Neill Blomkamp has a reputation for bringing out the souls in unlikely subjects. He had a hatchback up and dancing in his memorable Citroen advert, made us empathise with fokkin’ prawns in his 2009 masterpiece, District 9 and now it seems like he’s going for broke. Chappie is his latest offering, once again set in his home nation of South Africa. It stars Dev ‘fading credibility’ Patel as a young man who develops the titular self-aware robot (voiced by frequent collaborator Sharto Copley) and raises him as you would a child. Although not in the trailer, Sigourney Weaver is also in the cast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwichuGW28
Judging from the trailer, the film falls somewhere between the Short Circuit films and Bicentennial Man, but, y’know, good. The breathtakingly fluid CGI that Blomkamp’s films are famous for seems well implemented and the cutesy, uplifting parts seem to be neatly offset by explosions and Hugh Jackman. At $50 million, the film has a higher budget than District 9 did and the smaller scale suggests that the money hasn’t been spread too thinly. Blomkamp remains one of the most interesting directors currently working and it’ll be a treat to see him working with more comedic, heartwarming themes.
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
