I just went on RT to check and see if there were any reviews yet and there weren't. So I assume the Wednesday screening for critics thing I saw on another message board is 100% correct. Bad sign for the film.
I just went on RT to check and see if there were any reviews yet and there weren't. So I assume the Wednesday screening for critics thing I saw on another message board is 100% correct. Bad sign for the film.
I assumed there woulda been like advance showings and what not by now. Hoping it's good, because if it's two panned films in a row for old Neil....Alien be damned.
I assumed there woulda been like advance showings and what not by now. Hoping it's good, because if it's two panned films in a row for old Neil....Alien be damned.
Elysium was panned? It was mostly well praised, even if everyone found it inferior to District 9, which was simply too good, almost impossible for him to make something better than that.
Elysium was panned? It was mostly well praised, even if everyone found it inferior to District 9, which was simply too good, almost impossible for him to make something better than that.
Elysium was good the way Ang Lee's Hulk was good. Technically it was well done but fanboys panned it, thereby causing the mainstream to follow suit because it was cool to pan.
Elysium was panned? It was mostly well praised, even if everyone found it inferior to District 9, which was simply too good, almost impossible for him to make something better than that.
I believe on RT t got around 65%, certainly not universal praise. I liked it personally but it was far inferior to D9, which was admittedly tough to match.
I assumed there woulda been like advance showings and what not by now. Hoping it's good, because if it's two panned films in a row for old Neil....Alien be damned.
Just seen it, review incoming, a hint: it's very good.
First things first, let's get this out of the way, I have NO IDEA why there's an embargo in the first place, it got me worried since it's practically 99 % of the time a bad sign. I don't know why, I don't know why Sony would not have faith in the movie or anything because it is (and I'm sure plenty of other people will think the same thing) very very good. I'll preface the whole thing by saying I'm a big fan of Blomkamp's, not just his first two movies but his entire body of work: shorts, commercials, etc. I love District 9, I quite like Elysium, I'll be honest (I don't know why I have to justify this, but considering the hate the movie's been gathering since it came out ), it's flawed, you can feel how much the ideas & themes are being hammered home, it can be cheesy, it's not subtle, but for me, it worked, the visuals, the set design, production design, score, acting, the action, it worked for me and even though it's super predictable, and could have used subtlety & some better writing in parts, I still quite like it.
Chappie is a movie that shouldn't work in some ways, and I'm saying that in a good way. First of all: Die Antwoord, I was worried when I read they were cast in the movie, I didn't know them, but I looked them up and just didn't get why Neill would hire non actors and they just seemed like an odd fit tonally. I think this is one of, if not THE part that would either work for you or it completely won't, I really enjoyed Ninja & Yolandi in the movie, it's one of the things that make the movie stand out, they're weird, and interesting, and kind of endearing in a way and they bring their world with them, whether it is in the clothes they wear, or the fantastic set & production design.
If you're on board with them, you should really go along with the rest. The other part about the fact that the movie shouldn't work is in the premise of a robot basically being a toddler and having to learn everything by himself, developing his mind like a child would. It sounds silly, and yet it totally works. That's what surprised me the most with the movie, how surprisingly sweet, endearing & even downright emotional it really is, notably one scene where
Ninja & the "american" drop Chappie in the "real" world so he can see what it's like, and he ends up getting bullied
I felt truly heartbroken at that, and the character development on Chappie is excellent, that + Copley's great performance making him this real emotional being, I just wouldn't think of Chappie as a robot, but really as a being, a real person.
Dev Patel turns in a solid performance, so does Jackman who clearly enjoys the over the top nature of his character at times, Sigourney Weaver has basically a glorified cameo. Visually, it looks stunning, the VFX work by Image Engine is astounding, just like the prawns in D9 or that Tetravaal robot in Blomkamp's short (similar design to Chappie), they look real, they just do, and Copley really does a great job of embodying Chappie, in his movements as well.
The third act took me by surprise, I love where they take Chappie in the story by
exposing him to evil & violence, and his reaction to that, good, evil, all of that
and the ending, I could see sort of where this was going to go, but the very last bit definitely took me by surprise and I was kind of shocked in a way that they really went there, and it is really thought-provoking. I really love all the themes the movie tackles, especially about consciousness, what is consciousness? or
that bit where Chappie knows his battery is running out and then he will "die" and questions why his creator created him this way, only for him to die, which obviously is a parallel to why God "created" man only for him to inevitably die
Really really interesting stuff, I have no doubt that some people will attack Blomkamp on some of those points for being too obvious or too on the nose, but thing is, it really works here because of the nature of Chappie's character, who is like a baby at first, and needs to learn, and the characters around him have to treat him as such. Solid stuff.
Zimmer's score is unlike anything I've heard from him, very electro like, very punchy, and it's a great fit for the movie, it reminded me of the Blade Runner score sometimes, especially this one emotional track for Chappie's character, that + the inclusion of Die Antwoord's many songs in the movie, I really liked that.
If I had anything bad to say, it would just be that Neill kind of overdid the slow mo on a few shots towards the end of the movie.
All in all, I'd say for now that D9 remains on top, that Chappie is definitely better than Elysium by a good margin. For me, Chappie is very very good to great, it won't work for everyone but man !
Ever since District 9, Blomkamp has shown a tendency to depict the conflicts in his script in a very simplistic way. There's a scene in Chappie that perfectly encapsulates this, when the thugs are trying to come up with a quick way to make tons of money. As they're talking about the robotic police force, Yo-Landi suddenly formulates a thought out loud: the police are machines; machines can be turned off by a remote; the police robots can be deactivated with such a device.
This rather childish syllogism around which Chappie builds most of its premise is very representative of Blomkamp's writing style. Although the depiction of social inequalities in Elysium was one of the most negative aspects of the film, it remained naive enough to be left out and not to interfere with the kind of hardboiled entertainment the movie was. Sadly, there's a qualitative loss in Chappie that eventually transforms the director's former naivety into proper silliness, which tends to ruin the film's qualities.
This is sad to see, was hoping for a return to greater things after the rather iffy Elysium, early days still but not a great start. Would a failure here cast doubt over the Aliens project?
I saw some positive reviews out there as well, just seems like it's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea, seeing several reviews mentioning that Chappie himself is not likable makes me wonder if we've seen the same movie.
He said in an interview I saw today about Chappie that what he sees first are visuals, which I totally get, I wouldn't say he's not so much a writer but rather that for example in Elysium, he either really made the themes so obvious, hammering them home because it needs to sell or rather just because that's the way he sees it.
I have no doubt there will be some similar complaints for Chappie, but it personally doesn't bother me, if anything, I think he's just really earnest and wears his intentions & themes on his sleeve so to speak, and there's also nothing wrong in sticking to what he knows & likes best.
Anyway, really guys, see Chappie for yourselves, it'll either work for you or it won't, come to think of it, I find it fascinating that some movies manage to reach like a massive positive critical consensus considering how different a person is from the next, how our expectations differ completely, I don't know, it's so subjective.
Some critics find Chappie insufferable, I've seen others thinking the opposite and I think he's such a great, endearing, sweet, funny, innocent character.
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), it's flawed, you can feel how much the ideas & themes are being hammered home, it can be cheesy, it's not subtle, but for me, it worked, the visuals, the set design, production design, score, acting, the action, it worked for me and even though it's super predictable, and could have used subtlety & some better writing in parts, I still quite like it.
