamp a master of visual effects is a pointlessly blatant statement, the man clearly knows what he's doing effects wise. Chappie himself and all the digital effects throughout are magnificent, you simply cannot tell where the seams are in this movie.
The actions scenes are outstanding too, Blomkamp learned his lesson from Elysium and the shaky-cam is almost entirely gone. All the big explosive scenes are beautifully choreographed and make up for a lot of pacing problems with the film.
But that is where most of the positive points with Chappie end, because for everything that works there's about 2 things that really don't.
The biggest problem with the movie are the characters, despite Chappies name being the title and his face being plastered on every single piece of marketing for the film he simply doesn't work as a main character. Chappie doesn't appear until about 30 minutes into the film, and then he goes through a slow period of learning that takes up way too much of the second act of this film. The things he learns from his "mommy and daddy" are questionable acts of crime and degeneracy that make you not like the character, and towards the end of the film when Blomkamp lays on the Jesus metaphors really thick you don't understand entirely what Chappie is even trying to do or why. When you don't understand where the lead character in a movie is coming from there's a disconnect with the audience.
The supporting characters are really what sink the movie however. Ninja is a disgusting human being that you don't want to root for, his attempts to turn Chappie into a "Gangsta" are childish and embarrassing, Yolandi brings no meat or intensity to her role, she is really out of her depth as an actress here, Blomkamp needs to learn from the mistake of casting these two that rappers don't always make good actors. Despite being in the film tonnes, Dev Patel leaves no impression, once he builds Chappie and hands him over to the crooks, he has almost no further bearing on the story, writing him out early instead of carrying his dead weight around would have been preferable. Sigourney Weaver is a really good actress in a thankless role that could have been played by anyone. Now, Hugh Jackman is the only character worth a damn, because he's the only person that makes sense as far as motives go, but he spends most of the movie making mean faces at Dev Patel, it's only right at the end that he gets to flex his muscles and do something.
With a more consistent tone, a shorter run time and a complete overhaul of all its characters Chappie could have been one for the ages like District 9, but as it stands it's just kind of nothing. I still believe Blomkamp is a great filmmaker with lots of potential but he needs to get his act together and learn from his mistakes, especially if he's going to direct the next Alien movie.
Blomkamps sophomore effort Elysium (2013) was made with the backing of a major studio, given a massive budget and featured A-lister Matt Damon in the lead. While Elysium is not the classic District 9 is, it's an enjoyable film well enough, with some fine action scenes and excellent visual effects, but despite the amazing technical direction the films script was a mess of lazy clichés and heavy handed social commentary, you cannot be at fault for calling Elysium a disappointment.
Chappie represents and attempt to get back to those roots that flung Blomkamp into the spotlight in the first place. Much like D9, Chappie is set in Johannesburg, features Sharlto Copley in the lead, has a relatively modest production budget, and like D9 is a remake of a short film that Blomkamp made years ago.
To call Blomkamp a master of visual effects is a pointlessly blatant statement, the man clearly knows what he's doing effects wise. Chappie himself and all the digital effects throughout are magnificent, you simply cannot tell where the seams are in this movie.
The actions scenes are outstanding too, Blomkamp learned his lesson from Elysium and the shaky-cam is almost entirely gone. All the big explosive scenes are beautifully choreographed and make up for a lot of pacing problems with the film.
But that is where most of the positive points with Chappie end, because for everything that works there's about 2 things that really don't.
The biggest problem with the movie are the characters, despite Chappies name being the title and his face being plastered on every single piece of marketing for the film he simply doesn't work as a main character. Chappie doesn't appear until about 30 minutes into the film, and then he goes through a slow period of learning that takes up way too much of the second act of this film. The things he learns from his "mommy and daddy" are questionable acts of crime and degeneracy that make you not like the character, and towards the end of the film when Blomkamp lays on the Jesus metaphors really thick you don't understand entirely what Chappie is even trying to do or why. When you don't understand where the lead character in a movie is coming from there's a disconnect with the audience.
The supporting characters are really what sink the movie however. Ninja is a disgusting human being that you don't want to root for, his attempts to turn Chappie into a "Gangsta" are childish and embarrassing, Yolandi brings no meat or intensity to her role, she is really out of her depth as an actress here, Blomkamp needs to learn from the mistake of casting these two that rappers don't always make good actors. Despite being in the film tonnes, Dev Patel leaves no impression, once he builds Chappie and hands him over to the crooks, he has almost no further bearing on the story, writing him out early instead of carrying his dead weight around would have been preferable. Sigourney Weaver is a really good actress in a thankless role that could have been played by anyone. Now, Hugh Jackman is the only character worth a damn, because he's the only person that makes sense as far as motives go, but he spends most of the movie making mean faces at Dev Patel, it's only right at the end that he gets to flex his muscles and do something.
With a more consistent tone, a shorter run time and a complete overhaul of all its characters Chappie could have been one for the ages like District 9, but as it stands it's just kind of nothing. I still believe Blomkamp is a great filmmaker with lots of potential but he needs to get his act together and learn from his mistakes, especially if he's going to direct the next Alien movie.