Chappie (2015) Online

I thoroughly enjoyed Chappie. I usually don't write reviews, but after seeing the brutal rating this movie is getting I felt compelled to write this review.

Chappie is a funny, entertaining, and surprisingly sentimental movie about a sentient robot being raised by gangsters in Johannesburg. Most of the criticisms I've seen about one- dimensional characters and illogical character choices are valid, but Chappie's character, the CGI, the humor, and the overall aesthetic of the movie more than make up for these shortcomings.

Please go see this movie and make up your own mind. I almost didn't go last night because of the negative reviews, but I'm so happy I did. I'm very excited to see this movie again. You leave this movie feeling like you've become friends with Chappie, and I hope the bad reviews don't prevent the sequels from being made.

If you like Neill Blomkamp's directing and style you will love this movie.

Why all the hate for this movie? I understand not liking something, but everyone seems to just TRASH it. Did I see the same movie? I saw an emotional film about innocence and loss. I REALLY don't understand. Sure, maybe the film didn't have the best dialogue or the best acting in the world, but it hit home for me. The VFX were phenomenal, Chappie is the best CGI motion capture I have seen in a long time, the 100% electronic musical score by Hans Zimmer was really unique and fresh, and it has a really great ending. I DON'T UNDERSTAND. If you like Blomkamp's previous films or are remotely interested, please watch it yourself. I think the critics are wrong on this one. I have been thinking for a while about why the reviews are so out there. First off, the trailers are AWFUL. The first to come out was this philosophical "What does it mean to be human?" kinda movie. The TV trailers were "GUNS, EXPLOSIONS, ROBOTS!!!" and it is neither. Think "Little Miss Sunshine" with a robot, that is a more accurate representation. Blomkamp's most underrated film.

Don't let the critics who can't seem to get past comparing Chappie with other sci-fi titles put you off of going to see this film.

This story is about a lot more than just robot police officers it is a thought provoking social commentary on many modern day issues and what it is like to bring life into the modern world.

I very much enjoyed District 9 but I would even go as far to say I enjoyed Chappie much, much more.

There were so many aspects to this film that could have went wrong but have been nailed on the head by the director. The effect once again visually striking and a very well paced and intricate development of characters as well as interesting set design helps keep chappie fresh and not just another reboot of any other sci fi film as critics will have you believe.

I would also say I enjoyed this film much, much more than the likes of robo-cop.

Chappie is an interesting film because it could be ridiculed for random themes and inconsistent story, or it could be praised for the fact that it brings up a lot of ambitious ideas and concepts.

It is a really interesting film as far as themes go. The movie brings up a lot of ideas that aren't brought up in most "AI" films such as: Does the robot recognize his own mortality? Does the robot feel guilt? How does the robot react to having one parent being a criminal and the other parent being a respectful scientist? There were a lot of scenes where I was thinking "Dang, this could lead to a pretty cool concept".

Unfortunately, the movie never fleshes out any of its themes.

It is always very sad to see a movie like this: A movie that has all the right elements to be good, but it gets too distracted in being too many things so it never gets any of the elements right. For example, one of the ingenious themes is the fact that Chappie has two parents: A scientist and a very violent thug. On one side Chappie is learning about the basics of language and how to be a model citizen, but on the other side he is learning how to properly mug people, how to fight, how to talk cool, how to walk cool, and how to earn respect from other people. This is very interesting because the movie never starts Chappie out as super intelligent, it starts him out as a very quick learning child. This means you can see him slowly learn and make connections between every event in his life.

A great example of this is Chappie is told that knives make people go to sleep, so naturally Chappie tries to stab people until he is told that they don't want to go to sleep. However, when Chappie starts stabbing people later, you see him pause and looks into someone's eyes and say "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Don't go to sleep". But he says it very quietly so that no one else can hear.

These are some very deep and interesting themes and Chappie is a very interesting character. Unfortunately, it never fleshes out its themes. This means a lot of very profound themes will fly by in about five minutes and not show up later. This also brings us to one hilarious big issue with the movie:

Every scene involving the villain makes little to no sense. It's not that I don't mind Hugh Jackman, or the approach they were taking, it was how insane and over the top he becomes. He is supposed to be playing a local engineer/scientist who wants to make human controlled mechs that are grossly over-powered for the job of law enforcement. Instead of modifying his idea and making it work for the job, he still says that law-enforcement needs a mech with... mini-guns, claws, machine guns, rockets, cluster missiles, and just about anything you can think of. It really makes no sense to want that on the street. This brings up several questions: Why not just sell it to the military? He does work for a weapons company so if not law enforcement why not military (He was hinted at being an ex- solider/Veteran). So his obsession doesn't really make sense: If he really wants human controlled machines, then make one less overpowered. If he really wants an overpowered mech, then sell it to the military.

However, because he doesn't do either of these, he becomes an insane psychopath who literally shuts down all of the security/robots in the city just to prove that they need heavier firepower for the job. This brings up a lot of plot-holes: How was he able to do this so easily? Any company (even your local cable company) can track a computer that is shutting down other equipment. How did no one notice him doing this? Why didn't the protagonist tell anyone else that he was doing this? How was he able to gruesomely kill fairly innocent people, while laughing, and no one in the office space took notice? This element of the movie truly absurd and doesn't even fit into the plot. He really is a shoe-horned villain. Just about anyone else could've been the villain and it would've made more sense. Why not the ring-leader from the beginning? He said he wanted to shut- down all of the robots? Several other people were looking for a remote to shutdown all of the robots, so literally anyone could've been the villain and would've had better motives than Hugh Jackman.

Other than that, the ending is a bit random, but I was okay with it until the last minute or so. The very very end is kind of... okay? That doesn't make sense with the universe's set rules, but... okay... Fortunately, the other characters in this movie are pretty good. Some people may find them annoying, but I found it interesting because its not like Chappie fell into the hands of perfect people who knew how to use him, Chappie fell into the hands of people who have no idea how robots work or the science behind them. So certain people attach to him differently. Some people treat him like a human, while others do not.

All in all, a smarter than your average film, but full of plot-holes and issues. Kind of sad, really.

I went into Chappie as a huge fan of the gritty action and social commentary of District 9. I expected that this would be more of the same. Both are still present, but surprisingly, with laughs.

This is one of the more entertaining movies from every angle that I've seen in awhile. I described it as I left as funny, sad, uplifting, dark, light, silly, and tense.

The center of the story is Chappie. He is a hero you want to shelter, even though you want him to learn. But even as you love his curiosity, you fear his naiveté. He is the most complex character, and gives a fascinating paradigm into how children must receive and process human society and contradiction. There are some inconsistencies in Chappie's character (is he already programmed to raise his voice if he's scared, or did he learn that?), but he still succeeds as a dynamic, independent being.

Yes, the humans characters are flat. They are merely roles. The Maker. The Villain. Mommy and Daddy. The friend. But as Chappie begins to learn, you see why they have to be flat. They are trying to exert influence on a (robotic) child. Therefore, they must simplify their own motivations and desires into the most basic explanations possible for Chappie to understand. This leads to hilarious imitation and thought-provoking perspectives.

Chappie's curiosity was once ours. Chappie's confusion was once ours. Watching Chappie is like watching a sped-up version of childhood social and moral development, with all of the Hollywood tension, explosions, and naughty words to keep you interested, too. There are parts to laugh at because it's funny, parts to laugh at because the costuming and set design is ridiculous, but you still end up thinking seriously the whole time.

Give it a chance. You might love it. I did.

This is not just an excellent and entertaining movie, i found many elements as real/istic and present, it is just touched some (maybe) future elements. Neil pulled the maximum out of this story and made it unforgettable as District 9 was.

How ever, my stomach turns upside down when i see the Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes score, these pathetic sites and their brainless people (called themselves "critics") live amongst us with their nonsense and empty headed, braintumored criticism - sure, this movie has no Beverly Hills and it's "amazing" crowd, no lemonade punch as story, no muscle cars and no muscle people, no worldwide threat to the USA and such. It has something else to say and this is the core of this amazing movie.

Afterall, Chappie has Everything that needs for a unique and must-see movie, sure, it is a target for all those (disgusting) critics who expect the everyday boring lemonade with everyday boring actors and actress.

Shame on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, you guys are not more, than just rotten and brainless second level scribblers.

Felt like leaving the theater for this one. It started off nicely, with a hugely successful robot task force with moderate A.I. Then for some reason funding gets cut and the head developer decides to go rogue and install his untested super A.I. on a stolen robot.

Hard to swallow plot #1: The robots can only be reprogrammed in the presence of a unique key USB disk. The developer just picks it up and takes it home, spends several days with it, and no one bats an eye.

#2: Chappie is born with the knowledge of a baby. But miraculously he learns the English language in a couple of days of exchanging a few sentences with his "parents".

#3: The bad guys let the developer, which they just stole and beat the crap of, come and go as he pleases. No worries of him alerting the authorities or his companies' own robot army. Which he doesn't, inexplicably.

#4: For someone so intelligent, Chappie is pretty dumb. He knows shooting someone kills them but is convinced that knifing "just makes them sleep".

#5: After lying to manipulate the robot every step of the way, the "bad daddy" decides to come clean and admit that in fact he can't prevent Chappie's demise. Which obviously results in almost getting killed.

#6: The same "bad daddy" then does a complete flip flop and puts his life on the line to save Chappie. Which is going to die in a few hours anyway. And not in any effective way I might add, he just decides to become a sitting duck for some reason.

#7: The factory where all the mayhem originated from is the least secure place in the city. And absolutely no one, except for the protagonist and the antagonist, are able to go to the command console and sort things out. In fact it just remains abandoned in all other times.

#8: The childlike robot prodigy miraculously (again) is able to do a feat no else had: transfer consciousness. With some banged up laptop too.

#9: Police is nowhere to be seen, and despite being perfectly possible to restore the malfunctioning robots from the control central no one decides to even try it. There's just frantic panic and cowboy stunts.

There's more but you get the picture. To me the movie was painful to watch. Every character seemed to be shouting all the time and have complete disregard for logic. It was a dumb movie. The one nice thing that temporarily took the pain away was the warm feeling you get when you realize the robot is able to sacrifice his own life for the survival of a human. So, 2 minutes out of 120. Maybe I should have rated this even lower - but the 3/10 stands, because of visuals.

I believe this movie only solidifies my concrete statement that 21st century is an age of pointless cinema.

Most of the plot in Chappie either fails to follow common human logic, or completely breaks it. This is a modern trend of over- dramatizing the events by making "shit happen" in the literal meaning of this phrase.

It all starts in a not-too distant future with an international corporation, based in SAR, which solved the problem of rising crime wave by introducing almost all-robotic police force.

Then few things just happen:

• The lead researcher makes a breakthrough in AI development and asks company CEO to give him a broken robot for experiments. She "politely" refuses and desperate doc risks his impressive paycheck and reputation by stealing this piece of junk off the scrapyard.

• The rival former-military engineer fails to sell his combat machine (which for some reason looks like robot-chicken from robocop) and after another budget cut risks his not-so-impressive paycheck, but more solid reputation as pioneer in neural interfaces, to sabotage the whole "scout" operation and start a nationwide crime spree

• A local gang with looks of early 90s inspired cyberpunk movies get into conflict situation with another dude. In order to solve this problem they need to find 20.000.000 moneys, so the only logical solution is to find a robot-maker and get a hypothetical OFF-switch, so it will be easier to do whatever crimes they've planned with their pumpkin heads.

They bust the doctor, while he was driving a van with a stolen robot. After successful installation of new software they get a semi-intelligent gansta-ninja robot filled with curiosity, deep understanding of neural interfaces and human consciousness, but lacking the basic knowledge of trauma, pain and death (even with internet connection).

The end result: all robots are broken, everyone is dead. After lots of shooting and the final boss battle Chappie revives the doctor and his mama as robots. Credits start rolling, so are my strained eyes...

Gave it 3/10 for visuals. Everything else sucks. All the aspects of the movie that fans claim to be unique and innovative have been meticulously copied from many other(even recent) sci-fi titles with no sign of shame or remorse.

This is a great movie definitely in the style of Niell Blomkamp. However, some people might consider this a fault, as Elysium was a little off the mark. What is great about the movie is its style. They really went all out with Yolandi and Ninja (the main characters part of the musical group Die Antwoord). Hugh Jackman is pretty hilarious as a bloodthirsty war vet, selling his role pretty well. The technology in this movie is fantastic, as usual coming from Blomkamp, leaving plenty of ideas for the imagination to wonder about for the future. Of course, Chappie really makes this movie; taking something so technical and robotic, making it human in action. He really gets the feels going. I haven't laughed like that in a movie theater in a long time. Add to that the oddness of the characters influencing the development of Chappie, this movie is gangster.

Still, 9/10, super great movie.

I went to watch it because I like scifi and AI/robot theme TV/movies in general. Some I hate (Her, A.I.) some I love (Blade Runner, Battlestar remake, Wall-E). This one, I love. I didn't have an opinion about Neill Blomkamp. Didn't even know Hugh Jackman is in this movie so it was a pleasant surprise.

I was emotionally moved and entertained. Chappie is one of - no, THE MOST action-packed YET emotionally-engaging and HEARTFUL movies I've watched in a while, no bored moments and no time for going into meta-analysis. Can't believe I cared about a clunky metalic wire-ly robot, haven't since the far-cuter Wall-E anyway.

Dev Pattel is well cast, did the role total justice. Sigourney did her part with just the right note. Hugh succeeded in compressing his bigger-than-life self into an unglamorous (even unflattering) thug-in-cubicle-job role. Very noble of him, lending his superstar weight to this project. (showing Mr.BirdMan how a real-life hero gracefully bow out of superhero phase of his film role)

In spite of the tension from start to end, people burst out laughing A LOT throughout. There were lots of humor, but nothing contrived, just Grade AAA seamless storytelling. And if the key characters act crazy, it is explained why, without being captain obvious. Dialogs and expositions, 99% SHOW vs tell, Mckee would be proud, not that it mattered against the hateful bigots of pro critics Borg contingent. I decided somewhere along 20 minutes in - I REALLY like this directorial voice.

The technical bits: the story craft, the plotting, pacing, editing, art directing, effects, all superb and SEAMLESSLY EXECUTED. Zero complaint there. My only beef is as usual the theological stuff but I will not trash something this brilliant because it doesn't agree with my spiritual viewpoint.

Side note on IRRELEVANCY OF RT CRITIC SCORE (and probably Academy Self-Awards) I never cared about Rotten Tomatos score but my other half love to check it after every movie. We both anticipated the critics will be hateful with this one because it features a non-American director and 2 non-American male leads! But we didn't expect the shamelessness level. At least the audience disagreed by a HUGE margin, and the audience WORLDWIDE will continue to disagree as the box office telly of Rest of The World come in. This movie is trashed due to PURE POLITICAL reason. DUH. There are some really tightly-wound-up, bitter ANALysts in the mainstream "art" critic scene, who have forgotten how to feel sentient, and lost touch with everything, obviously.

Anyway, go watch it, just for entertainment. If you happen to be moved then it is a bonus. It will prove that you have a heart, and more sentient than the average Borgs who's tied into "networked group mind" opinions.

Meanwhile I totally look forward to a sequel. 9/10. +1 just to annoy the art-haters.

Chappie is exuberant, playful, funny and perhaps one of the most human characters to grace the screen in years. He's an unwilling action hero that one can both identify with and admire. His story is gripping and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Unfortunately some of Chappie's brilliance comes at the expense of the world around him. Plot holes and logical fallacies abound, and although some of it can be written off to the imperfection of humanity (a central theme in the movie) there are enough "Wait, why the would he/she/they do X."" moments to be a significant distraction.

Many reviewers have complained that Chappie Cliché. In an era where the majority of box office darlings with >8 star reviews are remakes, reboots or result of the Disney/Pixar/Marvel equation the majority of those reviewers are clearly either hypocrites or they don't know what cliché means. Chappie is soaked in the Blomkamp style and while that style was new and fresh with District 9, its unreasonable to expect a director's primary product to be novelty.

Overall it's a good movie, certainly more interesting than most of the box-office-safe fare out that's been out there.

I found the movie highly entertaining and thought-provoking, funny and distressing at the same time.

Couldn't help but think about how true this story is: your child associates with the "wrong crowd" and no matter how much you try, what you say, s/he is going down a bad path. All you can hope for is that they'll find their real self before it's too late...

I usually don't like violent movies, or films about gangsters, druggies, and such. This has all these components in it - however, it was very clear to me, that I would never, ever want to live in a world as depicted there. (Not like most other movies with these topics, where that attitude towards life is idolized and glorified...)

Never mind what the critics say, watch it yourself - what have you got to loose? 2 hours of your life. I think, these 2 hours will be much better spent there, than watching any mainstream TV...

I liked District 9 and Elysium, so I was really looking forward to Chappie, especially for the special effects that I'd seen in those previous films. I felt like Chappie needed to be at least another hour longer to convey the director's message properly. There are way too many holes in the story to lead to such a thought-provoking ending. I'll say there was sufficient delivery on the special effects, but the story was not extensive enough. One - there's no explanation as to why "Ninja" and his mates owe some master criminal millions of dollars; two - one minute Chappie's being bullied by thugs and the next we're to expect they're loving foster parents; and three - why would transferring one's "consciousness" to another being also carry their voice and accent over? I expect a movie to suspend my beliefs for a couple of hours, but a story that flows well makes for $ better spent.

I don't usually write reviews on here, but I have to get this off my chest. This is more of a warning than a review.

I saw the high rating on IMDb and gave this movie a shot. The trailer looked decent and reminded me of good action scenes in District 9. I wanted to leave while watching the movie so many times. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it never did... I had my hopes up when the thugs were teaching Chappie how to stab people that he'd stab them, I'd have a laugh, and we'd move on to some other characters and a better movie! But I was let down on that one. The movie doesn't go anywhere. You just hang out with the obnoxious Die Antwoord members the whole time. Others have mentioned the movie being like Short Circuit and Robocop, but the movie even adds a flare of Transcendence towards the end -- Chappie figures out how to transfer consciousness to save his maker, himself and even "mommy." Ninja keeps going on about a heist he wants Chappie to help him with the whole movie. The heist was my ticket price and 2 hours. I felt frustrated and let down after watching this movie. I don't get how other people seem to like it? Must be Die Antwoord fans. I wish I never saw the film.

The trailer of the movie talks about the black sheep, that is being different, So I would say this one was the black sheep in the world of sci-fi movies.

The story of a robot, which is being depicted in unbiased manner( not robot-as-a-monster or robot-as-an-angel movie) is quiet refreshing. The robot Chappie not just marvels you but make you emotional at times. So be prepared to get your eyes drenched at times. I think these are some of those moments when you feel this is not a sci-fi or action stereotype, but that is what makes it wonderful.

Action cuts are great(very less of them), actor have done wonderful job (especially the lady who acts as Chappies "mommie")

Loved it.

P.S. Don't do on critic reviews, I have no idea why this movie is bashed so much

The big problem with this movie is that none of the characters are likable. Chappie's "family" is made up of criminals who raise him to be a "gangsta" / "pimp" complete with bling. I don't know if this was supposed to come off as heartwarming, but it's just stupid and corny as hell. I kept hoping they would die the entire movie.

Chappie himself is like an annoying little kid who does stupid things and lacks common sense. The worst part is the accent. I don't know if that's how real South Africans talk, but it just did not fit a robot at all and was really obnoxious to listen to. It was like the movie tried too hard to be cool.

Combine all this with a plot that is nonsense. For example:

Chappie's maker is like the next Steve Jobs, yet he works in a cubicle in what resembles a run down warehouse.

The computers look like they came from the 80's, complete with DOS. Seriously? Did South Africa not get Windows?

The gangsters let Chappie's maker go free repeatedly for no apparent reason when he could obviously have gone to the police at any point. Are these the dumbest criminals in the world?

These are just a few examples of the idiotic script.

Another thing is people keep mentioning how great the director is. I honestly don't care what he directed in the past. This movie sucks.

I had high anticipations for this movie. The trailer could've won a trailer Oscar. After it was over I was so angry that I wished I could terminate everyone involved with this horrible movie. What a waste of time and money. Everybody should be ashamed of their involvement. No plot development, putrid acting performances - hey, Hugh, tone down the roid rage or skip the gym a couple days a week! The villains were laughable, offering wooden recitation of terrible dialog. The plot was so full of logic holes that the focus for me became how anybody would have thought the script was well-written and deserved funding. Somebody - but certainly not the right person - is taking one the hard way for this mess. I'm no Roger Ebert so pardon the lack of cinematic dissertation, but it's not needed. This movie sucks, plain and simple, and the parties responsible should be stripped of their profits and made to watch it repeatedly for a month. It IS that bad.

This guy nailed it better than I did so I'm going to give him a shout out - Jeremy Jobe, USA - and try this: "I have no words for how bad it was. I was thinking of crafting a heated letter to Hugh Jackman and demanding he reimburse me for 2 hours of my life. It was so bad that I used to like District 9, but my consciousness has traveled back in time and now hates it for reminding me of Chappie. It was my personal Vietnam set to film. Terrible plot, combined with every single actor simultaneously putting on the worst acting performances of their respective careers. I just ate some cheesecake to try and take this day down a notch.

I don't want to hate the reviewers that posted positive ratings before me, but a small part of me truly does. Why, WHY would you play this cruel joke on your fellow IMDBers? There is no way anyone actually went to this movie and walked out thinking "That was pretty good!" How, how, please God, why are there 10/10 reviews all over this page? When I am 80 years old and on my death bed, I will look back and wonder what I might have been able to do with the 2 hours that I once squandered watching Chappie."

There seems to be vast polarization amongst film viewers on this one. I went to the theater with an open mind despite seeing reviews from both camps. After viewing the movie to the end, I walked out somewhat baffled by what I'd watched.

The first impression, ten minutes in, was that the dialog was written by a twelve year old child, maybe ten. Characterizations likewise seemed so utterly juvenile. Fine. Whatever. So it's a kids movie? Right? Wrong! Blood and guts, adult themes, and really immature gangsters portrayed as somehow likable. Horrible script!

What is this? Disney gone wrong? There was such a discordant note running through this mess. Are film-makers really so desperate for revenue that they stoop to lowly marketing ploys? Are adults dumbed down to the extent of enjoying such ploys? I'm thinking it's decrepit marketing. "Let's just bandwidth the audience to the lowest common denominator,"said the executive producers.

Terri is a much better writer than this...this...train-wreck deserves. District 9 had an adult theme and appropriate dialog. This film did not meet both criteria. Now I understand the critical reviews stating this film as a failure in execution. Insulting to adults, detrimental to kids.

Shame on you Neill Blomkamp. You let us down in many ways. Minus many stars for wasting, insulting exceptional talent. 4/10 only for amazing production values and CGI. Everything else is garbage, including the choice to have Chappie's AI "learn" in a totally absurd manner. That's all.

Saw the great ratings and then was on the verge of bailing for the first time in years. So the first 'intelligent' robot hangs with dope dealing, violent thugs, wears gold chains, swaggers and finally when Chappie tells them he can not commit a crime they easily convince him that by not using his gun he can stop cars, toss the drivers a hundred feed in the air (which might kill them) and take their cars... all the while Chappies can not figure out, with all his 'intelligence' that he has become a major felon like the rest of the gang. Before this mess is over Chappie never saves even one innocent civilian but does manage to draw blood from an innocent armored car driver as he commits yet another major felony.

On the sci-fi part of the equation... we know Chappie's creator has invented a program that allows for the first 'thinking' robot. Suddenly, out of no where we're seeing the ability to transfer human's conscience to a robot. No explanation about how or way that is suddenly possible.

The IMDb description of the film is nonsensical. Chappie, is hunted when he is seen committing crime and not because he is trying to save humanity. The stars of this film and role model for Chappie are on the verge, several times, of executing Chappies creator. They are low life armed and dangerous dope dealing thugs.

Chappies amazing 'intelligence' finds him mindlessly following whomever is the latest person talking to him. Reasoning, morality, free will are out the window. Tell Chappie evil is good and he'll run with it.

Finally a gizmo, the size of a flash drive can put the city at peril. Yet, it seems easy as pie for employees to snatch it and do very dirty deeds. There is way more security on your local bank's safety deposit box. Nonsensical script and a cute named but felony loving, law breaking, dangerous robot. Yes, I was rooting.... for it to END!

Johannesburg Police are using robots called scouts, supplied by Tetravaal Corporation. Software engineer Deon develops a self-aware artificial intelligence which he smuggles into a defunct robot. This childlike – but learning - being ends up kidnapped by a group of petty gangsters who plan to use it for criminal purposes. Meanwhile, back at Tetravaal, ex-military man Vincent Moore is championing an enormous and viciously militaristic robot as the next step in robotic law enforcement.

Chappie is like Robocop crossed with Pinocchio, with a touch of Terminator and Pygmalion thrown in, and all run through a pronounced Saath Efrikan filter. Much is very good – lots goes on, performances are very good, effects are great (I suspect Chappie himself is a mixture of CGI, costume, animatronic and puppetry, but they are all mixed together so well that you simply accept his physical reality throughout. It is often very funny, sometimes very touching, and has an ending – several endings – which I didn't see coming, and which I very much liked.

Less positively, the strongly South African setting is both understandable and reasonable, but I found it somewhat distracting, the Vodacom tower product placement was annoying, the physical appearance affected by Yolandi (which, I understand, is part of her schtick) was profoundly irritating, and Moore's descent into psychotic body-shredding scenery-chewing mode was somewhere between improbable and unbelievable.

On the whole, though, this was an enjoyable romp.

Not only this features the re-recycled themes, but the entire plot is so ludicrous, the plot holes are so large that the movie starts to fall apart within the first 30-40 minutes. You could argue that this movie is intended for kids, however the copious amounts of violence make this point mute.

Spoilers below this line

0) The country apparently has no military force because the company does not want to market it's large robot capable of shooting down planes to the military. Instead it keeps around a useless robot around that it insists on marketing to the police???? 1) The gangsters are simply caricatures 2) Why steal an inventor of the robot, and then let the inventor go???!! 3) The inventor comes and goes from the gangsters as he pleases. 4) The robot has a mentality of a 3 year old and yet is capable of figuring out how to "extract" his consciousness using sophisticated computer equipment 5) The helmet designed to control the large robot is for reading human brain signals. How can it work on a robot???

The scrip is very illogical in the sense that it lacked common sense. I mean, how could Deon not call the police when he had the chance to take Chappie back? Really? A genius could not think of that? Where's the security in Tetravaal? No cameras? How could Deon and Vincent slip away with the key guard? Or whatever they called it. When Deon was shot, why would they not go to the hospital instead of transferring his consciousness? I mean that's where the first place to go.

As for my review, there are many gaps and out of the context decisions by characters in the story. Some may argue that this movie is revolutionary in the sense that it goes away with the "mainstream stories" and tackles rather "socio-political issues". But I've seen a lot of movies like that, and they were not mediocre like what Chappie movie shows. The story could have been better. I was expecting more of "what would a human do" on several scenes rather than "how stupid can human be".

If the story was about corrupt government and society, well, it failed to show it. Although it showed potential in giving a new taste of robot police concept, the story failed it.

This movie has so many holes that I cannot even cover them all. I love how movie makers think of Artificial Intelligence as Artificial Feeling. It was really ridiculous that the robot immediately started acting like a child as soon as it had AI. A machine will act like a child only if it's programmed to behave like one. Not just by giving it self awareness. It was also stupid that the movie tried to make heroes out of the stupid vicious criminals. And implanting the consciousness to new body to achieve immortality, this has been used in the movie The 6th day with Arnold Schwartzenegger. Implant memory to new cloned body to live forever. But is this real immortality? If your body die as soon as you transfer your consciousness, it may seem like immortality but what if your body doesn't die? And this clone with your memory is standing in front of you. Is that clone really you? It's just a copy. Overall, this movie tries to deal with few philosophical topics but at very elementary level. And just copied elements from many other movies that are far more interesting and just made it worse. Actings were horrible too.

Absolutely Brilliant. I loved every moment of Chappie, who is as engaging as Wall E, yet less predictable. Script/Dialogue is superb, the Action and Plot are seamlessly composed....Wow, kudos to Blomkamp for having such a stark, clear vision of the near future and telling it so well. Jo'berg didn't fare too good, hopefully this was CGI, which I never felt aware of anywhere in Chappie, and which has been ruining Sci-Fi for 20+ years. Excessive action for the sake of action, convoluted plots as a substitution for good writing...The latter 2 are both, happily, absent in this superior film, crafted by a director who is 'scooting' up beside David Lean in my library of Genius Film Making.

I take no pleasure in writing a negative review. I'd much rather rave about a movie that pleasantly surprised me.

In the movie, Tropic Thunder, the term "full retard" became a trendy catch-phrase. I don't want to sound like a whiny, semi-literate malcontent, but while sitting through this absolute bomb of a movie, the one recurring phrase that kept passing through my mind was, "they went full retard."

Chappie, the robot, gains sentience. He can think for himself, though he starts out like a child that must be taught everything. This is the core of the movie. Clearly, the writers meant to create a sweet metaphor about the tribulations of growing up, but what they created was two hours of pure cinematic torture. The acting, plot, and action sequences were often cringe inducing, not to mention laughably illogical and ridiculous. I seriously can't imagine how anyone could enjoy this movie.

Chappie is taught by Johannesburg gangsters, who talk about as authentically as Keanu Reeves accent in Dracula (read: abominably). This was one of the most irritating parts of the movie, but add to this the cartoonish, buffoonish characters and the whole thing was simply a misguided mess.

After one hour I didn't think I could last till the end. I literally couldn't even sit still in my seat, but I toughed it out, hoping something at the end would happen to redeem the movie. Sadly, it did not.

I won't even bother writing about the plot. It's full of holes. The acting is generally so absurd it goes beyond intentional satire. I pity the great actress Sigourney Weaver who somehow got roped into this mess.

But most of all, I pity everyone who sat through this movie.