CHAPPiE

CHAPPiE
Rated R (violence, language, philosophical content)
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Written by: Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
*** out of ****

First off, you need to click here:  Die Antwoord

Tetravaal Robotics has the WORST security. They make police robots, and they have, just, AWFUL security.

This is another flick that I was going to see regardless. I really liked "District 9", and, while I admired the ambition of "Elysium", it suffered from trying to cram too many ideas into the film. Neill Blomkamp's artistic sensibilities really appeal to me. I love urban decay. I like my future urban and dirty.

"CHAPPiE" is a much stronger film than "Elysium", at least up until the end. It didn't go off the rails, but... Know what? I'm glad that the movie ended the way it did. Was it stupid? Yup. Do I care? Not one bit.

Johannesburg in the near future is a crime-ridden cesspool. The police are testing Scouts - bipedal autonomous robots made by Tetravaal Robotics. They're faster, tougher and stronger than humans, which is brilliant for dealing with gangs that have access to heavy artillery. Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) is the lead Scout engineer, but, really, he wants to develop a true AI. One that would, for all intents and purposes, think, reason, and feel.

Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) is the lead engineer on the Moose project - the ED-209 to the Scout RoboCop (and don't think that that design was accidental. Blomkamp knows he's treading on previously explored territory and doesn't avoid that particular elephant in the room.). Scouts are autonomous, while the Moose requires a human controller using a helmet that reads brain waves. It's a drone, but, that's a big selling point. A human would be doing threat-assessment. A human would be making the call to shoot or not.

Ninja (Ninja), Yolandi (Yo-Landi Vi$$er) and Amerika (Jose Pablo Cantillo) are some low-level thugs that wind up $20 million in hock to Hippo (Brandon Auret), and decide that they need to kidnap Deon, since, as Yolandi suggests, he would have the remote control that turns the robots off like a TV. They force Deon to upload his untested AI into a damaged Scout unit, and, holy cow, now the worst people possible are in charge of what is, essentially, a toddler. That is WAY stronger than a human. They call him CHAPPIE (Sharlto Copley).

Now, obviously, the comparison to "Short Circuit" is inevitable. It is, however, wrong. Nor is the correct comparison to "Pinnochio" or, well, "A.I." While I was watching it, I was thinking "Rain Man" and "Flowers for Algernon", and it was enraging. Like when you see a child, and the child has awful parents, and your heart just breaks, hoping that maybe, just maybe, that kid can break out and become a good person, but, you just know that it's not going to happen, and the cycle of violence and desperation will keep going on for at least another generation. It hurts to see people take advantage of dependents that don't know better because they haven't seen better, or because they are working with a diminished capacity. That's where "CHAPPiE" shines. Or rather, darkles.

Of course, there are other themes that are presented, but not really explored. That doesn't really bother me here, since they didn't need to be explored in depth. Deon is a skinny Indian nerd, while Vincent is a hulking white ex-soldier with a proto-mullet. Is that an allegory? If it is, is it what an American is going to think, or is it what a South African is going to think?


Like "Pacific Rim", this is almost a live-action anime. CHAPPiE's design is a throwback to "Appleseed" or, what I initially thought, a Varitech fighter from "Robotech". Moose is drawn from the Metal Gear video game series. While Hippo's design wouldn't be out of place in "Cowboy Bebop" or "Fist of the North Star", I thought that Ninja and Yolandi were CLEARLY supposed to be anime characters in real life.  Nope. That's just how they look. In real life.

I really like the current trend of big budget, high profile sci-fi cinema, and, I certainly hope that the quality remains high. (It won't.)

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service
Rated R (Holy crap violence you guys)
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Written by: Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn (screenplay) and Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (Comic, "The Secret Service")
**1/2 out of ****

Competency porn, when it's done well, is amazing to behold. Seeing someone who is so damned good at their job... Unf. Macguyver. Sherlock Holmes. Gregory House. Tywin Lannister (an evil bastard, but damned good at running a kingdom). James Bond. This movie strives for it, so hard, but, just misses the mark, and I think the problem is that it was trying to do too many things at once.

The Kingsman Organization is, basically, Batman organized along the lines of the Special Operations Executive (The Baker Street Irregulars) -- a private group dedicated to keeping the world safe through extra-legal means. They're not mercs, since they aren't for hire. And, above all, they are Gentlemen.

When an opening appears within the group, Harry "Galahad" Hunt (Colin Firth) recruits a kid who, in America, would be considered white trash. Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) is the son of one of Galahad's prior recruits. A diamond in the rough. Eggsy isn't familiar with "Trading Places" or "Pretty Woman", but does know "My Fair Lady".  The Big Bad in this flick is Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson playing Russell Simmons as a tech genius).

The movie has some really impressive fight sequences (which, I guess, would be technique porn). Like Zack Snyder, Vaughn knows how to frame even frenetic sequences so you don't get lost in what is happening. Eddie Hamilton and Jon Harris really need to be congratulated on their editing work here. Either they made a massacre look nearly seamless, or Vaughn and his choreographers and cinematographer did something AMAZING.

The movie is CRAZY violent, but, for some reason, it never hit a gleefully fevered pitch. I never got swept up into a giggle fit because of something amazing that just happened. The flick isn't grimdark, but, it's never especially joyful, which is a shame.

From a tech standpoint, yes, the movie is stellar. But, it felt cramped.

It would have been better served, I think, as a miniseries. The world that Millar and Gibbons created and Goldman and Vaughn adapted is simply too rich to be crammed into a 2-hour movie. The only things that were allowed to breathe, really, were the bits with Colin Firth. Checkov brought a lot of guns into the picture, but, sadly, they were only starter pistols. If you're using climate change as a plot device, make more of it. If class strife in a deeply traditional organization is important to character development, by golly, let us see more than just snooty douchebaggery. If times, they are a-changing, make clever design choices in things beyond costumes. And when you have Michael Caine in a movie, use him more.