Chappie

Cast: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver
Director: Neill Blomkamp

THE most surprising part of Chappie, by Academy Award-nominee Blomkamp, is that Hugh Jackman plays second fiddle to Dev Patel. The second surprising part is that Patel holds his own.

As Deon Wilson — no, no Indian-lineage hints — Patel is the lead programmer of the Scouts programme, which has provided Johannesburg with an all-robotic police force and brought order to the lawless town. Patel is working on making his machines better through giving them artificial intelligence.

Jackman is a war veteran, Vincent Moore, who doesn’t care for nerds such as colleague Wilson, wears shorts to office unlike Wilson’s tie and shirt, and who is pushing for his own Moore programme in which humans will control a crime-busting robot via a neuro-transmitter helmet.

Things take a turn when Wilson is denied permission to try his breakthrough A.I. technology on his Scouts. He secretes a dismantled robot away, is kidnapped on way home and, threatened by his abductors, loads this robot with the new technology. The result is ‘Chappie’, a robot that is like a child when rebooted, but who learns things much, much faster, is curious, inquisitive, has feelings, and a consciousness.

Voiced by a Blomkamp favourite, Sharlto Copley, Chappie is absolutely charming and absolutely tragic. South African musicians Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser, along with Cantillo, play the gangsters who kidnapped Wilson. As Yo-Landi takes on the role of Chappie’s ‘mother’, she is believable despite the candy-colour ammunition and explosives the gang surrounds itself with. She reads him bedtime stories, delights in his paintings and the speed at which he picks up new words, and tells him all about soul. ‘Father’ Ninja too begins to like him, though his primary motive remains using Chappie to pull off a heist, and ward off fellow robotic police officers.

Chappie is attacked, has his arm cut off, and stumbles through his first few hours bewildered at how things are turning out. Particularly as “maker” Wilson has instructed him “never, ever” to do anything criminal.

However, Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), who co-wrote the film with wife Terri Tatchell, isn’t interested in exploring A.I. to any great depth except using it as a plot tool. So a lot else happens in Chappie that has little to do with Chappie, and involves gangsters in different states of undress and tattoo carvings.

Given that everyone seems to have a largely free run of a large weapons manufacturing company’s R&D unit, there is at least one scientific revelation from all the comings and goings: sometime in the future, one could download one’s consciousness onto a pen drive for eternity.

"Chappie" has an identity crisis.

The film tells a story better fit for PG-rated family fare, and then covers it in enough ugliness to garner a R-rating. In one scene, it's trying to make you laugh, the next it's trying to make you cry, and by the end, it aims to stun with excessive gore. Unfortunately, these elements don't add up to a cohesive or enjoyable movie.

"Chappie" features familiar faces in Hugh Jackman and "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel, but the movie, oddly enough, belongs to people named Ninja and Yolandi, better known (to some) as South African rap group Die Antwoord. While they are near-impossible to take seriously, however, even they are not the main reason why the movie doesn't work.

The real problem is that we've seen it all before. "Chappie" feels like Blomkamp put "E.T.", "Short Circuit," "Transcendence," and "Robocop" in a blender and then covered it with "AI: Artificial Intelligence." There's not an original bone in the film's body, and it plays like a mash-up of all the better sci-fi that came before it, but with way more repeated Die Antwoord tunes.

The film's visual style is exactly what you'd expect if you're familiar with Blomkamp's oeuvre - incredible, seamless effects set against a desolate South African backdrop. It was interesting in "District 9" but feels boring and stale by now. As Doug Benson joked on the latest episode of "Doug Loves Movies" in reference to Blomkamp's singular vision, "At least Woody Allen went to other boroughs."

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"Chappie" is more strange than it is anything else. Are Ninja and Yolandi playing themselves, as evidenced by the plethora of Die Antwoord merchandise strewn about the film? If they are playing themselves, why does nobody recognize them as popular rap stars? Die Antwoord definitely exists in the world of the film, as Ninja and Yolandi are literally wearing hoodies promoting themselves the entire time. It's a confusing marketing move that has no business being in a feature film.

Another thing that made me laugh was how Hugh Jackman inexplicably carries a rugby ball throughout the entire film. Every scene he can be seen holding, squeezing, maybe even tossing his precious rugby ball, and it never comes into play in a big way as one might expected. It's just bizarre.

Ultimately, it's unclear who "Chappie" is for. Its sense of humor and inclusion of pop culture figures suggests that it's for younger teens, but the film's R-rating ensures that they can't even buy a ticket. It's too silly to intrigue die-hard, adult sci-fi fans, and too "out there" for children.