When “Chappie” arrived in cinemas two years ago, it was yet another bold, wholly original vision from the endlessly creative Neill Blomkamp, and for whatever reason, critics and audiences just couldn’t wrap their minds around it. Reviews were mostly negative, and the box office performance was poor ($102 million worldwide, most of that overseas; the film only did $31 million domestic). It’s a shame because “Chappie” is loads of fun, surprisingly moving, and features one of the most bonkers scores of Hans Zimmer‘s career (he’s never really made anything quite like it). The film is due for a reassessment and it might start with Blomkamp getting candid about his work on the “Chappie,” which he firmly stands by.
Den Of Geek sat down with the director for a fascinating talk about “Chappie,” and the filmmaker doesn’t mince words about the reaction his last feature film received.
” ‘Chappie’ was unbelievably painful for me. That was difficult on several levels. But the thing with ‘Chappie’ was, it felt like it was extremely close to the film I had in my head. Up until the film came out, I felt like I had given my all, and that I’d tried my hardest to make the film I had in my head, and I felt like I achieved that…,” he said. “[The negative reviews] put me in a very strange place for a while. I think that I completely came out of it making the right choice, which is that I’m just going to do stuff that I love. And that could actually lead to me living in the gutter. I mean it could literally lead to complete and utter collapse. But I would rather live in a dumpster, I think, being creatively honest and true to myself than not. So I think overall the result of ‘Chappie’ crystallized or congealed ideas in my head in a good way.”
“But I’m still upset the fact that it didn’t work. I wish that it did, but it just didn’t, and I still love it. I don’t know what else to say, but the audience didn’t get what I was going for. It didn’t work,” Blomkamp added.
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Indeed, the director believes that “Chappie” was misunderstood, and makes an interesting distinction about what is the film is about…and what it’s not about.
“For whatever reason, there were many elements that critics in general didn’t pick up on them. One of them is that it’s an artificial intelligence film, and it isn’t. It’s not about AI. ‘Ex Machina‘ about AI. ‘Chappie’ not about artificial intelligence — it’s meant to be asking questions about what it means to be sentient,” he explained. “That doesn’t mean AI, that means sentient at all. If you are sentient, if you are conscious, first of all, what does that mean? Because you’re watching the birth of consciousness with ‘Chappie.’ And the idea of experience is a huge, huge part of it. I chose AI because it was an easier way to say, ‘If, say, is something else is sentient or conscious, is it any more or less important than a human consciousness or sentience?’ ”
Perhaps part of the reason Blomkamp was unable to get his film across was the tone, which mixed action, comedy, sci-fi, and the antics of Die Antwoord, who brought their own energy to the proceedings. But he says that blend was entirely intentional. Nonetheless, the flop of the film hurt his standing in Hollywood.
“We could go on for hours about ‘Chappie’ and where it sits. But it definitely hurt several parts of my career, I think. Those are all secondary to just the repositioning myself as an artist and just thinking about that. I mean, ‘Elysium,’ I didn’t feel that way. I feel like ‘Elysium’ wasn’t actually that good. That’s the difference. I feel like I got it right with ‘Chappie,’ and then when the audience turns on you, that puts you in a different place,” Blomkamp stated.
For now, the director is focusing his energies on Oats Studio, his own production house where he’ll continue to pursue his own ideas and projects. But until his next film arrives, perhaps it’s a good time to give “Chappie” another shot.