A messy but often entertaining sci-fi crime fable with striking robot design, big emotions, and a strong central performance. It’s worth it if you’re open to tonal chaos and blunt social satire; less so if you want disciplined plotting or subtle worldbuilding.
18% ★☆☆☆☆ (518,117)
Chappie
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Crime · Action · R
2015 · 2h 0m · ★ 18% (518.1K)
I am consciousness. I am alive. I am Chappie.
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman
Overview
Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings—some good, some bad—and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there's one thing that makes Chappie different from any one else: he is a robot.
Director
Neill Blomkamp
Production
Columbia Pictures, MRC, LStar Capital, Genre Films, Sony Pictures Releasing
Cast
Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Shields, Anderson Cooper, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Brandon Auret, Johnny Selema, Maurice Carpede, Jason Cope, Kevin Otto, Bill Marchant, Robert Hobbs, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, Mark K. Xulu, Sherldon Marema, Shaheed Hajee
Curator Review
Verdict
A messy but often entertaining sci-fi crime fable with striking robot design, big emotions, and a strong central performance. It’s worth it if you’re open to tonal chaos and blunt social satire; less so if you want disciplined plotting or subtle worldbuilding.
Best for
fans of high-concept sci-fi with a heartfelt robot character
viewers who like rough-edged action movies with visual ambition
people interested in machine consciousness and found-family stories
audiences who enjoy Blomkamp’s industrial, lived-in future aesthetics
Skip if
you need tight, coherent plotting
you dislike abrasive tonal shifts and broad comic characters
you want nuanced social commentary rather than heavy-handed ideas
you’re turned off by extreme violence and juvenile humor
Overview
Chappie is the kind of movie that swings for the fences and keeps missing the sweet spot, but it rarely stops being interesting. It has a vivid visual identity, a tactile sense of machinery and decay, and a robot protagonist who is genuinely easy to care about. When it works, it’s surprisingly tender; when it doesn’t, it can feel like three different movies fighting for control of the same frame.
Worth noting
Neill Blomkamp’s strengths are still on display here: grimy futurism, physical effects that make technology feel heavy and dangerous, and a fascination with bodies under pressure. The film’s emotional core is simpler than its premise suggests, and the script often states its themes too loudly, but there’s real craft in the design and staging. Sharlto Copley’s performance gives Chappie an awkward, vulnerable personality that helps hold the whole thing together.
Bottom line
The biggest problem is that the movie’s satire, action, and sentiment never fully harmonize. It wants to be a crime thriller, a coming-of-age story, and a meditation on consciousness all at once, and the result is uneven. Still, for viewers who appreciate ambitious science fiction with personality, Chappie has enough heart, invention, and visual punch to justify the ride.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Evan (4★) · 1127 likes
The critics are absolutely wrong about Chappie. In all seriousness, I am baffled that this film is getting blasted by the critics. Chappie is actually a pretty deep movie. It explores several themes and ideas and does a very good job at doing so. Especially since the run time is just under 2 hours. The movie also has got some genuine heart behind it. As a character, I really liked Chappie and I truly cared what happened to him. His… more
davidehrlich (2.5★) · 357 likes
it's hard to explain, but this kinda feels like someone was given class="h-100"00 million to make a live-action Poochie movie?
Todd Gaines (3★) · 317 likes
It's Short Circuit with a dose of RoboCop, a hint of I, Robot, and a spoonful of A.I., in Neill Blomkamp's third film that's heavy on the mullets, and ultralight on plot, and human character development. Once again another Mr. Blomkamp movie features cool looking robots, and a strong performance from Sharlto Copley as the voice and heart of Chappie. What's new? Mr. Blomkamp makes nice looking movies, and Mr. Copley is Mr. Blomkamp's muse. Plus, the camera doesn't shake
Josh Lewis (1★) · 305 likes
CONSCIOUSNESS.DAT Posits itself as Blomkamp's Robocop but has virtually nothing to say about crime, police militarization or artificial intelligence and instead mostly functions as an ultra-violent, South African E.T. or Iron Giant, which is so blatantly moronic and ill-conceived I'm almost inclined to give it credit for some of the all-timer comedy like Patel yelling at Chappie to nurture his creativity while he decides between painting & committing gangster crimes with Die Antwoord or the scene where Jackman (in his psychopathic… more
2017 · Science Fiction, Drama · 2h 44m · R · ★ 87% (2.8M)
For a more contemplative, visually rich meditation on artificial life and manufactured identity.
Themes
artificial intelligence, robot consciousness, coming-of-age, crime and gang culture, parenting and mentorship, police militarization, class inequality, body horror