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.
This new trailer for CHAPPiE is very different in tone from the first one. While the first preview made this movie look like more of a Short Circuit-style robot-come-to-life story, this second one makes it seem a lot more like, well, Robocop. After I saw a lot of Total Recall references in Elysium (maybe I’ll finally get around to finishing my video essay on that soon), I’m starting to wonder if all of Neill Blomkamp’s ideas start with him seeing a movie by Paul Verhoeven and thinking “I bet I could put an interesting spin on that.” Anyway, all of that to say that CHAPPiE looks like Johnny 5 vs. ED-209. Works for me.
CHAPPiE comes out March 6, 2015.