Chappie

So I saw the film Chappie today...

Let's be up front about this:  it's a bit of a hot mess.

After watching all his films and what short works I could, I have come to the realization that Neill Blomkamp is a GREAT visuals director, A pretty good ideas man, but a mediocre storyteller.  A LOT of Chappie fell flat.  Almost all of the characters lacked depth, The story, while having some really great ideas, didn't develop them fully.  The main character, while interesting, could have been so much more if they had explored his growth from newborn to genius in the compressed time of its existance, but it seemed like that was almost an afterthought to creating set pieces.

Also Sony was NOT subtle with letting people know Sony helped back the movie.  Some of the most blatant product placement I have ever seen.  And some of it seems almost out of place with this supposedly set in the near future, but to be fair I DID like how Chappie utilized all the Playstation 4s they acquired.

Perhaps the biggest problem was that this film made it EXTREMELY difficult to suspend my belief in it.  That came down to two reasons:  the fact that a company that makes high tech weapons has worse security than your local McDonalds, and the inclusion of Die Antwoord.  Look, I like Die Antwoord, but nothing brought me out of the movie more than them showing up.  They just basically played Die Antwoord.  On the scale of singers/music groups in movies they were closer to The Fatboys in Disorderlies than Courtney Love in The People VS Larry Flint.  (And if you know my hatred for Courtney, you can guess how difficult it is to say that.)

Funny enough, despite all this, this isn't a bad movie.  Rather, it is one that doesn't have focus.  When Neill Blomkamp focuses on the subject, we get amazing, like District 9.  Here, while there are nuggets that show its potential, ultimately there is too much clutter that takes away from it all.

(I feel I must also say this:  Neill Blomkamp is perhaps THE best director I have seen to so seamlessly meld fantastic technology with real life in cinema.  His scenes with Chappie make you believe it was really done.  This is the main reason I want to see him direct a Star Wars film, or the Alien one he looks to be doing.  Just have someone with him to keep his focus...)