Killgrave
03-05-2015, 06:28 AM
Short version: CHAPPiE makes Elysium look like District 9. It's another step backward for Blomkamp who has almost burned through all potential he demonstrated with District 9 making that film look like his exception instead of his rule.
Long Version: this review will have spoilers, so stop reading now.
OK?
Here we go.
The Good: the design of the Scout droid makes sense in the movie’s context: a machine used in law enforcement should look user friendly, having a beast like ED 209 walking the streets would create fear, not inspire confidence. The Scouts are shown to be semi-autonomous, working alongside the human officers and the droids are effective. Crime is down. (And in South Africa crime is most definitely a problem.)
The Bad: the script, the script and the script. It’s a mess. Everyone is under developed and so becomes a caricature instead of a character. Deon, the inventor of the Scout droid – you’d think a man so important to the companies’ success would rate a corner office instead of a cubicle – is brilliant enough to create AI – on his home computer, Sony Vaios must really pack a CPU punch, or maybe it was those Red Bulls he mainlined – but not smart enough to know a sentient robot who paints is not a strong sales point to a company that makes weapons.
Or Vincent, Jackman’s character and Deon’s rival, puts a gun to Deon’s head in a crowded office, in sight of the office manager and nothing happens. Gun wasn’t loaded so that makes it all right. BTW, Vincent is in charge of company’s alternate security droid program, the Moose, which makes ED 209 look like a mechanical Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, giving a guy with a loose trigger finger access to an even bigger gun, oh nothing can go wrong with that plan. (Add to the mix that Vincent has religious objections to AI and it just keeps getting better and better.)
Weaver’s part: a glorified cameo. She disappears from the film towards the end.
The Ugly: Rappers Ninja and Yolanda playing “gangstas” Ninja and Yolanda. These two are the most pointless elements in the movie. They add nothing and the movie comes to a dead stop whenever they are on screen.
As bad guys these two are the very definition of incompetent. They couldn’t take cookies from Girl Scouts without screwing it up. As surrogate “parents” to Chappie they are even worse. Their lifestyle is a cartoonish collection of hyper-masculine posturing glorified in bad pop music with predictably negative outcomes.
Deon is the mushy middle who wants his “child” to be creative but lacks the moral courage to protect his charge from destructive influences like Yolanda and Ninja.
And Chappie, his character development is so scattershot it’s barely comprehensible.
And the WTF? Did you know that a slightly built programmer has the strength to single-handily drag a titanium droid? (Maybe it’s those Red Bulls?) Did you know with a Sony Laptop and a series of PS-4s linked in tandem, you could transfer consciousness from human to machine? Did you know CHAPPiE is from Sony Pictures? Probably all the Sony product placements gave that away. Did you know you could store human consciousness on a thumb drive? (Lucy did it first) Did you know that weapons companies have such poor security that anyone can grab a truckload of heavy armament in broad daylight and no one notices the theft?
CHAPPiE could have been a movie about the emergence of AI, its acceptance by some and rejection by others. It could have been a parable about the effects of parenting: good, bad, or indifferent. It could have been a movie about a new form of life finding its identity and voice.
Instead, it’s a disappointment, a movie that aims for the dirt and misses
Long Version: this review will have spoilers, so stop reading now.
OK?
Here we go.
The Good: the design of the Scout droid makes sense in the movie’s context: a machine used in law enforcement should look user friendly, having a beast like ED 209 walking the streets would create fear, not inspire confidence. The Scouts are shown to be semi-autonomous, working alongside the human officers and the droids are effective. Crime is down. (And in South Africa crime is most definitely a problem.)
The Bad: the script, the script and the script. It’s a mess. Everyone is under developed and so becomes a caricature instead of a character. Deon, the inventor of the Scout droid – you’d think a man so important to the companies’ success would rate a corner office instead of a cubicle – is brilliant enough to create AI – on his home computer, Sony Vaios must really pack a CPU punch, or maybe it was those Red Bulls he mainlined – but not smart enough to know a sentient robot who paints is not a strong sales point to a company that makes weapons.
Or Vincent, Jackman’s character and Deon’s rival, puts a gun to Deon’s head in a crowded office, in sight of the office manager and nothing happens. Gun wasn’t loaded so that makes it all right. BTW, Vincent is in charge of company’s alternate security droid program, the Moose, which makes ED 209 look like a mechanical Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, giving a guy with a loose trigger finger access to an even bigger gun, oh nothing can go wrong with that plan. (Add to the mix that Vincent has religious objections to AI and it just keeps getting better and better.)
Weaver’s part: a glorified cameo. She disappears from the film towards the end.
The Ugly: Rappers Ninja and Yolanda playing “gangstas” Ninja and Yolanda. These two are the most pointless elements in the movie. They add nothing and the movie comes to a dead stop whenever they are on screen.
As bad guys these two are the very definition of incompetent. They couldn’t take cookies from Girl Scouts without screwing it up. As surrogate “parents” to Chappie they are even worse. Their lifestyle is a cartoonish collection of hyper-masculine posturing glorified in bad pop music with predictably negative outcomes.
Deon is the mushy middle who wants his “child” to be creative but lacks the moral courage to protect his charge from destructive influences like Yolanda and Ninja.
And Chappie, his character development is so scattershot it’s barely comprehensible.
And the WTF? Did you know that a slightly built programmer has the strength to single-handily drag a titanium droid? (Maybe it’s those Red Bulls?) Did you know with a Sony Laptop and a series of PS-4s linked in tandem, you could transfer consciousness from human to machine? Did you know CHAPPiE is from Sony Pictures? Probably all the Sony product placements gave that away. Did you know you could store human consciousness on a thumb drive? (Lucy did it first) Did you know that weapons companies have such poor security that anyone can grab a truckload of heavy armament in broad daylight and no one notices the theft?
CHAPPiE could have been a movie about the emergence of AI, its acceptance by some and rejection by others. It could have been a parable about the effects of parenting: good, bad, or indifferent. It could have been a movie about a new form of life finding its identity and voice.
Instead, it’s a disappointment, a movie that aims for the dirt and misses