Chappie is the latest film to take on the ever-compelling idea of robotic consciousness. It basically lets the audience witness the rearing of a sentient machine, the movie depicting the influence of environment on a developing intelligence. And there are worthy ideas in here but they are all unfortunately wrapped up in a plot burdened by myriad contrivances. The film comes to disregard basic logic as it tries to move the story forward.
Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) works for the Tetravaal Corporation. He invented a line of police robots that have been very successful in bringing down crime in Johannesburg. But Deon's real dream is to develop fully autonomous artificial intelligence, and one night, he actually succeeds. In order to test the AI, he sneaks out a damaged robot from Tetravaal. On the way home, however, a gang of criminals ambush Deon and take him to their hideout. They're demanding a means of shutting down the police robots. When that turns out to be impossible, they force Deon to rebuild the damaged robot and install the AI.
That robot, who they name Chappie, comes into consciousness with the mind of a child. The film then becomes about the rearing of Chappie. The criminals want to turn him into a gangster, so that he can help them pull off a heist. Deon is more interested in nurturing Chappie's creativity and exploring the limits of his impressive intelligence. It's an interesting idea, but the movie is really clumsy in its execution. The plotting is awfully contrived. There's no reason, for example, for the criminals to let Deon stay alive or do anything with Chappie. And the entire story is predicated on a corporation that is founded on completely illogical development and security practices.
The film deserves some leeway in getting to its plot points, but there is a limit. There are too many moments in the film where characters abandon all logic for the sake of keeping the clunky story moving. The film could have simplified the story, keeping it closer to its intriguing core ideas. The best parts of this movie focus on its titular robot hero, who is trying to understand his place in this world at an accelerated rate, his personality becoming defined by the influence of the people around him.
To this end, the film gets a lot out of the performance of Sharlto Copley. The actor is obscured entirely by the visual effects, but the personality does come through. Chappie is not the easiest character with which to connect, but Copley ably conveys the childlike curiosity and enthusiasm that defines the character. Dev Patel is all right in the lead role, though the clunkiest bits of dialogue are reserved for him. Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman are saddled with characters that cartoonishly display their one-note personalities.
Chappie ought to be thought provoking. It is, after all, tackling a genuine existential problem that many think humanity will be dealing with in the next few decades. But the plotting is so bad that one never gets to the point of actually thinking about the story's deeper issues. The questions that the film provokes in the end are all about the illogical behavior of all the characters. Why is he doing this? Why are they letting him get away with all that? Why is the security in this company so bad? Why doesn’t he just go to the police? There are certainly all sorts of conversations to be had about the implications of sentient artificial intelligence, but this movie isn’t going to start those discussions.
My Rating:
