Neil Blompkamp's Chappie

[KRYPTON INC.]

No, he's right, I am a hack.

Hey... You're better than that, man.

 

[TheVileOne]

Making Die Antwoord the main characters of this movie was not something he should've been allowed to do.

Also, I could be wrong, but Blomkamp seems to have a bit of contempt for soldiers, military people based off of the way he and his wife wrote Hugh Jackman's character.

Like there is a line of dialogue where Jackman's character tries to be conversational to Dev Patel. He says, "You know, I'm an engineer. You're an engineer." Then Dev Patel sort of mocks him by saying, "Oh you're an engineer. I though you were a soldier."

Dev Patel is supposed to be one of the good guys, but when he said that it was sort of weird. Like granted, Jackman's character is a bad guy, but I mean...when he said that you can kind of almost understand the anger of Moore's character in that moment.

What, a soldier can't be an engineer? Because someone is a soldier or in the military, they cannot be smart? Military has no engineers who do not honorably serve as well?

It was sort of an off-putting remark. Really glad he didn't do the Halo movie now.

 

[Gmaasdasd]

Chappie is amazing i just get to watch premier yesterday and it is not a mixed version of Elysium and district 9 it is apart from both of them has its own traits loved Chappie

 

[bullets]

It's no surprise this movie turned out bad. Dude is a hack.

Nothing warrants that statement.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

The silliness of the internet sometimes...... For Die Antwoord, I really like them but it's going to be what kills the movie for quite a few people, I like that Neill had the balls to just put them front & center and not care about it either way, that's what I like about him, no compromises and no one else would or could make the movies that he makes.

Of course, if you think they're good or not, it's another question.

 

[Lencho01]

I don't care for Die Antwoord. It's really surprising to hear that they're the main characters, though.

 

[chaseter]

I was very interested in the concept but then I saw the trailer and it stars Die Antwoord in Die Antwoord character mode. Imma pass.

I love being right.

 

[Mr.Bananagraber]

I'm still want to see his Alien movie but it might be better for Blomkamp to just direct movies instead of writing and directing.

 

[Drz]

I liked it, 7/10 but i would have replaced all the action with more plot and story.

 

[TheVileOne]

Well the budget was only $50 million. That's probably how he got away with making Die Antwoord the leads.

 

[Typhoon22]

Blomkamp has been such a disappointment. I really thought he was going to be the next big thing in sci-fi but aside of a movie his last ones have all been a disappointment to me. He's going to ruin Alien. Glad he didn't do Halo.

 

[Drz]

Lol is noone going to talk about Chappie at all?

What i liked:
- Hippo (Brandon Auret) was a hilariously cool looking gangster and i loved how his lines we're essantially saying "I want it!" in the most comedic way ever.
- Chappie's (Sharlto Copley) body language was really fun to look at, not to mention how he grows.
- Hans Zimmer's music
- Action scenes we're pretty decent to watch at and enjoy
- The city, the environments, the locations.
- Chappie's growth to a criminal was interesting and sad.

What i disliked:
- It took me some convincing that everything could have happened the way it did.
- The movie is very ambitious with lots of ideas, should have cutted more from the crime gangster stories to make room for the ending they went with.
- Not enough Sigourney Weaver! :b

 

[PWN3R]

I liked it a lot. I thought it was more D9 Blomkamp than Elysium Blomkamp. Seriously don't get the vicious reaction from critics tearing into this like it's a disaster. It's not. Chappie is a wonderful character. Sure, the movie gets a little too out there at the very end, but it was still a great sci fi film with plenty of heart.

Decent movie, man. Like seriously, I am so confused if I saw something else because 20% on RT?!

 

[Sithborg]

I liked it. Not perfect, but I enjoyed it. I would've preferred Hugh Jackman's character and story to be dropped and I think the story would've been better. At the very least establish that he is a bit more of a sick psycho before the final action piece.

Still, liked Chappie's story. Loved him acting gangsta.

 

[T"Challa]

Saw it. Didnt like it. Poor story. Questionable decision making from characters.Leads were terrible. Villain was one dimensional. Action was decent. Chappie was adorable. I'm nervous about Alien now. The End

 

[galmorzu]

Making Die Antwoord the main characters of this movie was not something he should've been allowed to do.

Also, I could be wrong, but Blomkamp seems to have a bit of contempt for soldiers, military people based off of the way he and his wife wrote Hugh Jackman's character.

Like there is a line of dialogue where Jackman's character tries to be conversational to Dev Patel. He says, "You know, I'm an engineer. You're an engineer." Then Dev Patel sort of mocks him by saying, "Oh you're an engineer. I though you were a soldier."

Dev Patel is supposed to be one of the good guys, but when he said that it was sort of weird. Like granted, Jackman's character is a bad guy, but I mean...when he said that you can kind of almost understand the anger of Moore's character in that moment.

What, a soldier can't be an engineer? Because someone is a soldier or in the military, they cannot be smart? Military has no engineers who do not honorably serve as well?

It was sort of an off-putting remark. Really glad he didn't do the Halo movie now.

Yeah, agreed with everything here. That particular exchange really caught me off guard as well. It was as if, because he was a soldier, he was obviously a sadistic psychopath, instead of the other way around.

I agree that Hugh Jackman's character was almost cartoonishly evil, and I was wondering at the end what kind of justification there was to hate the guy so much up to that point to warrant that. I think the fact he was a soldier was all the "character building" we needed to know he was evil beyond words.

Oh shoot, Cpl. Hicks was a soldier in Aliens! I think we know who the villain of Alien 5 is going to be!

As for Chappie himself, I guess I liked him, but there was a lot less of the emotional side of the story happening that I thought there would be. The scenes with He-man and the dog were...pretty much all you saw from the trailers. Not a whole lot towards learning about being a hero or much about compassion towards different forms of life.

Spoiler

The dead dog at the dog fight was just, yup, don't want to be a dead dog, so I like fighting!

There was some compassion and good choices by him at the end, but overall I feel they spent too much time showing him loving being a criminal to really...earn those moments later on, such as they were.

And Ninja...he was obviously set up as an abusive father to Chappie. Big time...and yet, he got his hero moments, he got Chappie to continue helping him at the end, and

Spoiler

he got to have his GF brought back

. It pretty much seemed to say that abusive fathers are no big deal and are good for building character!

I liked the movie coming out of it, but as more of it sinks in, I think I'm really bothered by more of it than I realized. They definitely needed to streamline the story some. Take out bits that weren't really needed (Hugh Jackman's uber evilness), and build more towards him learning about why he chose to be a "good guy" by the end instead of just enjoying crime and dog fights.

 

[Octoberist]

Devin Faraci mentioned that the police force isn't the oppressive type; they're just people doing their jobs. SO when you see Die Antwoord do illegal and awful things, [BLACKOUT]like shooting cops in the head,[/BLACKOUT] are we suppose to root for them?

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

The film did 4.5 million on Friday so even with a 50 million dollar budget, not a good result.

Blomkamp was indeed really, really smart to lock up that Alien gig when he did.

Last year Rise of an Empire opened with 45 million and Chappie is going to be number one with less than 15 million. March isn't starting out so well.

 

[TheVileOne]

Devin Faraci mentioned that the police force isn't the oppressive type; they're just people doing their jobs. SO when you see Die Antwoord do illegal and awful things, [BLACKOUT]like shooting cops in the head,[/BLACKOUT] are we suppose to root for them?

I think in the eyes of Kinberg and Blomkamp we are supposed to like them because they are fighting against the establishment and they are into arts and crafts and stuff. Authority is bad and wrong. And they wear all sorts of merch for their own band in the film. Rebels without a cause and all that except being No. 1 gangstas.

 

[Octoberist]

The whole 'Die Antwoord' playing themselves bit could work if the movie was more..quirky and surreal. But it seems like Blomkamp played it too straight that it ends up being confusing and goofy tonally.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

The film did 4.5 million on Friday so even with a 50 million dollar budget, not a good result.

Blomkamp was indeed really, really smart to lock up that Alien gig when he did.

Last year Rise of an Empire opened with 45 million and Chappie is going to be number one with less than 15 million. March isn't starting out so well.

At the very worst, the movie will break even, fact is: Sony botched the marketing, remember the first posters with Chappie writing Mommy, Daddy, Chappie on a wall, or other early posters that kind of gave the impression that this was a family movie, then they went back & forth between the different trailer variants.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter, I'm grateful that the movie exists, thanks Sony & Neill, D9 was a huge hit, Elysium wasn't a big hit but did well, Chappie will at the very worst break even, at the very best, turn in a small profit (it's not looking like it's going to break out overseas), it's a tough sell considering the subject matter.

@Octoberist: but the movie IS quirky & surreal, is it not?

 

[Octoberist]

The marketing has been really bad. Even the tagline makes no sense because Chappie, as far as I know, isn't out to save the world.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

Exactly, there's just a vague mention of it when

Spoiler

Moose shows up at the end, I think Deon says something to that effect, because all the scouts have been deactivated and it's total chaos.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I'm not saying that the film is going to get anyone fired but anyway you cut it under 15 million is not a good opening weekend for the film and the bad reviews that go along with this opening weekend are not great for Blomkamp. He busted out of the gate with a super well reviewed Oscar nominated film and now...yeah things are going down hill. That franchise came at just the right time.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

No, it's not a good opening weekend, the bad reviews are another thing, but honestly, at this point, I think that Blomkamp really can do whatever he wants, Chappie was really a gift by Sony, Neill said he had basically carte blanche on the movie.

It's not a case of Alien 5 coming at "the right time", he worked on it in secrecy, and the movie is getting made solely because he literally willed it into existence, I don't know of many directors who can get something like this happen (and SO fast, the movie is going into pre prod next week, Weaver is signed on as well already), that alone tells you what kind of influence he has.