In hindsight, Elysium may have failed to emulate the groundbreaking success of Neill Blomkamp’s breakout hit District 9, given that the 2013 sci-fi actioner succumbed to poorly drawn characters and an arc that proved to be too predictable to be considered memorable. Fast forward to the present day and the South African director is back behind the camera for another futuristic genre piece in Chappie, which recently debuted a pair of TV spots in tandem with last night’s return of The Walking Dead.
Orbiting around the titular robot, this latest batch of promo footage does a solid job of establishing the quirky, offbeat nature of Chappie himself, with one scene in particular alluding to his personal affiliation with He-Man, his childhood hero. Don’t let the mechanical exoskeleton fool you, Blomkamp’s latest creation is innately human thanks to his creator, Dev Patel’s budding scientist, who stumbles upon the “next step in evolution, when the AI powers online.”
Also, the fact that Chappie will be voiced and motion captured by Sharlto Copley, Blomkamp’s dependable partner-in-robotic-crime, also grants the film that extra air of credibility, given the pair’s well-regarded working relationship. Copley and Patel will be joined by Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman.
Chappie will boot online in time for March 6, with the studio also prepping plans to release Blomkamp’s latest film in IMAX theaters.
Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings – some good, some bad – and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there’s one thing that makes Chappie different from anyone else: he is a robot. The first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. His life, his story, will change the way the world looks at robots and humans forever.