Film Preview: Chappie (2015)

Poster

Poster #1

Additional posters can be found below.

Trailer Link

Release Date:

March 6, 2015

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “After being kidnapped by two criminals during birth, Chappie becomes the adopted son in a strange and dysfunctional family. Chappie is preternaturally gifted, one of a kind, a prodigy. He also happens to be a robot.”

Poster: B / B- / C+ / C / D+ / C

Review: (#1 & #2) These two designs have similar design qualities. Both play up the childlike mental attitude of the titular robot, the chief difference is how the posters convey the underlying violent nature of the world in which he lives. The first design decides to minimize it, stuffing a handgun into the lower left of the frame. The second goes bigger with a high capacity gun in the same quadrant, but making it seem more threatening.

(#3) A competent, modestly appealing design that sheds the childlike essence of the first two posters and goes for something more typical. (#4) Chappie is Batman. Finding a way to suggest that he is watching over the city seems immaterial in regards to the film’s plot. (#5) Less appealing than the predecessor and quite a bit more generic. (#6) Similar to the fourth design, but with more color, but not as much visual coolness.

Trailer: B- / B-

Review: (#1) The trailer doesn’t defy description, but it oversimplifies the narrative. It tries very hard to paint this picture as one that explores emerging intelligence and the general distrust that goes along with that, but never roots itself in an action-heavy environment, which is very likely given the director’s past presentations.

(#2) Opening up the world in which the film is set and establishing the stakes of the film’s plot should have made the film seem more vital and important. However, many of the new elements seem a bit to outlandish and subservient to genre tropes, making it feel less significant.

Oscar Prospects:

Neill Blomkamp’s debut feature, District 9, earned him a Best Picture nomination along with three other nominations. His second film, Elysium, got nothing. This new film seems a lot more broadly appealing and more subtle than Elysium, but without seeing the end product and how we critics react to it, there’s no way to know if it will be more than a Best Visual Effects competitor.