Blomkamp has failed to live up to his debuts potential in the years since, bricking heavily with the overly plotted yet dull Elysium and once again missing the mark with his third feature, Chappie, a tonally bi-polar disappointment that dilutes an intriguing concept with silliness disguised as superficially thought-provoking genre storytelling.
If handled by a different filmmaker, Chappies inherent goofiness couldve been mined for self-aware laughs and channeled into a genre mash-up, a more intelligent and visually advanced Short Circuit. But, just like in Elysium, Blomkamp misses the humor that so obviously dominates his material. Rather than having any fun with the idea of a talking hip-hop robot, he wrongly accentuates the self-seriousness and treats Chappie like its high-stakes drama.
Is Blomkamp the guy you want revitalizing Ellen Ripley and H.R. Gigers monstrous extra-terrestrial creatures, though? If theres one thing that Chappie confirms, its that Blomkamp does know how to stage the occasional showstopper of an action set-piecethe films climax is a brutal, surprisingly gruesome firefight during which the director finally delivers on the promises he initiated in District 9. By that point in this nearly two-hour misfire, however, its too late for him to start going for broke. Blomkamp is a visionary effects overseer who unjustifiably fancies himself as a double threat of both narrative and spectacle, but Chappie proves otherwise. Hes not only the new Richard Kelly, hes the second coming of M. Night Shyamalan, an undeniably gifted director whose biggest flaw is the inability to give his fingers a rest and let better screenwriters take over.
