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Neill Blomkamp reflects on Chappie (2015)

I also feel for him because I've been in that place. I feel like the next step is to be able to take in the criticism and learn / grow from it. Not in a way that violates your artistic vision, but in a way that helps you truly grow.

but what does that mean anymore with the hot take machine (internet) in full effect. lots of arm chair artists out there that got that million dollar idea they just can't seem to squeeze out.
 
I loved Chappie and Die Antwoord. I got kind of bored of Dev Patel, Huge Jackman, and the action at the end. I thought it was way more interesting than Elysium.
 
I finally watched this last night. The storyline is somewhat straightforward referencing both Robocop and Short Circuit. The problem really ended up being that no one wanted to see Chappie being taught South African gang culture by unreasonable crazy people then adopting their behaviour. It was just offputting and would have been obvious on the page when he wrote unreasonable characters and cast Die Antwoord to play them. I actually think as crazy as the climax is with the transfer it actually worked in the end much like District 9 works in the end and the film sort of redeemed itself. Yeah the characters redeem themselves as well but too little too late.

Tonally the language, violence, and otherwise content was completely at odds with its robot learning to learn and act story. It felt like a PG-13 movie given an R for the sake of it and it came off like Neill didn't understand the charm of his own concept.

Basically it was an ok movie but it needed a producer and a few rewrites to sharpen the concept and make something more palatable but retain the heart of the story.
 
The problem really ended up being that no one wanted to see Chappie being taught South African gang culture by unreasonable crazy people then adopting their behaviour. It was just offputting and would have been obvious on the page when he wrote unreasonable characters and cast Die Antwoord to play them..

Pretty much this. I lasted maybe forty minutes into this cringeworthy garbage and then just turned it off.
 
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Copley looked the part.... when he opened his mouth tho :/

He sounded like a typical south African...
 
I was borderline pissed at how absurdly stupid Chappie got by the time it ended. What a well-intentioned mess of a film.

Surprised at how many of y'all think Elysium is the real stinker of his films, though. It ain't great, but it's much more cohesive. It's just kinda there.
 
I thought Chappie was a fun enough film, don't really understand the hate for it but I also liked District 9 and Elysium so maybe I just like everything this director makes....
 
I don't think Chappie was as terrible as people made it out to be but the direction the movie decided to go in the second half instead of focusing on Chappie growing up and learning was where the movie fell apart.
 
Surprised at how many of y'all think Elysium is the real stinker of his films, though. It ain't great, but it's much more cohesive. It's just kinda there.
The age old of question of whether "is it worse to be bad or boring?"

Boring.
 
Felt like a bad, unfun remake of Short Circuit.

To those who say they liked the movie, have you seen Short Circuit?

Tbh, it did very much feel like Short Circuit to me. Just darker and more Blomkamp'ish.

I liked it. It wasn't a masterpiece. It wasn't even close to District 9, but it was fun and entertaining.
 
Felt like a bad, unfun remake of Short Circuit.

To those who say they liked the movie, have you seen Short Circuit?

Yeah. The spiritual connection to that film is a big reason why I liked* Chappie.

*
The ending is still terrible.
 
I absolutely love Chappie

My favorite of his movies and I still really enjoy all of them
(Elysium still feels really chopped down to me though and I think it would have benefitted greatly from a 15-30 minute longer run time)
 
it just rings a little hollow to me when someone of his status talks about being okay living in a dumpster for the sake of his art
 
I just rewatched this two days ago. I still like the movie. It's not as good as District 9, but it's better than Elysium. I know a lot of people didn't, but I really enjoyed Ninja and Yolandi Visser in the film. Sharlto Copley was great as always. For me Dev Patel, and Hugh Jackman were the weak points. The film does kind of devolve into simple action movie territory at the end. I don't think it kills the film though.
 
Meant more of his characterization.... too goofy from what i recall, but not enough in the so crazy, they're scary sense.

Ah I see what you mean, I actually watched it again yesterday to get a reminder and yea I can see ow it's goofy. He uses a lot of South African slang which just sounds ridiculous,even if that's how they actually talk.

The visual effects are still damn good, does Neil have a special effects team he exclusively works with? His movies always look insanely good but also have the same style. His robots/mechs especially look real.
 
My wife and I both actually liked Chappie a lot; fuck the haters. We liked it enough that, the night after watching the blu-ray of it that a friend sent us, we had a friend over and had him watch it. It's extremely rare that we watch the same movie on consecutive days.

Agreed that Die Antwoord were lame, though. Actually, Yolandi wasn't bad...Ninja was just so goddamn annoying.
 
Chappie wasn't perfect but I liked it a lot. I mean if you want to get down to it District 9 is probably "overrated" and that's skewing his perspective too
 
That's a much more level-headed response to critical reception than Dwayne Johnson's for Baywatch at least. It must suck to see your passion project to come fruition close to your exact vision only to have it rejected financially and critically.

I can only imagine the shit the man had to put up with after the whole Alien fiasco. I hope his next project kills it and he returns to Hollywoods' good graces.
 
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