Ninja cried at the end of Chappie. Many others didn’t even get that far into the movie.
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Released in the US a week ahead of its South African release, Chappie has left Americans dumbfounded. I went to see the movie in a New York cinema where people actually walked out while others stopped paying attention halfway through to discuss the weather.
Chappie is South African-born director Neill Blomkamp’s third Sony blockbuster, following the runaway success of District 9 and the less-successful Elysium. Six years after its US release, District 9 is still a hit in America. When I first moved to the US some three years ago, teenagers who never met a South African before were in complete awe that I was from the same country as Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley’s character in District 9) and (lovingly) referred to me as an effing prawn.
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It’s therefore no wonder that despite its confusing marketing in the US (selling it as both a Rococop and Kindergarten Cop reboot), Chappie still drew the most audiences of all new films that opened in the US last weekend. But it has been a quiet week in Hollywood making critics ask why the movie hasn’t performed better or at least why the studio didn’t use Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman to make a bigger marketing splash ahead of its release. Sure enough both actors hardly feature in the movie, but it does make you wonder if reports of Ninja’s bad behaviour on set made the co-stars less invested in the movie. Afterall Die Antwoord’s Ninja and Yolandi Visser dominate the movie.
Chappie is the story of a robot (Sharlto Copley) built by Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) who is raised by Die Antwoord and ends up fighting Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman). Vincent and Deon work at a robotics company called Tetravaal (shot at the weapon manufacturer Denel’s Johannesburg offices) run by Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver). I was hoping there’d be more to Weaver’s character but unfortunately all we see her do is sit at a desk barking demands.
Although Chappie does leave you asking questions about the future of artificial intelligence, it’s really mostly focused on Die Antwoord, and how much you enjoy the movie will depend on how much you like them. The movie apparently came about after a failed attempt by Blomkamp to cast Ninja in Elysium. In an interview with BoingBoing, Ninja said he told Blomkamp he’d rather star in a movie where he can play himself. Ninja uses the Afrikaans p-word throughout the movie and most graffiti is in Afrikaans, which should technically be seen as a triumph by Afrikaners but we know they most certainly won’t.
South Africans in general will however feel proud of this movie, despite its depiction of Jo’burg as a gritty, crime-ridden capital. Set in the near future, CNN’s Silver Fox Anderson Cooper introduces the viewer to a city where robots keep criminals at bay. Jozi’s Ponte Tower features prominently lending a dystopian feel to the movie as the camera pans down its apartment windows. “Does that building really exist?” someone asked me after the movie clearly amazed at this gigantic slum.
The visual-effects are world-class (obviously) and hands down the best part of the movie. Although the Johannesburg Blomkamp creates is less imaginative than that of District 9, his depiction of robots working alongside police (featuring Smile FM DJ Maurice Carpede as police chief) is fantastic.
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Clearly the movie was conceived at a time when Die Antwoord was at the height of its international acclaim. Some critics have asked whether this was done intentionally as a sort of South African inside joke, and after seeing the movie with a group of non-South Africans it certainly feels that way. While I was laughing at Copley’s accent, others thought the excessive dialogue between Chappie and Yolandi was a joke.
Considering how the movie ends (and rumours about a trilogy) this might not be the last we get to see of Ninja and Yolandi on the big screen.
