district 9 - cracker film - sci-fi with a realistic concept
large cockroach-like creatures 'prawns' arrive on earth
secured in a large ghetto-like enclosure in johannesburg
neill blomkamp director there and now here with his latest
very similar opening - tv news reports used for authenticity
the police force have been equipped with fully armed robots
scenes of them being used to fight crime without fear or favour
the news report cheerily reporting a big drop in the crime rate
good so far - alarming but surely a realistic view of a future time
then - well - a van pulls up outside an abandoned warehouse
met by what looks like a character from a mad max movie
some sort of gang leader complete with tats and bad attitude
ditto the 3 van occupants - punky, rough, tough wannabees
a drug deal has gone wrong - 'you got 7 days to get my money'
but then airborne police (and robots) arrive for the shoot-out
the gang escape and head back to their own warehouse digs
and further 'character development' of ninja, yolandi and amerika
ninja so impressed with the police robots he decides he needs one
that will help with the heist he has in mind to procure the money
not impressed - the acting is bad and the plot seems even worse
the action relocates to the headquarters of robot-makers transvaal
sigourney weaver is the md announcing 100 more robots ordered
dev patel (marigold hotel) is one of the robot's chief programmers
hugh jackman working on a now sidelined large robot called moose
some heavy-duty actors in the mix also so there's hope for it yet
deon (patel) also working in secret at home on a radical ai system
completes it and now needs a host - ah - robot 22 is to be junked
the battery fused to the body and only 7 days left - he takes it home
but on the way is seized by the gang of 3 and taken to their base
deon loads in the new program and robot 22 fires into life again
but a new system - he advises the baddies it will require training
so yolandi takes on the mother role and nicknames it 'chappie'
and it's all downhill from there - cute is aimed for - silly is hit
chappie learns words by rote and says 'mommy' and 'maker'
then becomes a bad punk-robot complete with gold chains
laugh-out-loud the only way to react to the stuff served up
back at hq seems vincent (jackman) has a big jealousy issue
sabotages the system driving all the robots so they all seize up
panic - michelle (weaver) permits deployment of the moose
vincent seen in command of the ultimate video game controller
impressive footage actually of his flying tank-like armed machine
me thinking - yep - not so unlikely - the u.s. military have them
it's carnage as moose shoots up deon, chappie and the gang
but then silliness returns - chappie's intelligence fully developed
his new system transferred by deon to a fully working robot
in return chappie uses his now fully developed intelligence
and transfers deon's human subconsciousness to a robot
and - they - live - happily - ever - after - shite - basically
hugh jackman - what were you thinking - big paycheck?
and the gang of 3 - die antwoord - a rap-rave group
big in south africa - so an appeal to their fanbase?
explaining the bad acting - but not the bad plot...
