Unfortunately I doubt the movie will be as good as DA videos. Say what you want about DA/Ninja/Yolandi, but their videos are better than most - they're like David LaChapelle photographs come to life.
Just saw it!!!! Loved the crap outta this film! Yolandi is actually not bad at acting and I was really surprised. Ninja was just himself so it was fine as he's all thugged out gangsta and this fit well in this role. At times it felt like a commercial for Die Antwoord , there are points when they are wearing their own Tshirt with their names on back and such. In addition to that, their music is all through out the film. All and all I loved it. The robots aka Chappie looked great and I found this flick to be totally worth watching.
Finally got to watch this weekend. Man, I'm not gonna lie, I really loved this film too. Wayyyyy better than I was expecting, and instantly landed a spot on the favorites list... I don't understand at all why the critics were so harsh on Chappie, but this film has "cult classic" written all over it. I'm truly hoping it generates enough of a following through word-of-mouth, rentals, DVD and Blu-ray sales for the studio to consider a sequel down the road. Only after District 10 of course... Still fairly ambivalent about Die Antwoord, but their presence worked perfectly in the movie. The only real (and very minor) gripes being the over-promotion of them and the gratuitous amount of guns being stuck in faces. Really felt bad for Chappie's maker, poor guy couldn't catch any breaks... Anyway, here's an interesting response to all of those articles/allegations about Ninja's on set behavior: http://boingboing.net/2015/03/17/die-an ... plies.html *this might just be a printed article of the video itsa_mia posted... can't really tell, the youtube vid won't play on my phone.
Just bought the Blomkamp Blu-Ray 3 pack! Looking forward to watching Chappie! I loved D9 and I never saw Elysium, but it is in the 3 pack, so I have some watching-up to do!
Totally forgot this was out now. Just stopped on the way home from Dad's house to rent it, and am getting ready to watch it now! Also, just gonna throw this out there in case people don't know. Die Antwoord are "performance artists". They are actors playing exaggerated characters. So I guess that's why they're so over the top. Nam sayn?
I look forward to your hearing your take on it, bud. DA was actually pretty low-key compared to the 'Hippo' character... now that dude was over the top. Spoiler alert: he wants EVERYTHING! Nice. About to do the same. Have been meaning to grab a real copy of D9 for years now, Chappie will be enjoyed many times over (already watched it twice), and this 3-pack is perfect. Really love Blomkamp's work, but will leave the caveat of not going into Elysium with high expectations. I found that to be the least enthralling of the 3 by far. Wasn't bad, just felt kind of rushed and should've been a bit longer to flesh out the story more...
Strangely, I thought that this movie was well received, not that I was following its release so closely, so was a bit surprised to read here that critic response was not kind. I can see why, but honestly, I had very low expectations for the film based on the premise and what I had seen in teasers. I do like Blomkamp, but he has become (or maybe it is just more obvious now) very heavy-handed in his "message." District 9 will always remain an excellent and completely original movie for me. Elysium on the other hand is a pass for many reasons. He had a great idea, but I think squandered it into a standard (and not very good) sci-fi action movie. I still give him a lot of credit though. Now, as for Chappie. Watched it last night; was expecting a cross between Robocop and Short Circuit, with Blomkamp's usual social commentary pasted overtop - which I think is exactly what I got. I won't talk any more about DA presence in the film, as I think that has been covered at length, but hopefully lesson learned for everyone involved. It was not as bad as I expected, but could have easily been so much better with just some tuning of the writing and characters. And there were so many inconsitencies in behaviour - humand and robot - throughout, that made it pretty difficult to swallow. I really wanted to like it, but it just never said or delivered anything novel or effective. It's actually a real shame, because I think in making his films so 'consumable' the obviousness of what Blomkamp is saying masks the important of his commentaries. Those who are going to be oblivious to the message if it is not directly in your face of the time will still not see it if you wave it in front 95% of the time. And for others it just feels cheap. Like taking a PKD story and mashing it into a popcorn explosion-filled drekfest, you lose all appeal of the former, and don't make an effective (i.e. blockbuster) version of the latter. Honestly, Hollywood can't even do a tolerable take of a already pretty weak and unoriginal YA story without trashing all over its content, so why would I expect anything from a film these days.
