Thoughts of T

Worth mentioning of course, is the guy behind Chappie’s voice, Sharlto Copley, a South African actor. The other cast members include Watkin Tudor Jones and Yolandi Visser of South African zef rap-rave (no idea what music that is) group, Die Antwoord, who play the criminals getting involved in the middle of robotic warfare.

Simply put, the movie is about the use of robots to fight high crime rate in Johannesburg (or Joburg, the cooler way of saying it), South Africa. Quite similar to those you see in Matt Damon’s Elysium. Deon Wilson (Patel) creates the robots which are highly successful and appreciated, while Vincent Moore (Jackman) creates MOOSE: the bigger, less advanced, underappreciated robot. They both struggle to have more funding and attention from their company, Tetravaal.

But despite his success, Deon is still longing to create a humanlike robot with the intelligence and ability to write poems, not just fight crimes. When he presents the idea to CEO Michelle Bradley (Weaver), she rejects it. Frustrated but undeterred, Deon decides to go ahead with this project on his own, which leads to the birth of Chappie. If you are still wondering what Chappie means, it’s the nickname that Yolandi gives the robot, the ‘little boy’ which is the center of this movie. How then, you ask, Chappie meets the criminals? It goes something like this: Deon steals a robot from his company for personal AI experiment; the gang kidnap Deon and steals the robot away from him for criminal use; a mother and son relationship is developed between Yolandi and the robot, hence the name.

Long story short, Vincent grows jealous with Deon and they both end up fighting each other utilizing their toys. Chappie destroys the MOOSE and smacks its creator as a payback for killing his “mom” Yolandi, and clones the badly wounded Deon by way of transferring his consciousness into a robot.

CONCLUSIONS:

• Blind ambition without moral control always ends up with disaster.

• Technology is a double-edged sword, be wise.

• Those two are NOT clichés, of course.

• At its early stage, Chappie knows GPS, but clueless about the internet.

• It’s highly justifiable if you beat the hell out of a guy for revenge, and forgive him afterwards, especially if you’re a robot.

• Rather than clone and immortalize yourself into another boring human creature, why not be a robot with some sense of humor?

• Special effects wise, the movie is somewhat impressive. Story wise, it’s not.