“Once you give something meaning, a purpose and a life. It becomes precious!”
Artificial Intelligence has been a thing for a long time and there are those that feel it should never be tampered with. As humans we have the gift to create life naturally, but there are those that feel the need to take it a step further by giving the same human properties to a machine. Of course this will make many people feel uneasy and a fear starts to settle. The world is already in chaos and thanks to Tetravaal there is a robot force has taken down the human casualties by 95%, however there is still potential for something more. From the makers of District 9 and Elysium we have a new story of a bot who becomes a live.
From jump we already know that this is another Pinocchio story-line with a creator wanting to build more than just a machine of destruction. In this world full of chaos and mayhem one wants to do something that could benefit everyone, while another wants to profit from all the crimes. CHAPPiE is a hardcore version of Short Circuit, but the difference is that CHAPPiE was not an accident. Things were working out with an ambitious inventor finally cracking his A.I program, but only to be shut down by his boss to implement it. In that he takes matters into his own hands only to be kidnapped by a gang who is down on their luck. The good news is that the programmed worked all too well, but the bad news is that CHAPPiE is now in the hands of the wrong people.
:::SPOILER AREA:::
Since CHAPPiE starts off as a child he has to learn things as such. In that one of the gang members start to catch feelings toward Chappie, because of his child like nature and as my friend stated that her maternal instincts kicked in. The original plan was for him to help them with a heist that will give them over 500 million dollars, but things of course become complicated as Chappie began to learn and understand that he is more than just a machine. Thanks to the interference of Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) who is jealous of the success of the bots being as he is trying to push for his human controlled machine. This puts him in a pinch when the police officials find his tech unappealing to them. There is nothing more embarrassing being a former soldier who is outsmarted by a civilian scientist.
In that things get worse when Vincent decides to push the program further by causing chaos so immense that they will need his tech, but first he had to eliminate the competition. No matter how many people have to die to do so?
:::END OF SPOILER:::
I did not expect to feel that much from this movie, but CHAPPiE was a well done character. You will feel his need for survival and understand his struggle being pulled between worlds of his maker Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) and his new family lead by Ninja who is a scumbag at first. There were a lot of cute elements seeing his progression which was a bit too fast for my liking. It begins with an amazing action scene and then jumps to Scout 22 being picked after being rejected for being damaged to finally being picked up by some drug dealers. I had a few problems with them going from badass to sensitive parents. Chappie just turns into a troubled teen running with the wrong crowd, but yet maintains his ideas of doing crimes are bad. It was a bit rushed for my liking and didn’t really seem legit for the some of the criminals to change their colors so easily.
The cast was very good with even with the short scenes of Sigourney Weaver who played the big boss of Tetravaal corporation. I did enjoy the villain side of Hugh Jackman, he was a real D**KHead with a murderous purpose just to get ahead with his invention. But I could not help to compare both District 9 and CHAPPiE as having a different story-line, but with a similar outcome. I also felt as if this was the aftermath of District 9 and was looking for some Easter egg of the previous character, hell even Elysium as well.
In the end CHAPPiE had a strong beginning with a weak middle, but the ending was on point. I give it 4 out of 5 because I did enjoy the movie, even though it lacked some originality and story building. It has a nice modern style to it and if I were to compare it to a food it would be a burger. Even though I have had it before and it is made almost the same way the taste was still different as well as enjoyable. It was fun and I definitely recommend it.
CHAPPiE is out now in theaters and please if you have seen it already leave a comment of your thoughts below. Do you feel it is a nice modern version of Johnny Five? Or if you didn’t enjoy it, please share that as well. Thanks for stopping by and we shall see you next time. Stay frosty!
