Chappie Film Review
Chappie, the latest feature from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, touches on some very clever and provocative ideas about artificial intelligence, whilst also touching on mind-body dualism. A concept that the mind and body are separate entities and therefore are not one and the same. Much of the film is messy due to the enormity of themes that are explored.
The early scenes are set in a mould somewhere between Robocop and District 9, in near-future Johannesburg. The law enforcement have been contracted out to an arms company, who have created the “world’s first robotic police force”, a fleet of oppressive and highly-efficient androids. Deon (Dev Patel) has created an AI that can think and feel for itself. Determined to see his creation come to life, he puts his AI into a broken android and “Chappie” is born.
The nature of consciousness, privatisation of law-enforcement and the responsibilities and troubles of parenthood are a lot of themes for this sci-fi film to examine. Due to Blomkamp having to fudge his plot too often to cross the paths of the protagonist Vince (Hugh Jackman), Deon and the gang family (Die Antwoord), the themes shown above aren’t explored as thoroughly as a classic of the genre AI: Artificial Intelligence by Steven Spielberg.
If only by this films pyrotechnic ending, we look at Chappie as partly successful experiment. Although not being thoroughly explored the strength of this film is the sympathy with the underdog: seeing Chappie innocently swearing and trying to be gangster will raise laughs for everyone.
Chappie receives a 3 out of 5 star rating.
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