Chappie
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 6, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
20
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 5, 2015
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 full review
60
Total FilmMatt MaytumMar 5, 2015
Like its title character, Chappie is stunning to behold and easy to like, but it’s still some way from fully developed. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Mar 5, 2015
Blomkamp’s third movie has just about enough spectacle and quirk to overcome some fairly major flaws, not least of which is an unappealing central trio. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 5, 2015
Chappie is a broad, brash picture, which does not allow itself to get bogged down in arguing about whether or not “artificial intelligence” is possible. It has subversive energy and fun. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 5, 2015
It’s a brawny, inventive action romp that’s as happy firing rockets at helicopters as it is contemplating the Cartesian model of mind-body dualism, which gives it a satisfying, sweet-and-sour tang of its own. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossMar 11, 2015
Now, with Chappie, the director/co-writer returns home for an uneven showcase of impeccable visual effects and lackluster emotional affect. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 7, 2015
Criminally underwritten characters result in actors like Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) having little to do. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyKyle AndersonMar 6, 2015
When we’re first introduced, he’s an overwhelmed infant, and by the time the credits roll, he’s John McClane. Is that an accurate representation of how artificial intelligence can evolve? Absolutely. Does it make for compelling drama? Not particularly. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 6, 2015
Chappie has a nothing-to-lose Roger Cormanesque quality about it, low on budget (except for the CGI robots) and low on meaning, but full of high-velocity chases, helicopter pursuits, and weapons blasting around empty warehouses marred by graffiti and trash. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 5, 2015
A movie about a robot policeman given a childlike conscience, Chappie is one of those incongruous Franken-films that’s simultaneously bombastically brutal and treacly. Like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial crossed with Transformers, or RoboCop starring Jar Jar Binks, it’s a recipe guaranteed to produce aesthetic indigestion. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 5, 2015
The technology is seamless, the movements are eloquent and the problem may be my own misprogramming, but the robot still looked to me like a man in a robot suit. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyMar 5, 2015
Chappie feels like Blomkamp and his co-writer Terri Tatchell had three or four different films they wanted to make, and instead of figuring out which one actually worked, they just made them all at the same time. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 5, 2015
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 full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 5, 2015
Blomkamp regular Sharlto Copley is quite good — as Chappie, in a motion-capture performance. (He also provides the voice of the robot.) If this were somehow a commentary on man's increasing lack of humanity or something, that would be fine. Instead, it's just good work buried inside a movie made up of intriguing ideas that never really go anywhere. Read full review
50
IndieWireTravis ClarkMar 4, 2015
While it has a few appealing qualities, as a whole it amounts to a well-intentioned bag of missed opportunities. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 5, 2015
The movie's glaring problem is the design and execution of Chappie, whose look is unremarkable except for a pair of polymer rabbit ears ready for meme posterity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsGraham FullerMar 5, 2015
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 full review
40
The DissolveTasha RobinsonMar 5, 2015
It never winds up with anything particularly interesting or effective to say about life, intelligence, religion, the nature of consciousness, or any of the other big themes it deliberately evokes. It does, however, blow up a lot of stuff. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 4, 2015
Chappie is a bucket of bolts, Blomkamp’s desire to say meaningful things outdistancing his ability to say them compellingly. Read full review
40
TheWrapJames RocchiMar 4, 2015
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 full review
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