Review: Chappie (2015)

Although Orange Wednesdays are over, the cinemas are still playing games with each other, and so thankfully (for me) my local is still allowing 2-4-1 tickets every Wednesday during March. I don’t even have to pester a friend for a code, huzzah! My excitement for Chappie stalled a fair amount after reading so many negative reviews, but I always like to save judgement until I’ve seen the film myself. We got to the cinema a little early, and if you follow us on Twitter you’ll have seen my fiance wasn’t great company while we waited.

Took the fiancé to the cinema. Great pre-film conversation right here...not! - A pic.twitter.com/cuIQIp2Lll
— Jenna and Allie (@FlickChicksBlog) March 11, 2015

I was gutted when I missed this as the cinema because I loved District 9 and the trailer really reminded me of it.  I ended up only seeing it last week in the end.

Despite what the trailers made me think, Chappie (Sharlto Copley) is a damaged police robot, created by Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) and stolen by gangsters Ninja and Yolandi (played by themselves - who even are these two?! Apparently a South African rap duo?!). Deon has cleverly created software giving Chappie his own consciousness, and once switched on, he’s comparable to a highly impressionable child.   What did the trailers make you think?  This was not at all what I expected but I can't put my finger on why, I don't know what I was expecting!!

Chappie is the life and soul of this film. It has a fairly slow start during the storytelling of Chappie’s origins, but his reveal is great. He’s likeable before he even comes to life, a Scout Robot who seems to be cursed, always coming back from the field damaged. His one orange ear (antennae) and ‘Reject’ sticker make him instantly recognisable. For a robot, he’s highly expressive, and so hats off to the robotics/animation team behind that.  Chappie was by far the highlight, he was so lovely and made me smile whenever he was on camera, Sharlto Copley was fantastic playing the defect robot with the perfect level of charm and innocence.

One thing I liked about the film, which I imagine is a criticism in others’ eyes, it that you’re never sure who the real bad guy is. At the outset, it’s the gangsters Ninja and Yolandi, living a life of crime and stealing Chappie to help them with a heist. Without spoiling the story for you, they don’t appear to be the bad guys towards the end. The real rotten character is Vincent, (Hugh Jackman), who will literally stop at nothing to see his own work get the credit he feels it deserves. I really don’t like Hugh Jackman as a baddie! He’s just too much of a nice guy usually… and that mullet!!

Fully agree with Allie, its so confusing, you never know whose side to be on.  Instinctively, you want to side with Deon but he just seems like a bit of a wet lettuce who just lets everyone walk all over him.  Then there is the rap duo who are astonishingly irritating, initially, they are a breath of fresh air after Deon's blandness but Yolandi's high pitched squeal and Ninja's shouted are just too much to bear, I nearly turned the whole thing off at one point. 

Granted, Chappie doesn’t have a huge social/political agenda like District 9 did, but I think it still spreads an important message about how impressionable children are. Chappie knows and understands that crime and murder are wrong, and yet he can still be taught to steal and kill, just by the way he’s told how.  I did enjoying seeing how they got round his promise to not hurt people, it was really clever - my favourite moment in the film was probably when he trashed 'daddy's stolen car' instead of getting the driver out!!

There’s plenty of humour in this film too, largely thanks to Chappie himself. His excitement over rubber chickens, riding in the car, or just the way he repeatedly tells the gangsters, ‘Chappie can’t do heist. Heist is a crimes’ just made me smile again and again. I love him!

I’m scared that this might be another Green Lantern situation here for me, judging by the reviews I’ve read so far, but I hand on heart loved Chappie, and despite its flaws, I want to see it again soon.

Honestly, I loved Chappie and the ending was pretty clever (although convenient) but the story didn't keep me entertained.  I fell asleep twice trying to watch it.  I am gutted it wasn't as good as District 9 but it just wasn't up to par.  It would have been a 5 but Chappie brought it back....

Review: District 9 (2009)

You know the drill by now. I have an ever-growing lists of films that people mention and then gasp in horror when I tell them I've never seen it. I'm slowly ticking films off this list, and the other night I finally got round to watching District 9. I completely forgot what it was about actually, but the DVD cover reminded me that it had something to do with aliens. Nothing to do with the Hunger Games then! Haha!

Basically, the gist of the story is that years ago, an alien mother-ship arrives on Earth, and is discovered to contain hundreds of malnutritioned beings. District 9 is formed for the aliens to live in, but the living conditions are awful and slum-like.

The film itself plays as a documentary on TV following the events of the aliens arriving and Wikus Van De Merwe’s involvement in the eviction of the residents of District 9. I think this is what makes it stand out so much for me and I don’t remember another film quite like it. It definitely sets it apart from other alien invasion films.  The first time I actually watched this I thought Sharlto Copley was a terrible actor, that was until I realised he was 'being filmed' for the documentary and actually he was a fantastic actor, in fact he was the highlight of this movie for me.

I found myself conflicted throughout the first half of the film, I actually didn't know which side I wanted to root for, or which side I was supposed to be. During the first few scenes I was extremely against the aliens, or ‘prawns’ as I should probably call them! However, once Wikus and his team strolled in, I suddenly had this extreme disliking of the guy and started to side with the prawns. It was subtly hilarious though, the thought of Wikus walking through District 9 asking for signatures to confirm that each household understood the terms of their eviction!  The connections between this scenario and real life society in regards to the Rich-Poor divide and racism was quite jarring in places I thought, it tugged on my heartstrings a bit even though these are a fictional race.

I really enjoyed this aspect of the film, normally if you watch an alien film you are either on the side of the aliens or the humans that are against them.  This film had you flicking back and forth from one to the other, but it kept you on your toes.  It also stopped you from guessing what the ending would be, it kept me interested I can say that.

I promise to keep this review spoiler-free, so let’s just say that I very quickly took Wikus’s side again. For me, this is where the film really kicked up a gear and turned from great to epic. This is the first film that I've seen Sharlto Copley in, his acting was superb, I couldn't fault him. Even though I couldn't work out how it could end happily, I still rooted for Wikus throughout and the scenes where he was on the phone to his wife broke my heart.  Curl up in a ball, try not to cry, cry a lot...

Despite everything, my favourite character might have been Christopher Johnson and his little son. The digital effects team did a fantastic job because even though they speak a language we can only understand through subtitles, through their gestures and facial features, their eyes in particular, you can feel every bit of emotion they portray, which was so clever.

I can’t comment on whether the ending was what I expected, because I genuinely just didn't have a clue how it would pan out. It saddened me deeply, but with my critic hat on, it was the perfect ending. Has there been talk of a sequel? As much as I would love one, I wouldn't want it to jeopardise such an amazing stand-alone film.  Really it was the only way it could end, but you don't know that until you get there.  I have to agree with the sequel, it could be great or it could ruin it completely.  I think there was talks of one at one point but not sure if anything panned out.