“Don’t let people take away your potential, Chappie.”
For a film I had heard a lot about, I was still unable to grasp exactly what it would be like. I had only heard anecdotes about a piece of AI technology called Chappie (voiced by Sharlto Copley) and not much about how he fit into the rest of the film. Chappie, directed by South African-Canadian director Neill Blomkamp, opens documentary style with a New York journalist and a cognitive scientist discussing Chappie and how they did not believe this would happen in their lifetime. A jump back to 18 months earlier, now news report style, tells us how the crime rate is rising in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the government has introduced armour-plated police robots developed by Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) at weapons manufacturer Tetravaal.
Blomkamp, named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2009 by Time Magazine, favours documentary style and hand held filming, specifically French film movement cinéma vérité; a style of documentary filmmaking invented by Jean Rouch which shows people in everyday situations with authentic dialogue and naturalness of action.
We are also introduced to solider turned engineer Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) who developed a remote control heavy weapons fighter robot called MOOSE which is controlled by a human. Vincent becomes increasingly jealous of Deon whose police robots are favoured by the government, whilst MOOSE is a no-go. It is revealed that Deon has been developing a prototype artificial intelligence at home that mimics a human mind to the point of feeling emotions and having opinions. He eventually succeeds and with excitement asks Tetravaal CEO Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) if he can test the AI on a police robot, which Michelle refuses. Hurt, Deon steals a recently damaged robot before it is destroyed and plans to update the robot’s software with his new AI prototype.
Before Deon can achieve this, he is kidnapped by Die Antwoord. No really, South African rap rave group Yolandi and Ninja star as gangsters along with Amerika who only have a few days to pay a debt of 20 million rand to a more powerful gangster who goes by Hippo. They ask Deon to reprogram a police robot to fight for them and ultimately find the damaged robot in the back of the company truck. Deon has no choice but to agree and installs the AI on the damaged robot, informing the troubled gangsters that it will behave like a baby at first but will learn faster and become more intelligent than any human. Yolandi sees Chappie for the child he is and wants to provide the love and nurture she thinks he needs, whilst Ninja has other plans with the time limit of repaying the debt weighing on his mind and pushes Chappie to learn how to fight and kill before he is ready.
The film then takes us on the journey of Chappie learning mostly from Yolandi, Ninja and Amerika which provides comedic entertainment of an AI robot doing things such as yelling “slut get out” at a woman in a car, mimicking Ninja’s cool gangster walk and their gangster dialect including “what’s up fuck mother?” Along with intervals of Die Antwoord songs featuring ‘Cookie Thumper’ and ‘Baby’s On Fire,’ we see Chappie learn and grow from the gang, Vincent’s attempt to destroy Deon’s police robots and get MOOSE out there and Deon finding a way for Chappie to survive before his battery runs out. Blomkamp’s films usually make social comments, such as what would happen if Aliens landed on Earth (District 9) and what would happen if this kind of technology really took off. Chappie is an incredible film fit with comedy, action and emotional turmoil with a South Africa as a great location and a very captivating cast.
★★★★
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