Chappie

Chappie marks Neil Blomkamp's return to a pseudo-documentary style likes his awesome debut: District 9.

Touching on much of the same themes as that movie (what it is be human, racial segregation and the South African class divide) and sticking with the 'realistic science fiction' approach, Chappie is set ten years from now where a robotic police force (think iRobot) patrol the streets.

Crime is at an all time low but Blomkamp does well not to paint this as a happy place, if anything it seems worse than today; the streets are empty and poverty is rife.

Dev Patel's Deon is the creator of the robots and has been secretly working on an AI program that he hopes will make them truly alive.

Of course, at this point the titular character comes into play and Chappie is a wonderful creation, at once sympathetic but with obvious potential for threat he's sort of like a more developed C3-PO, annoying at times but intrinsically lovable: you certainly feel more for him than any human character in the movie.

It's at his creation that the film should kick off but it actually rolls downhill from here. Rather than any philosophical debate and Chappie appearing in the public eye, he is instead adopted by two gangsters (electro group Die Antwoord who don't massively convince but are passable enough, although their music really does suit the film) who are using his naivety to steal money for the gangster overlord of Johannesburg.

It just doesn't really stick; the gang life isn't explored enough and despite the humorous scenes when Chappie is learning it speeds along a little too quickly, we are told that he has five days worth of battery life and the relationship development is just too quick for that time frame.

Sigourney Weaver features but is vastly underused and although Hugh Jackman does his best with the script it's never really clear why he would threaten the lives of everyone in the city just to have a little play in his 'big death 'bot' The Moose.

Blomkamp's allegorical ending will also put a lot of people off: yes, it's a very obvious point, almost exactly parallel to District 9 about how we treat the idea of consciousness and humanity but, unlike his earlier film, it's a little too ludicrous.

It's a good film with a good premise, good themes and a great lead character but it's not quite all it should be.

3 stars ***