Chappie

Science fiction live, or another escapade by Neill Blomkamp, a lover of craziness. But while District 9 was original and Elysium was at least technically opulent, Chappie is neither. It cutely and at the same time quite stupidly winks at the viewer, but essentially offers clichés and average emotions. You will sympathise with the robot protagonist only when he cutely says "fuckmother" and philosophises with his equally cute father and mother. Otherwise, it's just an ordinary film that doesn't have much to offer. There’s not much action, Hugh Jackman is in a strange role that doesn't give him much space, and Sharlto Copley, instead of running around the set and throwing his brilliant psycho lines and crazy faces, is in a metal box. (16/03/2015)

Pretty bad. The great technical aspects and a titanic protagonist who really looks 100% real unfortunately can't balance the extremely annoying characters, the disappointing barking of Sigourney Weaver and a shoddy script that makes a fool of even poor Hugh Jackman. Oh dear. Neill Blomkamp has a lot to fix in his next film. (02/06/2015)

An unusual sci-fi, especially these days. The dramaturgy is screwed, but in any case Chappie works like an indie R-rated comedy about how No. 5 picked up a gun and in the finale gives the Robocop chicken a piece of his mind. This is a fan movie with a massive budget where Blomkamp breaks loose from his fetters and had some fun with his friends from Die Antwort, Ripley and the robotic Sharlto Copley. Much more than crazy action, this is about how a gangster raises a child and about machines becoming human and the other way round too. P.S.: Hugh Jackman is incredible, he reminded me of an former workmate... But to go against such a cool image and create such an unpleasant bastard is almost the most remarkable acting performance of the whole movie, apart from Copely. That’s concussion, Mommy. (24/03/2015)

Blomkamp the director trying hard to compensate for the incompetence of Blomkamp the screenwriter. Chappie is nice to look at, it has some good moments, but when you start thinking about it… :-( When you take the stories of each of the characters away from the plot, their behaviour is well… a stupidity race with a photo finish. Every single one of the blokes in there do the best they can to excel in this discipline. (21/05/2015)

Neill Blomkamp lived up to his standard and finally added a static camera, which makes Chappie his best movie in terms of technologies. The fact that he cast the gang from the band Die Antwoord into some of the leading roles is also a big plus for me. I cannot think of anybody else from Johannesburg who could play bigger gangsters and creeps than Yolandi and Ninja. They are so extremely crazy, rotten and their music is so aggressive that nothing could fit into this movie better. I am a bit surprised that the director once again portrays Johannesburg as the worst place to inhabit, where not even the craziest Scandinavian murderer would want to live, as in Scandinavia, they treat murderers in prisons better than what the inhabitants of this town get on a daily basis. That is the only thing that bothered me about this film and the only reason why I didn’t rate it with five stars. Watching this city full of cement lots overgrown with thicket, teeming with human filth, is not really the peace and quiet my brain needs. Everything else was almost flawless. (20/05/2015)