I’m not sure what happened to nearly everyone else on the Internet when they went to see Chappie this past week but whatever it was, it didn’t happen to me. I really liked this. I kept wondering why critiques and review boards were trashing it so much. What movie were they all seeing because it wasn’t what I saw.
Here’s what Chappie has going for it: Some of the best, most seamless CG I’ve seen this year, a brilliant motion-capture / vocal performance by Copley, some amazingly staged and executed action set pieces, Hugh Jackman as a bad guy with a mullet, some crazy-fun street thugs trying to be parents to a robot, and interesting take on a robot with emotions trying to figure out what is right and wrong in a confusing world.
Are there some plot holes? Sure, it’s a sci-fi action movie. But there aren’t nearly the number of issues that others seem to be trumpeting. I was a little disappointed that Sigourney Weaver didn’t have a bigger part but at least she was in it. Jackman maybe got a little overboard in his “bad guy, evil laugh” routine but that was fine. Beyond that… honestly I can’t think of anything else that might have been weak here. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. At least for me, I’d definitely recommend this.