Plot
"n the near future, crime is patrolled by an oppressive mechanized police force. When one police droid, Chappie, is stolen and given new programming, he becomes the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself".
My Thoughts
I will be the first to say that this film was not high on my watch list, even though I was a fan Niell Blopkamp's of "District 9" and an even bigger fan of "Elysium" i wasn't to excited to see "Chappie" once I saw the trailer I was a little more intrigued to see the film but still not overly excited, eventually I decided to watch the film. Now after seeing the film I am very glad that I took the chance and saw this film, this was a very good film, one of the better films I have seen in the last few years, what really got me with this film was the emotional undertones especially involving "Chappie", it was really mind blowing to see this robot grow up before the viewers eyes, like a child over the course of the film "Chappie" Matures and things and learns a lot of lessons along the way it was a sight to behold on how much interactions with Humans with both good and bad intentions shaped "Chappie" throughout the film, I will say Sharlito Copley did a solid job voicing "Chappie" is accent did start to annoy me after a bit but the film was based in South Africa and it fit in with everyone else voices very well just combining a robot voice with a south African dialect was a little harsh at some points. the rest of the cast did a very good job Hugh Jackman was very good in his role as Vincent Moore the rival to Dev Patel's character Deon Wilson, I honestly didn't really like Dev Patel's Character he just wasn't all that interesting and I found him to be very wooden in his acting overall (not much emotion). The stand out for me in terms of the cast was Yo-Landi Visser who played the role of "Yolandi" she played the sort of "Mommy" role to "Chappie" and she was excellent, I had never heard of her before and did some research and this was her firs acting role (other than some documentaries) I was really impressed with her overall ,she showed a great deal of emotion in the film and by the end of the film she was probably my favorite character, the only problem I had was it was sometimes hard to understand what she was saying as she had a very heavy South African accent but for the most part I could understand what she was saying. The special effects in the film were also very good especially with the Robots they looked very lifelike and blended in perfectly with the real life backdrop, I was very impressed with how good the special effects in this film where.The common theme that "Chappie" "Elysium" and "District 9" all seems to have is that they are set in South Africa but its a desolate type of South Africa, one where violence is rampant, people are struggling to survive day to day and humanity is on the brink, from some of the reviews I have read on all three of these films, critics seem to dislike this same undertone in all of the films as they feel, it makes it to easy for the director to just keep recycling this same backdrop and just change the story they want something fresh, I do not mind this vision of South Africa and as long as it works keep running with it, Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a 29% saying "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". I disagree with this, the story for me didn't have many shortcomings and was fairly entertaining and interesting, Overall this was a very good film and I am glad that I took the chance to watch this and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of "District 9" or "Elysium".
Rating
Very Good Film, while not perfect was very entertaining 8.3/10!!!!
The next film to review is "Run All Night" Starring Liam Neeson, Ed Harris and Joel Kinnanman.
Plot
"Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son".
My Thoughts
By now most people who read my reviews know that I am fan of Liam Neeson, especially some of his more recent roles (Taken 1-3, Unknown, Non-Stop, The Grey) when I saw the trailer for this movie I knew I would see this movie, Liam Neeson is brilliant in these roles and knows how to play them perfectly. After seeing the film, my honest reaction to the entire film was "Average" what I mean by that is the film was a decent movie, the acting was solid overall (no standouts Liam Neeson did what I expected of him in this role). there was a decent amount of action to keep the viewer interested, but even after all of that I still felt that the movie was just "Average" nothing special happened, nothing bad happened either but the movie just kind of wen through the motions. there was nothing that happened in the film that really shocked me or had me say to myself "that was an awesome scene" it was just a collection of cliches so to speak, everything that happened in the film I kind of saw coming once the film played out fully. I want to ad the film was not terrible by any stretch it had its moments and overall was a solid action film, that I would recommend to someone who wanted to see a film but had no idea what to watch and they wanted a suggestion for a action film to see. And I would also add Liam Neeson has still got it, he is so good at these movies that I honestly do not want to see him play any other roles during his acting career, and judging by his most recent films he feels the same way, he kept the film interesting for me if any other actor had to play this role in the exact way that it played out this would have been a terrible film in my opinion, he just knows how to play these characters and play them well.Rotten Tomatoes Gave the film a 60& saying " Liam Neeson is in typically fine form, but Run All Night suffers from a convoluted plot and workmanlike execution". I overall agree the plot for this film can be confusing and downright boring at times even rotten tomatoes had to acknowledge how good Liam Neeson was in this film and I also agree with that. Overall if you are afan Of Liam Neeson or want to see a decent but not great Action film I would see this.
Rating
7.0/10!!!! Decent Action Movie Liam Neeson doing what he does best!
