Photo by Katherine Rountree
Taking place in director Neill Blomkamp’s hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa, “Chappie” is a violent, gratuitous fairy tale; a sort of Pinocchio with guns, drugs and badmouthing role models.
Due to outrage over the deaths of policemen, the government employs the use of SCOUT androids to take the place of humans and control the crime rate in Johannesburg. The SCOUT’s engineer, Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), uploads an AI system into a damaged android scheduled for destruction. The android, Chappie — brilliantly portrayed by Sharlto Copley — is raised by gangsters Yolandi and Ninja (played by Yolandi and Ninja Visser of Die Antwoord) to help them on a heist to pay off a whopping debt to a maniacal drug kingpin. Chappie learns and grows like a child as he begins to understand his place in a strange world.
While it stays true to Blomkamp’s usual over-the-top visuals, violence and humor, the movie handles some heavy subjects. Envy, the mystery behind what defines a soul and the acceptance of mortality all play a part in the hero’s development.
Simultaneously, Chappie struggles between the choice of his “Daddy” (Ninja) and his “Maker” (Patel), who have conflicting interests in our hero. Yolandi takes on the role of “Mommy,” a nurturing sympathetic figure. As Chappie grows from an infant to a car-thieving teenager and into adulthood, he maintains his endearing innocence, affecting the members of his unorthodox family. Our hearts break when he’s hurt, and we feel pride as he discovers something new.
While the actors execute their characters convincingly, they’re not particularly original; they’re more like caricatures. Wilson is immediately set as a foil to Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman), a former soldier and rival engineer morally against artificial intelligence. Moore is mullet-wearing, khaki-sporting, gun-toting psychopath descending into a jealous rage leading him to destroy. Next to him, Wilson is a cookie-cutter nerdy idealist with hopes of improving the world; when he tells Chappie not to “let this barbarian man [Ninja] steal your creativity,” it’s almost too clichéd to be taken seriously. Sigourney Weaver’s secondary role as the generic nay-saying boss kept out of the loop is just that: generic. Yankie (Jose Pablo Cantillo), nicknamed “Amerika,” is your average wise-cracking partner in crime. Yolandi and Ninja are excused as they play themselves in their profane, neon-painted ostentatious way.
Aside from the actual overkill (bazookas and mecha-scissors, anyone?) and repetitive use of slow-motion frames, the most jarring aspect of the film is the blatant product placement. Every computer is a Sony model and the gang brings home an absurd number of PlayStation consoles. Die Antwoord’s music makes up most of the soundtrack as Yolandi and Ninja wear their own merchandise, and Chappie plays with a doll modeled after his “Mommy.” It’s sometimes easy to forget that you’re watching a feature film and not a two-hour Die Antwoord music video.
Blomkamp raises a few questions at the beginning of the movie that are left unanswered and is consistently over the top. Still, there’s a refreshing tenderness to “Chappie.” Throughout is an empathy the character brings out in the viewer, making it impossible not to root for him. For all the fireworks, the film is vulnerable and sincere.
