Speak like a child

People are always fearful of something they don't understand

District 9 was without question my favorite film of 2009, and Neill Blomkamp quickly grabbed my attention as an up and coming director. His unique capacity of wielding science fiction with real world issues has been his staple in all of his works, and Chappie is no different. This time around, Blomkamp tackles issues such as the ramifications of artificial intelligence, the use of violence to deter urban crime and what defines consciousness. In Chappie, crime is at an all-time high in Johannesburg, South Africa and thus the government employs a new kind of defense force in the form of tactical attack robots called Scouts developed by the weapons manufacturing company Tetravaal. The man behind 

the creation of the Scouts is Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) who has just created an A.I. program that could be the next step in advancement for the Scouts. However, the CEO of the company Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) impedes Deon from experimenting with his A.I. program on the Scouts as it could be too dangerous. Not one to take no for an answer, Deon steals a defunct Scout to install his program but is captured by local gangsters Ninja (Ninja), Yolandi (Yolandi Visser) and Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo) on the way home. The gangsters had planned to use Deon to turn all the Scouts off to pull a bank heist but instead force him to reprogram the Scout to fight for them. Evidently, Deon reprograms the Scout and awakens in a frighten-child manner and adopts the name Chappie (Sharlto Copley). Slowly, Chappie is exposed to the beauty and ugliness of the world, and begins to ask questions that only humans would ask

I just want to live

such as why was I born like this, where will I go when I die, etc. Chappie's existence catches the attention of corrupted engineer Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) who uses the situation to behoove his own agenda of retiring the Scouts and employ his own designs. Much like the main character, Chappie is the black sheep of director Blomkamp's filmography. The film is less action-oriented than his last two films and plays more like a political science drama; Chappie representing the observer of the current state of the world and what the future holds for society: declination or evolution. For those who lack the patience of what's going on, chances are they are going to hate this movie and the 

themes will most likely go over their heads. The trailers and commercials tailored this film as a robot on robot action flick much like in the class as Transformers. Sadly, that was just a case of bad campaigning; although there is some action, Chappie is focused more on drama, and those who do have the time to observe what's really happening will definitely be pleased. Chappie may struggle a bit getting its' points across but it does so just enough to intrigue viewers into the eyes of our robot protagonist.

-Reviewed by Razor, 6/23/15