As some of you may know, I went to see Chappie on IMAX on Saturday as my boyfriend and I wanted a date night. A few of you want to see it, a few of you aren't sure. The critical reception isn't helping you. At the time of writing, it has a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 40% rating on Metacritic, yet a 76% on IMDb.
So here's what your trusted friend Pikonic has to say, because if you can't trust me, who an you trust. Now, I might be no Cole Smithey snobby smart critic, but I likes what I likes.
The movie heavily advertised that the it was from "The director of District 9", not "The director of Elysium." This comes as no surprise as Blomkamp has publicly said he regrets making Elysium. Before I go on, I should mention I loved District 9 and found Elysium tolerable, yet forgettable.
So in the first minutes I was elated to see the same style and setting as District 9, a news story (Anderson Cooper appears as himself.) taking places in Johannesburg, South Africa. The crime rate and police fatalities in Johannesburg has grown so high, the city decides to use "scouts", robotic police forces, to help stop crime. The scouts are a great success and the city continues to order more. The scouts were designed by a young computer engineer Deon (Patel), who has been working on a project of his own, creating an AI that can actually feel and form his own opinion. He successfully writes the code after roughly 3 years at attempting. He brings the idea to his boss, Director Bradley (Weaver) who tells him that sentient AI is pointless for the scouts because of what they do. Deon takes a scout that was damaged beyond repair and uploads his new program secretly, after being captured by a group of drug pushers (Ninja, Vessir.)The broken scout, now called "Chappie" is able to learn and feel and is raised by both Dion and the criminals.
The movie was a feels factory the whole time, with points I was almost in tears over a robot. It tackled the idea of what makes us human and what happens after death. Like his two previous films, the movie had a political/philosophical message behind it, namely human dependency on technology, police corruption, and what it means to be human. There were also robots, which are pretty cool. It's also nice to see Hugh Jackman doing something other than waving claws and saying "bub" these days.
The visuals and music were fantastic. The use of pastel colors in some parts showed the immaturity and naivety of Chappie as he grows up. The music was done by Hans Zimmerman with a song done by Ninja and Yolandi, two hip hop artists from South Africa who played the two criminals who raised Chappie.
My biggest criticism is the movie felt like it wrapped up the plot too fast, as if it was a much longer movie before editing. If a directors cut is released, I will buy it immediately.
A redditor called Chappie "an R rated Disney movie," which is probably the best one sentence review I'm going to find. Overall I thought Chappie was good and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed District 9.
Pikonic's rating: 4/5
So here's what your trusted friend Pikonic has to say, because if you can't trust me, who an you trust. Now, I might be no Cole Smithey snobby smart critic, but I likes what I likes.
The movie heavily advertised that the it was from "The director of District 9", not "The director of Elysium." This comes as no surprise as Blomkamp has publicly said he regrets making Elysium. Before I go on, I should mention I loved District 9 and found Elysium tolerable, yet forgettable.
So in the first minutes I was elated to see the same style and setting as District 9, a news story (Anderson Cooper appears as himself.) taking places in Johannesburg, South Africa. The crime rate and police fatalities in Johannesburg has grown so high, the city decides to use "scouts", robotic police forces, to help stop crime. The scouts are a great success and the city continues to order more. The scouts were designed by a young computer engineer Deon (Patel), who has been working on a project of his own, creating an AI that can actually feel and form his own opinion. He successfully writes the code after roughly 3 years at attempting. He brings the idea to his boss, Director Bradley (Weaver) who tells him that sentient AI is pointless for the scouts because of what they do. Deon takes a scout that was damaged beyond repair and uploads his new program secretly, after being captured by a group of drug pushers (Ninja, Vessir.)The broken scout, now called "Chappie" is able to learn and feel and is raised by both Dion and the criminals.
The movie was a feels factory the whole time, with points I was almost in tears over a robot. It tackled the idea of what makes us human and what happens after death. Like his two previous films, the movie had a political/philosophical message behind it, namely human dependency on technology, police corruption, and what it means to be human. There were also robots, which are pretty cool. It's also nice to see Hugh Jackman doing something other than waving claws and saying "bub" these days.
The visuals and music were fantastic. The use of pastel colors in some parts showed the immaturity and naivety of Chappie as he grows up. The music was done by Hans Zimmerman with a song done by Ninja and Yolandi, two hip hop artists from South Africa who played the two criminals who raised Chappie.
My biggest criticism is the movie felt like it wrapped up the plot too fast, as if it was a much longer movie before editing. If a directors cut is released, I will buy it immediately.
A redditor called Chappie "an R rated Disney movie," which is probably the best one sentence review I'm going to find. Overall I thought Chappie was good and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed District 9.
