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==Sequel==
==Sequel==
During an interview with [[IGN]] on March 7, 2015, Blomkamp said he "wrote [[''Chappie'']] as a trilogy. So, I haven't written the other two, but I wrote treatments for the other two, so I kind of think I know what happens with the next two, but… but I don't know if I want to say what happens." Regarding whether he would want to make them, he answered "I think so. Yeah, I think, I mean, I love the movie, like I feel really proud of the movie. I don't know what audiences will say, I don't know if it will be economically feasible to make more, but I think I would like to make more."<ref>http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/07/chappie-director-neill-blomkamp-on-his-robot-sci-fi-movie</ref>
During an interview with [[IGN]] on March 7, 2015, Blomkamp said he "wrote [''Chappie''] as a trilogy. So, I haven't written the other two, but I wrote treatments for the other two, so I kind of think I know what happens with the next two, but… but I don't know if I want to say what happens." Regarding whether he would want to make them, he answered "I think so. Yeah, I think, I mean, I love the movie, like I feel really proud of the movie. I don't know what audiences will say, I don't know if it will be economically feasible to make more, but I think I would like to make more."<ref>http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/07/chappie-director-neill-blomkamp-on-his-robot-sci-fi-movie</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 05:53, 10 March 2015

Chappie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNeill Blomkamp
Screenplay by
Produced bySimon Kinberg
Starring
CinematographyTrent Opaloch
Edited byJulian Clarke
Music byHans Zimmer
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • March 4, 2015 (2015-03-04) (New York premiere)
  • March 6, 2015 (2015-03-06) (United States)
Running time
120 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$49 million[2]
Box office$27 million[2]

Chappie (stylized as CHAPPiE) is an American science fiction film directed by Neill Blomkamp. The screenplay, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, is based on Blomkamp's 2004 short film Tetra Vaal.[3] The film stars Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman and Watkin Tudor Jones and Yolandi Visser of the South African hip-hop group Die Antwoord. The film premiered in New York City on March 4, 2015 and released in U.S cinemas on March 6, 2015.

Plot

In an effort to reduce the high crime rate in Johannesburg, the South African police force purchases armour-plated attack robots from weapons manufacturer Tetravaal, which prove successful in reducing crime. The robot's inventor Deon Wilson is praised for Tetravaal's success, while engineer Vincent Moore grows jealous after funding is cut for his own attack robot, MOOSE, which is derided for its reliance on a human operator. At home, Deon creates a prototype artificial intelligence that mimics a human mind to the point of feeling emotions and having opinions, but Tetravaal CEO Michelle Bradley denies him permission to test the A.I. on a police robot. Undeterred, Deon steals a recently damaged robot before it is destroyed and puts it in his van, along with the "guard key" needed to update the robot's software. On his way home, he is kidnapped by a group of gangsters, Ninja, Yolandi and Yankie, who threaten to kill him unless he reprograms a police robot to fight for them. Deon installs the new software into the damaged robot, which responds with child-like terror upon powering up. Deon and Yolandi calm the robot, teaching it words and naming it "Chappie". Despite Deon wanting to stay with the robot, Ninja forces him out of their hideout.

Ninja's gang only have a few days to pay a debt of 20 million rand to "Hippo", a powerful gangster. Yolandi wants to mother Chappie, but Ninja grows impatient with his development due to both the impending deadline for the debt and Chappie's irreplaceable battery running out, giving him days to live. Ninja tries to train Chappie to be a gangster by leaving him to fend for himself in a dangerous neighbourhood, where he is attacked by a group of thugs and later seized by Vincent, who has found out about Chappie after following Deon to the hideout. Vincent successfully extracts the guard key for his own use, but the traumatised Chappie soon escapes from him and returns to the hideout. Yolandi scolds Ninja for this mistreatment, but he soon manages to persuade Chappie to turn to crime by training him in martial arts and weapon handling. Ninja and Yankie trick Chappie into stealing cars for them, and lie to him about needing the money to replace his dying body.

At Tetravaal, Vincent uses the guard key to upload a virus into every police robot, including Chappie, which shuts them down. Johannesburg's criminals immediately start rioting in the streets, and Deon brings Chappie to the factory to restart him. After he is restarted, Chappie discovers a helmet which controls MOOSE, and re-engineers it to allow him to transfer his consciousness into a computer, so he can change bodies when his current one dies. Ninja's gang use Chappie to raid a police van and steal money, which is caught on the news, but Ninja later confesses that he was lying about there being a new body for Chappie. Enraged, Chappie prepares to kill Ninja, but Deon arrives to warn that Michelle Bradley has ordered for Chappie to be caught and destroyed. At that moment, The MOOSE robot (controlled remotely by Vincent) attacks the hideout and kills Yankie, while Hippo also arrives to collect his debt and fatally shoots Deon. After killing Hippo, Ninja offers to distract MOOSE while Chappie and Yolandi drive Deon to the Tetravaal factory. However, Yolandi gets out of the van and shoots MOOSE before it can kill Ninja. The robot opens fire on her, and Chappie destroys it by detonating a bomb.

Further enraged by Yolandi's death, Chappie drives Deon to the factory, storms into an office and fiercely beats Vincent close to death. He then transfers the dying Deon's conciousness into a spare robot through the modified MOOSE helmet. As Chappie's battery dies, the now robotic Deon wirelessly transfers Chappie's consciousness into one of the many deactivated police robots nearby. The robots go into hiding as the police remove every Tetravaal robot from their forces. The grieving Ninja finds a flash drive marked "Mommy's Consciousness Test Backup", which contains a copy of Yolandi's consciousness. Chappie hacks into Tetravaal's manufacturing facility and build a robot resembling Yolandi, and uploads the consciousness into it.

Cast

Production

Chappie is Blomkamp's third feature length film as director. He wrote the screenplay along with his wife Terri Tatchell, who also co-wrote District 9. Filming began at the end of October 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa.[7][8] Filming was completed in February 2014.[9] Re-shooting for the film took place in British Columbia, Canada in April 2014.[10]

The name of the weapons company in Chappie - "Tetravaal" - is a reference to Blomkamp's 2003 short film of the same name, which centers on a police robot in Johannesburg with a similar design to Chappie. Blomkamp has said that Chappie is "basically based" on Tetra Vaal.[11] Blomkamp also employed a robot with a similar design in his 2005 short Tempbot, and both Tempbot and his 2006 short/advertisement Yellow deal with a thinking and learning robot which tries to assimilate into society.

Release

On February 6, 2015, IMAX Corporation and Sony announced that the film would be digitally re-mastered into the IMAX format and released into IMAX theatres domestically on March 6, 2015.[12] The film made its New York premiere on March 4, 2015.[13] The film was released in the United States on March 6, 2015.[4]

Box office

As of March 8, 2015, Chappie has grossed $13.3 million in North America and $13.7 in other territories for a total gross of $27 million, against a budget of $49 million.[2]

The film earned $4,550,000 in it's opening day, a $5,270,000 second day and $3,480,000 in its third day totaling a $13.3 million in its opening weekend, while playing in 3,201 theaters, with a $4,155 per-theater average and finishing in first at the box office.[14]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 29% approval rating, based on 135 reviews, with a rating average of 4.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Chappie boasts more of the big ideas and visual panache that director Neill Blomkamp has become known for — and, sadly, more of the narrative shortcomings."[15] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 40 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[16]

Justin Chang of Variety wrote, "Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, is one of the major casualties of Chappie, a robot-themed action movie that winds up feeling as clunky and confused as the childlike droid with which it shares its name."[17] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "With unappealing one-note characters, retread concepts and implausible motivations, Chappie is a further downward step for director Neill Blomkamp."[18] Tim Grierson of Screen International wrote, "But despite his ambitions, Chappie is a bucket of bolts, Blomkamp's desire to say meaningful things outdistancing his ability to say them compellingly."[19] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that Blomkamp "struggles with the material" but "even at his shakiest, Mr. Blomkamp holds your attention".[20] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it "cartoonish and preposterous, and not in a good way".[21] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it three out of four stars and wrote of Blomkamp, "It's hard to say how much he's doing consciously and how much he's doing through intuition, but he's doing really interesting things in Chappie, and right from the beginning."[22] Tom Huddleston of Time Out London rated it four out of five stars and wrote that "this hugely entertaining oddity could never be mistaken for the work of any other filmmaker".[23] Ryan Lambie, from denofgeek.com, gave the film a positive review stating, "Despite the ragged edges of its story, Chappie nevertheless has real heart beating under its shabby exterior. If you liked the director's previous films, you owe it to yourself to see this one too."[24]

Sequel

During an interview with IGN on March 7, 2015, Blomkamp said he "wrote [Chappie] as a trilogy. So, I haven't written the other two, but I wrote treatments for the other two, so I kind of think I know what happens with the next two, but… but I don't know if I want to say what happens." Regarding whether he would want to make them, he answered "I think so. Yeah, I think, I mean, I love the movie, like I feel really proud of the movie. I don't know what audiences will say, I don't know if it will be economically feasible to make more, but I think I would like to make more."[25]

References

  1. ^ "CHAPPIE (15)". British Board of Film Classification. February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Chappie (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 7, 2015. Cite error: The named reference "BOM" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Clark, Noelene (November 4, 2014). "Trailer: 'Chappie' brings Neill Blomkamp's childlike robot to life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e Lee, Chris (November 4, 2014). "Watch the trailer for 'Chappie,' Neill Blomkamp's robot adventure". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  5. ^ "Sigourney Weaver Joins Neill Blomkamp's 'Chappie'". deadline.com. October 28, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  6. ^ "Hugh Jackman Joins Neill Blomkamp's Sci-Fi 'Chappie'". deadline.com. September 29, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  7. ^ "Neill Blomkamp's Chappie Starts Filming, Adds Sigourney Weaver". comingsoon.net. October 28, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  8. ^ "Production Begins on Blomkamp's 'Chappie,' Adds Sigourney Weaver". firstshowing.net. October 28, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  9. ^ "DIE ANTWOORD - Timeline Photos - Facebook". facebook.com. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  10. ^ Film and TV Production List (PDF), Union of BC Performers, April 4, 2014
  11. ^ Exclusive: Neill Blomkamp on his next sci-fi film, Chappie, June 11, 2013
  12. ^ "Neill Blomkamp's Chappie is Coming to IMAX". comingsoon.net. February 6, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  13. ^ "She's still got it! Sigourney Weaver, 65, wows in a body-hugging jumpsuit with Hugh Jackman at Chappie premiere". Daily Mail. March 5, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  14. ^ "Chappie Daily Box office". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  15. ^ "Chappie". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  16. ^ "Chappie Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  17. ^ Chang, Justin (March 4, 2015). "Film Review: 'Chappie'". Variety. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  18. ^ McCarthy, Todd (March 4, 2015). "'Chappie': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  19. ^ Grierson, Tim (March 4, 2015). "Chappie". Screen International. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  20. ^ Dargis, Manohla (March 5, 2015). "Review: 'Chappie': a Smart Robot in a Violent Future". The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  21. ^ Turan, Kenneth (March 5, 2015). "Review Oddly, the robot is the least robotic thing about 'Chappie'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  22. ^ LaSalle, Mick (March 5, 2015). "'Chappie' review: sci-fi action with a soul". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  23. ^ Huddleston, Tom (March 5, 2015). "Chappie". Time Out. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  24. ^ "Chappie review". Dan of Geek. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  25. ^ http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/07/chappie-director-neill-blomkamp-on-his-robot-sci-fi-movie
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