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Neill Blomkamp's Chappie (2015, Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley, Die Antwoord)

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Saw it a couple hours ago.

Not even close to as bad as some reviewers made it out to be. Jesus, some serious hyperbole.

However, Ninja. What the FUCK Neil? Why does he have to be such an incredible asshole so much?

And Hugh Jackman's character is indeed flat.
I'm so jealous of your police force shitting on my projects so I'm going to put the entire city in jeopardy!
 

Grisby

Member
Just got back from seeing it. Not that good of a movie. The chappie visuals are insane and there is some really good shots with him and the environment.

The dialog, the 'story', and most of the acting is awful. The main mullet dude (part of the die antwoord couple I guess) was terrible and it figures that (massive ending spoiler)
he'd be the one to live while the others 'died'.

This was worse than Elysium for me, which, while also not that great of a movie, was still more entertaining than Chappie. Sucks, because the opening for Chappie is pretty decent, sucking you into the world of police robots, but as soon as Chappie is born, the dialog and the acting just falls flat. It sucks because I like the idea of Chappie and I was looking forward to it, but the director just couldn't convey the idea of Chappie evolving good enough.

There are some shots where Chappie is (small spoilers I guess)
wandering the city alone
and I couldn't help but feel more invested. Blomkamp showed have let the visuals speak more than the humans.

At least I saw the Mad Max trailer before it. Somehow I missed that trailer and holllllyyy shit. Looks amazing.
 

23qwerty

Member
I have a hard time seeing how people who dislike Die Antwoord, will dislike them in the movie. If you like them, you'll like all the details of their characters and the soundtrack, but if you don't like them, their personas aren't what controls the plot or point of the movie.'

When a scene with a lot of exposition and themes of conveyance has either of them in it, they do their lines pretty well and don't make it about themselves.

Oh god oh god is their music actually in the movie? I'm out for sure
 

Grisby

Member
Oh god oh god is their music actually in the movie? I'm out for sure
I'm not familiar with their music, but it was one of the few bright spots here.

There's some nice synth stuff going on and there are rarely any lyrical songs. OST was damn better than their acting, that's for sure.
 

23qwerty

Member
I'm not familiar with their music, but it was one of the few bright spots here.

There's some nice synth stuff going on and there are rarely any lyrical songs. OST was damn better than their acting, that's for sure.

alright if it's mostly lyricless then I might be back in
 
Its too bad Neil didn't go all Peter Jackson and decide to make a trilogy, while it could have been maybe even worse I think Chappie would have worked better as a three parter:

part 1 deals with Chappie as he reaches the singularity and transcends humanity. Mixture of action, adventure, and philosophical musings on what it means to be sentient.

Part 2 is a prequel that deals with his beginnings, but rewritten completely to have no Die Antwood, more Dev Patel and Weaver, no Wolverine, and more elements that are about Chappie bootstrapping and learning. There of course needs to be a insane twist that leads to part 3, probably involving time travel/looping.

Part 3 is the Matrix scifi Culture transhumanism movie we all want, just balls to the wall techno splooshtacular dealing with galaxy spanning AIs in the far future and their pet monkey humans.

I was really disappointed they never brought up self modifying code. We far surpass computers because we practice self deception and have crazy intuitive leaps of logic, machines still are all rules based (Watson, Siri, Cleverbot, neural networks) and until compsci figures out how to get code that is able to rewrite itself it'll stay that way.

Ex Machina doesn't look that good, and the twist seems obvious from the trailer.
 
I was entertained by Chappie, like with Elysium I can admit it's definitely sloppy but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it. It went places I wasn't expecting and where they chose to end the flick was fairly strange, it felt like there was still more to come.

People are definitely going to hate it though, and I can't blame them, it's just structurally not a well put together movie at the script level.
 

enigmatic_alex44

Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
So is the general consensus in here from those that have seen Chappie already that it's not that bad then? Rottentomatoes has it wrong? I mean it happens sometimes...

*sigh* my friend that I'm going with tomorrow called me tonight and asked I'd heard about the terrible reviews. I said yes (I wasn't gonna mention them at all lol) and figured she'd cancel but she still wants to see it with me. I mean, I love going to the movies and there's nothing else out that's better (that I haven't seen)...

Will be really curious to see the box office Monday to see if this movie flops.
 
Die Antwoord fucking sucks and ruined this movie. Script wasn't good though either. Too meandering.

Pros:
Zimmer's amazing score
The action sequences
Copley's performance
 

PHOTOSHOP

Member
i didnt see the movies yet but is Chappie and District 9 set in the same universe?
i was looking at photos and found this. Same logo design

latest

chappie-die-antwoord_esf5.640.jpg
 
It should have just been renamed the Die Antwoord Movie. They were pretty much the main focus and their music was all over the movie. I did like the majority of it though and I feel like if they cut the last 5-10 minutes off it would have been a lot better.
 

hoy

Banned
I saw this tonight. Its wierd on paper I shouldn't like the movie but I actually feel its one of the best movies I have seen in the past year. Must be because of the robot that I didn't think I would be liking after he first talked. Hugh sucked and the story was kind of lacking but I enjoyed it and look forward to blasting it on home theatre when it comes out on blu ray.
 
Just came back from watching Chappie.

It's like this...

Neil Blomkamp is the perfect director to do Alien, the continuation of what is Aliens, IF you can't stand what a pathetically dumb movie Aliens really is yet can acknowledge that it's an entertaining action movie.

It does touch on some awesome tech, concepts, and tech/human issues we're approaching in the near future. But it is so hilariously dumb, that a shameless Sony promotion was a highlight. It might have been less cringe worthy if they made Die Antwoord mutes.
 

kai3345

Banned
i didnt see the movies yet but is Chappie and District 9 set in the same universe?
i was looking at photos and found this. Same logo design

latest

chappie-die-antwoord_esf5.640.jpg

that's the die antwoord logo. im pretty sure blomkamp just threw that in D9 as a shoutout

gecleant_die_antwoord_logo_decal_sticker_aufkleber_antwort_kudu_bock_d_and_a_ninja_jo_landi_bumper.jpg


Also just got back from the movie. It was ass. Jackman was a joke. The only redeeming qualities were the detail put into Chappie's mannerisms and Yolandi.
 

Deadstar

Member
So is the general consensus in here from those that have seen Chappie already that it's not that bad then? Rottentomatoes has it wrong? I mean it happens sometimes...

*sigh* my friend that I'm going with tomorrow called me tonight and asked I'd heard about the terrible reviews. I said yes (I wasn't gonna mention them at all lol) and figured she'd cancel but she still wants to see it with me. I mean, I love going to the movies and there's nothing else out that's better (that I haven't seen)...

Will be really curious to see the box office Monday to see if this movie flops.

If this movie flops it will be an absolute tragedy. This film, in my opinion is a must see film if you are at all interested in science fiction. It's a HUGE step above a ton of the trash that is out there now. I cannot believe the rotten tomatoes score, it's a disservice to movie goers. I had extremely low expectations because of the reviews and kept waiting for the movie to get worse but it never did. I couldn't care less what the rotten tomato score is now, that site is trash. Chappie is one of the coolest sci fi movies I've ever seen. The only thing I would have liked to see more of was the robot police force doing work. (Disclaimer: I'm not Neil, just writing my opinion)

I'm not a fan of Die Antword however they were fine in the movie and their scenes worked. The voice acting for Chappie and animation was mind blowing. The visual effects are ridiculously good as always and there is both comedy and drama. In my opinion the end of the movie was great. It was perfect. If I had to put the films in order I'd put District 9 up front, then Chappie and then Elysium. Go see this movie!
 
Just saw a preview screening and i didn't mind it....i didnt mind elysium either so it was a good dumb action flick that tries to pull on your heartstrings but gets shattered by some terrible performances

My only negative

Holy shit Hugh jackman sucks in this role...everytime he was on screen i guess they were trying for a nazi crocodile hunter but his acting in this is straight out of a bold and the beautiful episode and its almost like a comedy
 

EBE

Member
Just saw it. Pretty good. Really liked it. Its absolutely not shit. Better than Elysium. Enjoyed it as much as D9.
 
The only thing I'm worried about is Blomkamp's ability to do films that aren't in this style. I think it's already gotten pretty stale. He needs more range.
 

AwShucks

Member
What a great movie. I'm so glad I didn't pay attention to those RT reviews. I enjoyed the majority of it and the silly aspect was great and worked with the seriousness.
 

duckroll

Member
I watched it today. Really liked it. It's a much more engaging film than Elysium, had better action, better characters, and the usual amazing production design Blomkamp is known for. It definitely feels a bit "samey" in terms of tone, especially with District 9, but I didn't mind that at all. I also found the film really, really funny. It's basically a "What if Die Antwoord were a bunch of gangsters who were trying to train a sentient robot to be Robot Gangsta #1" which was what Blomkamp first promised with the concept. He delivered 100% as far as I'm concerned.

Hugh Jackman's character is pretty wasted because he's completely one dimensional and moronic like many of the villains in Blomkamp's films, but his performance was pretty hilarious and over the top. Die Antwoord were fucking amazing. I guess the film basically hinges on whether the viewer enjoys the interaction between Ninja, Yolandi, and Chappie. The highlights of the visuals were the building The King lived in and the big action setpiece with the Moose. Sooooooo good. Dev Patel needs to stop playing the enthusiastic tech geek with a heart though. I think he's awful at it. It was like watching Newsroom all over again. Lol.

This isn't an "important" film or a life changing movie, but as an action comedy with robots, South African gangsters, and tons of hardware porn Blomkamp style, I loved it. It's simply enjoyable to watch, is tons of fun, and not something to be taken too seriously.
 
I watched it today. Really liked it. It's a much more engaging film than Elysium, had better action, better characters, and the usual amazing production design Blomkamp is known for. It definitely feels a bit "samey" in terms of tone, especially with District 9, but I didn't mind that at all. I also found the film really, really funny. It's basically a "What if Die Antwoord were a bunch of gangsters who were trying to train a sentient robot to be Robot Gangsta #1" which was what Blomkamp first promised with the concept. He delivered 100% as far as I'm concerned.

Hugh Jackman's character is pretty wasted because he's completely one dimensional and moronic like many of the villains in Blomkamp's films, but his performance was pretty hilarious and over the top. Die Antwoord were fucking amazing. I guess the film basically hinges on whether the viewer enjoys the interaction between Ninja, Yolandi, and Chappie. The highlights of the visuals were the building The King lived in and the big action setpiece with the Moose. Sooooooo good. Dev Patel needs to stop playing the enthusiastic tech geek with a heart though. I think he's awful at it. It was like watching Newsroom all over again. Lol.

This isn't an "important" film or a life changing movie, but as an action comedy with robots, South African gangsters, and tons of hardware porn Blomkamp style, I loved it. It's simply enjoyable to watch, is tons of fun, and not something to be taken too seriously.

Pretty much this. The movie does exactly what it tries to do, nothing offensively stupid or irritating, just an odd concept with eclectic mannerisms and beautiful visuals. So many shots in the movie that just made me go "Wow".

There was one plot-point in the movie that just made me go "Wtf, no that's ridiculous", but then the movie does own up to it and uses that weird part towards making the ending so much more enjoyable in a goofy and absurd way.

For those who have seen it:
The neural helmet working on a robot, which does not make sense in the universe they've built, but then the ending comes and fully utilizes that element to make the ending enjoyably weird. "Alright, it's goofy and different. I like it"

To an extent, the movie doesn't fully use its script to convey socio-political themes enough (police forces being automatized, robots taking people's jobs etc) but the movie uses its context properly for what it is trying to tell. The movie isn't about robots vs humans, it's about Chappie.

I liked the ending for how goofy it was, but there's one thing about it that bothers me:
What's different about these three robot-bodies, wont they run out of battery too within a couple of days? Maybe the ending was to show that life isn't about length but quality, but it didn't really convey that.
 

Denzar

Member
Can't wait to see this. I'm expecting nothing story and acting wise (not from Die Antwoord anyway), but Blomkamp's production design is nothing short of amazing. Best sci-fi to come around in quite some time IYAM.

Die Antwoord's music is not my thing (at all actually) and I think Ninja is kind of obnoxious.

I also love me some Sharlto Copley. He any good in this?

Is it as gory as D9 and Elysium were? Blomkamp is really creative, and just plain brutal when it comes to gore. Love that.
 

duckroll

Member
To an extent, the movie doesn't fully use its script to convey socio-political themes enough (police forces being automatized, robots taking people's jobs etc) but the movie uses its context properly for what it is trying to tell. The movie isn't about robots vs humans, it's about Chappie.

I think that was a good thing, because Neil isn't very good with subtlety when it comes to that sort of stuff, and it really hurt Elysium. Here the story felt like it had a lot more room to breath because it wasn't trying to force some message down your throat, but there was still the social awareness there.

I liked the ending for how goofy it was, but there's one thing about it that bothers me:
What's different about these three robot-bodies, wont they run out of battery too within a couple of days? Maybe the ending was to show that life isn't about length but quality, but it didn't really convey that.

Normal robot bodies can last "forever" as long as you can change the batteries. The reason his original body was fucked up was because the battery was fused to the torso after the direct RPG attack to the chest.

I also love me some Sharlto Copley. He any good in this?

Is it as gory as D9 and Elysium were? Blomkamp is really creative, and just plain brutal when it comes to gore. Love that.

Copley is fantastic as Chappie, but it's hard to recognize him in the role since it's all voice + motion capture and he does it very differently from his usual roles. That's a good thing though. Finally some range!

There is definitely gore. Maybe not as much as D9 and Elysium but in a similar way there are very sudden gorey moments which make you go "wow, ouch". :)
 

Gurvon

Neo Member
I was really surprised by how good Chappie was. Neil is forgiven for the turkey that was Elysium thats for sure.

Really well made, interesting characters, good script,emotional and thoughtful.
All of us who watched it agreed that Chappie even beat D9 which is no small feat.
 
I was really surprised by how good Chappie was. Neil is forgiven for the turkey that was Elysium thats for sure.

Really well made, interesting characters, good script,emotional and thoughtful.
All of us who watched it agreed that Chappie even beat D9 which is no small feat.

I feel like we saw completely different movies :\ Chappie had it's moments for me, mostly Chappie itself and how he interacted with the world, but overall it was a disappointment that I can only really appreciate from a visual standpoint.
 

PopFisto

Banned
Think Chappie is the worst movie I've seen this year. Has some cool action, but far too little. It's emotional heart is terrible.

This is why DS9 was so great. The emotional core of these Aliens being oppressed and wanting to go home, works amazingly.

Elysium had its problems, and the emotional core was mostly a non starter.

In Chapie, its actively bad, and grating, the emotional core of Chappie being a human, and wanting to live. It was just very very very annoying. Once Chappie starts to talk it seriously dives into being horrible movie.

This whole, can robots be human sci fi thing, has been done many times. This is the only time it is so annoying. Seeing a robot acting like a baby and having scene after scene of them 'teaching' it, oh boy, that was tedious and uninteresting. Especially since Neil is not actually interested in any sci fi, the robotics or AI implications or any of that.
 
Normal robot bodies can last "forever" as long as you can change the batteries. The reason his original body was fucked up was because the battery was fused to the torso after the direct RPG attack to the chest.

I feel so stupid now, I misinterpreted it as them fusing the battery to the chassi as a security measure much like the USB-keys, and also as a way to force the police-forces to have to pay for new robots and maintenance (Much like how Apple does it with their phones).

I also saw it as a way to convey how Ninja was lying to Chappie about a new body, because all robots have bodies that die after a couple of days.
 
So I liked about 75% of the movie. The stuff that happens toward the end though was kinda bad imo and losses focus of what the movie was originally suppose to be.
The whole transferring a soul to a new body thing just came out of nowhere. I know Yolandi brought it up with Chappie about having a soul when she was reading the book to him but I didn't actually think they were gonna go in that direction literally.
 
So I liked about 75% of the movie. The stuff that happens toward the end though was kinda bad imo and losses focus of what the movie was originally suppose to be.
The whole transferring a soul to a new body thing just came out of nowhere. I know Yolandi brought it up with Chappie about having a soul when she was reading the book to him but I didn't actually think they were gonna go in that direction literally.

I started rolling my eyes when I realized what was about to happen, but then the movie embraced it and became really goofy and weird. "Alright, I'm okay with this".
 

Blizzard

Banned
I think that was a good thing, because Neil isn't very good with subtlety when it comes to that sort of stuff, and it really hurt Elysium. Here the story felt like it had a lot more room to breath because it wasn't trying to force some message down your throat, but there was still the social awareness there.
I agree with this. Watching Elysium felt like the director was trying to apply emotion and social commentary with a mallet.

Also I forgot to mention one thing about the ending. It didn't really bother me but it was kind of funny. ENDING SPOILER, ALSO SPOILER REFERENCE TO LUCY MOVIE:
I went "oh shit" when I realized they could bring Yolandi back because of recording her consciousness. But on the other hand, it was a sort of Lucy-esque moment with the USB stick. Apparently in the future, not only are there AI, but a person's entire consciousness can fit on a stick. The robots had SSDs, so that must have been one crazy stick, or maybe only part of Yolandi's consciousness/memories were recovered.
 

RetroStu

Banned
Just came back from watching Chappie.

It's like this...

Neil Blomkamp is the perfect director to do Alien, the continuation of what is Aliens, IF you can't stand what a pathetically dumb movie Aliens really is yet can acknowledge that it's an entertaining action movie.

It does touch on some awesome tech, concepts, and tech/human issues we're approaching in the near future. But it is so hilariously dumb, that a shameless Sony promotion was a highlight. It might have been less cringe worthy if they made Die Antwoord mutes.
What?.
 

duckroll

Member
Regarding the ending:
It almost seemed like they were going to go with an ending where after transferring Deon to a robot body, Chappie uploads his own consciousness to the internet to become a data god. Or maybe I've just watched too much Ghost in the Shell. Lol.
 
I started rolling my eyes when I realized what was about to happen, but then the movie embraced it and became really goofy and weird. "Alright, I'm okay with this".
As cliche as it would have been I feel like the movie should have had Chappie die as some sort of positive example for the people. Like have Hugh Jackman's character brutalize the robot out in the public so they can see who the real monster is.
 

PopFisto

Banned
I didn't mind the very very endings.
Like how they had all their brains in USB sticks
. Kinda cool actually, but its all about how its handled really. Problem is Chappie is so damned annoying! I couldn't believe how annoying it is. And the cliched nonsense that comes out of their mouthes. My god.

Also how dumb is Jackmans character?
Obviously that is something he should try and sell to militaries, who would freaking love it. Dunno why he is so obsessed with getting on the street.
 
Regarding the ending:
It almost seemed like they were going to go with an ending where after transferring Deon to a robot body, Chappie uploads his own consciousness to the internet to become a data god. Or maybe I've just watched too much Ghost in the Shell. Lol.
I thought he was gonna transfer himself to all the working robots and have an army of Chappies.
I didn't mind the very very endings.
Like how they had all their brains in USB sticks
. Kinda cool actually, but its all about how its handled really. Problem is Chappie is so damned annoying! I couldn't believe how annoying it is. And the cliched nonsense that comes out of their mouthes. My god.

Also how dumb is Jackmans character?
Obviously that is something he should try and sell to militaries, who would freaking love it. Dunno why he is so obsessed with getting on the street.
Chappie worked for me and was somewhat adorable with how badly he wanted to impress his "mommy" and "daddy." Who doesn't want to be "#1 gangsta robot?" He wanted to learn and experience a lot of things and live life.

Hugh Jackman's character was just the most not so subtle depiction of a gun nut-religious-conservative I have ever seen in any media. If your designing an overpowered mech, WHY WOULD YOU TRY TO SELL IT TO THE POLICE? Especially when they show that the robots are doing an excellent job cleaning up the streets and making South Africa almost safe. One of the officers tells Jackman that his mech is overkill and that perfectly describes his character. That scene where he pulls a gun to Deon's head in front of all his coworkers and everyone just does nothing was just like, really? your gonna let him get away with that because it was a joke? You'd be fired and probably arrested for pullin shit like that.
 

Zukuu

Banned
No speed racer actually sucks.

I'd say this movie will have more of a legacy like Star Ship Troopers people hated that movie when I came out but it was actually rad.
I like Speed Racer for what it is. It's enjoyable and has nice cinematography, that lets you find a new style element upon every re-watch and the end of the last race was breathtaking visually. Story is as average and as shallow as it gets and it has a few pacing issues, but that doesn't make it automatically a bad movie. It's certainly not a 'great' movie, but it's watchable imo.

I dunno if I will see Chappy as the set up doesn't seem appealing to me at all. The 'robot got a consciousness' cliche is so run-down already.

Had huge hopes for the director, but he does one misstep after another. Hope he gets his shit together and doesn't pull a Shayalaman. Maybe he should stop writing scrips and play full time director, that could work better.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I think America was the most likeable person in the movie.
Pretty much. BIG SPOILER:

It was kind of sad he was the only one of the group to really die, and a very bad death at that. His consciousness wasn't even backed up.

I'm interested in this film, but the reviews are turning me off to going.

Would it be worth a matinee watch?
People are probably going to give you different answers since it depends what you like. If you like Die Antwoord people and music, and don't mind some questionable logic and characters, you might enjoy it. I think it's overall not as bad as Elysium.
 
It's definitely a love-it or hate-it movie. I'd say give it a watch, I really liked it and it stuck with me for all its weird goofiness.

I didn't mind D9 as much as a lot of people die.

I'm hoping for something in that vein cross Short Circuit, but not as cheesy.
 
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