MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: CHAPPIE
by Hazed
You wait for years for a decent movie about robots and AI, and then two come along at once. A few weeks ago I recommended the small film Ex Machina which was showing in the UK; I believe it has just opened in the US so you have a chance to see that if you want to.
Now a much larger-scale film that covers similar themes has opened: Chappie.
Don’t be put off by reviews of the film you may have read. It’s got a score of just 29% on Rotten Tomatoes – and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it’s so hated by the critics, because I thought it was a really good movie.
It’s directed by Neil Blomkamp, the South African behind the previous excellent film about alien refugees, District 9. Like that film, Chappie is set in a future vision of Johannesburg, South Africa. This is a city filled with armed gangsters, who are kept under control by a police force that uses robots, called scouts, produced by a big corporation.
The robots’ inventor, Deon, has ambitions to make the world’s first artificially intelligent robot, using a discarded scout robot, but his boss (played by the wonderful Sigourney Weaver) says no. So he steals a damaged scout intending to install his AI software anyway.
With terrible timing, this happens at the just the same time as some gangsters decide to kidnap him, under the mistaken impression he has some kind of remote control that will turn off all the scout robots. Instead, they allow him to work on his AI robot, and thus Chappie is born – a child-like robot that has to be taught and trained. Thanks to the gangsters, what he learns is not what Deon intended.
The robot is created using motion capture technology and the actor wearing the mo-cap suit, Sharlto Copley, does a fantastic job. Within about 5 seconds of Chappie coming alive, I was wholly in love with the robot.
Meanwhile Hugh Jackman plays the villain of the film, striding around in shorts and long socks with the most appalling mullet hairstyle you can imagine. He wants his own robot police droid, the Moose, to be deployed – a huge stomping machine controlled by a remote operator.
Chappie is by turns funny, heart-breaking and terrifying. It’s not a perfect film, and the plot is a bit flabby in places, but it’s still really good, and something a bit different from the usual Hollywood action blockbuster. I highly recommend it.
You don’t have to take my word for it; not all reviews were stinkers. Here’s a positive review of the film.
