Why? Why was I programmed to feel pain?!
I think Neill Blomkamp movies are great.
I like movies that have a lot going on plot-wise and action-wise and also anything with robots and set in the future.
This one is set in South Africa, like District 9.
Crime was crazy until they invented these awesome robotic police (sound familiar?) and they started cracking down on everything.
They are not sentient, but one engineer is looking to change that.
Well, he succeeds, sort of, and gives one of the robots (later named Chappie) feelings and reasoning and the ability to be independent and think for himself.
The only problem is that by doing this, the robot has to start from scratch (think small child) and learn everything about the world through interaction with others.
You apparently can’t program this stuff and it has to be taught.
It’ll Be Just Like Starting Over
Chappie’s growing up and learning process is very interesting as he does this mostly after being stolen by criminals (Die Antwoord) who decide to make him into a criminal like them.
Chappie is so innocent and inherently good so there are a lot of painful moments when he is exposed to the real world.
But he is also a powerful robot so once he figures out how the world works, the things that he does with his new powers are really unique.
Of course, not everyone is interested in having robots like Chappie around, namely Hugh Jackman’s character, who would rather they pull the plug on the robot cops and approve his giant flying tank of a robot, built to be able to blow up buildings and kill criminals with advanced weaponry.
So we have:
- the engineer who created Chappie
- the criminals who stole him
- Hugh Jackman trying to stop him
- and the rest of the world teaching him how cruel they can really be.
Add it all up and we have a really rich movie that I would be happy to see again.