Sometimes, "Chappie" is more of a "Robocop" reboot than the actual "Robocop" reboot. The parallels to Paul Verhoeven's 1987 satirical sci-fi classic are plenty: an ultraviolent urban setting in the not-too-distant future, intelligent-robot law enforcement, a showdown between a goliath cop-bot reject and its smaller rival, a discussion of what it means to be human.
South African director Neill Blomkamp's influences - James Cameron, Ridley Scott and especially Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" - have been prevalent in his major works so far. His 2009 feature debut "District 9" was both thoughtful and entertaining. But since then, it's been diminishing returns: 2013's mildly underwhelming "Elysium" and now "Chappie," an unfunny stumble revisiting the core idea of one of his early short films.
The strangest thing about "Chappie" is Blomkamp's obsession with South African pop-music duo Die Antwoord, whose members, Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser, essentially play themselves, fill significant portions of screen time and influence the film's tone. Their real-life musical and fashion aesthetic is dubbed "zef," described as "poor, but fancy"; it's garish and countercultural, coloring the gangland underground of the film's version of Johannesburg with hot-pink Uzis and the most severe haircuts since Mr. Spock. The intention is to embellish a familiar sci-fi story with wild characters, but, frankly, they're grating and obnoxious. One of the film's big comic arcs requires them to teach a childlike, artificially intelligent robot how to be "gangsta," and the result is a display of desperate and dopey cliches.
FILM REVIEW
'Chappie'
2 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: R for violence, language and brief nudity
Cast: Sharlto Copley, Ninja, Dev Patel, Yo-Landi Visser
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Run time: 120 minutes
Ninja and Yo-landi dub the robot Chappie, and teach it to call them Daddy and Mommy. They acquire and take possession of him via a dumb lapse in storytelling logic. Chappie's creator is Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), a generic, milquetoast computer whiz who developed the nimble, mostly bulletproof "Scout" robots for a weapons manufacturer, which sells them to the police dept. Staring at his bank of monitors one night, he has a eureka moment, and births the world's first artificially intelligent computer mind, which he installs in a damaged Scout unit, stolen under the nose of his disapproving boss (Sigourney Weaver).
The gangsters kidnap Deon, hoping he can shut off the robot police force and render them free to loot and pillage with impunity. Deon lets Ninja and Yo-landi take Chappie without much of a fight, and before we know it, they've covered him with spray-painted tattoos, adorned him with gold chains and given him lessons in whipping nunchaku and flinging throwing stars. Blomkamp's most trusted collaborator, actor Sharlto Copley, plays Chappie in voice and via motion-capture, and the CG visual effects are as convincing as anything we're likely to see on the big screen. But the execution of the character is idiotic, Blomkamp trying to wring laughs out of a robot that spews pidgin-gangster jargon and swaggers while clutching its groin. Chappie's shtick grows tiresome, and occasionally evokes that immortal "Star Wars" miscalculation, Jar-Jar Binks, a comparison I don't wield lightly.
The loose, sloppy narrative includes a slow-smoldering villain, Vincent Moore, Deon's co-worker and rival, played by a minimally engaged Hugh Jackman. His massive robot, operated by mind-control helmet and armed with missiles, sits dormant, and he seethes as Deon's automatons reap all the glories of serving the public trust, upholding the law, etc. Will there be an explosive and violent conclusion to this arc? Will it tie in Ninja and Yo-landi's rival thugs? Will it overshadow any discussion about the implications of artificial intelligence, or any other ideas that might otherwise spark to life in such a story? Do gangster-robots wish they had teeth so they can adorn them with gold caps?
John Serba is film critic and entertainment reporter for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jserba@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.