Did you make the trek to your local movie theater to see Chappie?
Chappie, an experimental robot built and designed to learn and feel, must fight back against forces planning to take him down.
Use the comment section below and share your thoughts about Neill Blomkamp’s latest flick. Is this his best work? His worst? Will you see other Blomkamp movies in the future based on what you saw in Chappie.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
3 Comments
I thought it was a good follow up to “District 9”. It’s an interesting near future story.
I think Chappie is a step up from Elysium and closer to the quality of District 9. I actually liked quite a bit about Chappie: the police robots are designed in such a way to make them super expressive when needed and the main characters are all pretty interesting and flawed. My biggest complaint is the last fifteen minutes. Unlike District 9, which had a very satisfying, sad, and open ending, Chappie’s ending seems very unlikely and a little too convenient. I felt the ending would have been stronger if only Chappie had been able to be transferred OR if only Deon lived and Chappie’s “consciousness” got destroyed. To have Chappie, Deon, and Yolandi all get transferred into robot bodies was a little far fetched and “happy” for my taste. I especially hated Yolandi’s Robot, for it to have a human face seems to take this film in a random direction at the last moment. Overall it was an enjoyable watch and I will be seeing other movies Neil Blomkamp puts out.
Orange? Chappie becoming more like God/His creator? Hadn’t really considered an analysis of color.
I have a fairly involved read on the film that involves a lot of Christian symbolism.
Deon = dio/dios = God
Chappie = Christ figure, death/rebirth, dies for the sins of men.
Yolandi = Mary the Mother who serves as Chappie’s ‘virgin’ mother and comforter
Ninja = a Joseph figure raising the ‘son of God’ in his very human way.
My read is that Deon ‘dies’ and is reborn in the form of his own ‘son’ paralleling the Christian notion of sending Jesus to earth in the form of a man. (here a robot)
Chappie dies and is resurrected in parallel to the story of Christ.
Yolandi dies and her ‘Holy Spirit’ is retained and allows the Father (Deon), and the Son (Chappie) to resurrect her and complete the Holy Trinity of the new AI/robot race.
Deon is killed by Vincent, a name with Roman origins that means ‘conqueror’. He serves as a surrogate to Rome and Pontius Pilate in this passion play, allowing the physical man to die and be resurrected in the image of his own creation, while also allowing Chappie to now literally exist in God’s image.
I really liked the end, with God/Jesus giving the ‘Holy Spirit’ to the Yolandi bot and resurrecting the dead in the form of a new race of AIs with Chappie as their messiah. I really liked his arc from baby, to child to angry teen, with the final implication being his rebirth as an adult on the path to true wisdom.
Was it a perfect movie? Not, really but I loved it anyway.