A new trailer for Chappie, a robot movie by District 9 writer and director, Neill Blomkamp has been released and we get to see a bit more of the actual story surrounding Chappie. I’ve got to admit, it looks pretty cool. Check it out:
This trailer is leaps and bounds over the first trailer we saw for this film. While a cute, goofy robot (voiced by a Blomkamp favorite, Sharlto Copley) is a fun idea in theory, it definitely didn’t seem like a strong enough concept to center an entire movie around. And maybe I’m alone on this one, but it seemed like the film wasn’t going to be much beyond a modern Pinocchio adaptation. At some point, watching a robot discover the world around him starts to get old. I’m pretty relieved with this trailer to see that there’s a bit more story than just a lovable robot who gains sentience.
In fact, there is a great deal of story behind the very obvious nods to the Pinocchio story. While we do get to see Chappie become self-aware (and surprisingly adorable for a robot), the heart of the story centers around the conflict between Chappie and his "family" and the military trying to take Chappie out. I mean, you can’t really blame the military for fearing a sentient, thinking, feeling, surprisingly artistic robot. Science fiction canon tells us that only bad things can happen from there. However, much like District 9, it looks like Chappie will be a bit of a science fiction metaphor, exploring how we as a society respond to the unknown, rather than a run-of-the-mill robot flick.
We also got a closer look at the cast in this trailer. This film is certainly jam packed with talented actors from Sigourney Weaver, Dev Patel, Caesar Martinez, and Hugh Jackman. Of course, the most notable performance in the film is, without a doubt, Jackman’s hair. Let’s all just take a minute to appreciate the exquisite mullet that Jackman is sporting in this movie. The mullet alone makes this movie worth seeing.
This is going to be a noisy year in science fiction, with films like Jurassic World and Star Wars: the Force Awakens, releasing, but happily, Chappie will be releasing ahead of all of those films, which will give audiences a greater chance of seeing the film without missing it in a sea of blockbuster heavy-hitters. Chappie will be coming to theaters on March 6, 2015.
