Chappie 2015

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a well-meaning film with a good idea that unfortunately stumbles on its way to its less-than-satisfying end. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: I haven't been as happy to see a movie end since the third "Transformers." Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A robot-themed action movie that winds up feeling as clunky and confused as the childlike droid with which it shares its name. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Like Elysium, this rusty A.I. story is basically just District 9 with a new coat of paint; it's distinguished only by the jabbering, irritating personality of its title character. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Developments become increasingly implausible, even for the world Blomkamp has created. Jackman grows increasingly cartoonish, Weaver is wasted and Patel just sort of exists ... Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: There are some plot-twisting musings on mortality and the soul that are thoughtful, sure. But they aren't thought through half as fully as Blomkamp's ultraviolent battle choreography. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: The special effects are incredible (especially given the relatively small budget), but the flat digital cinematography renders even the most technically impressive action sequence visually stale. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A misjudgment from metallic head to titanium toe. Read more

Christy Lemire, ChristyLemire.com: While the visual effects are spectacularly seamless, they're in the service of a movie which devolves from vaguely funny to just-plain silly to numbingly gory. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: "Chappie" is all over the place, employing a cloying, "Patch Adams"-like sentimentality and abandoning logic at every turn. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Never mind that Weaver and Jackman are totally wasted or the laughable lapses in logic, or that it lacks the social resonance of District 9. It's a fun little ride, for at least part of the way. Read more

Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly: Chappie himself is lovingly and realistically rendered, though his personality shifts so often and so fast that it's hard to know how we should feel about him. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: After the surprise and promise of District 9, this represents a further downward step for director Neill Blomkamp in the wake of the highly uneven Elysium. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "Chappie" is a movie about the evolution of artificial intelligence that's as dumb as a post. It also marks the continuing devolution of the work of director and co-writer Neill Blomkamp. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: There's something fearlessly uncool about the film, which suffers mostly from being made 30 years too late. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: A loud and unpleasant "RoboCop" rehash that gives us no one to root for and nothing to think about. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The principal charm of the film arises from Chappie's ears, which prick up and droop like those of a titanium rabbit. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There are some nice special-effects here, and great production design, but Blomkamp forgot to give us any characters to latch onto. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: Its oddly jumbled machinery never clicks. The logic of Chappie gradually disintegrates, becoming increasingly farcical. Read more

Chris Klimek, NPR: Chappie, the robot, gets smart. Chappie, the movie, stays very, very dumb. Read more

Graham Fuller, New York Daily News: "Chappie" is as subtle as a sledgehammer. The latest sci-fi action spectacle from "District 9" and "Elysium" director Neill Blomkamp is also sprawling, bombastic, deafening, ugly and ultra-violent. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Even at his shakiest, Mr. Blomkamp holds your attention with stories about characters banding together to emerge from a hell not of their own making, a liberation journey that just isn't the same old, same old when a director was born in South Africa. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Low on meaning, but full of high-velocity chases, helicopter pursuits, and weapons blasting around empty warehouses marred by graffiti and trash. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's material in Chappie for a worthwhile motion picture but too little is explored by Blomkamp to make this worth a trip to a theater. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Sadly, Blomkamp's ideas feel depleted this time, dulled by repetition and other cinematic droids that stretch from HAL 9000 to Ultron. Instead of awe, we get E.T.-aww. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's cluttered, goofy and incoherent from beginning to end, and much too long. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: A giant step backward for this once promising filmmaker, a big, dumb blockbuster that's indistinguishable from so many others that roll off the Hollywood assembly line. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: That you can't quite say exactly what "Chappie" means, but you know and feel that it means something, tells you that it's operating on a level beyond consciousness. It's what makes it a work of art. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Chappie" is sappy. There's a better rhyme but it's not a word used in family newspapers. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: One of those incongruous Franken-films that's simultaneously bombastically brutal and treacly. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Sci-fi filmmaker Neill Blomkamp bolts together used and stolen parts for his robot movie Chappie, and the lamentable result is far from riveting. Read more

James Rocchi, TheWrap: You'll be told repeatedly in whispers and shouts, that Chappie has feelings. It's too bad that neither the philosophy nor the pyrotechnics on-screen in "Chappie" can distract you from your own sinking feeling that you've seen almost all of this before. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: With its stunning urban landscapes, trash-talking titanium hero and mulleted, God-bothering bad guy (Hugh Jackman, never better), this is hugely entertaining. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: The little-robot-who-could is a combination of Sharlto Copley's performance capture work and visual effects artistry, and the end result is remarkable.That may well be enough for Blomkamp fans, but anyone else can expect to be disappointed by Chappie. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The concept is undeniably compelling, but portions of this dystopian action thriller begin to feel like a video game. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Chappie is a clunky mix: a sentimental comedy-thriller with hideous violence and a profound cynicism about the inexorability of the computer-enhanced surveillance state. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Like Chappie, the movie seems human, but has a cold metal heart. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Sustains a lively tension between A.I.-smart and comic-book-outlandish until the outlandishness turns to frenzy, the action grows familiar and you yearn for a robot break. Read more