CHAPPiE made me appreciate Sharlto Copley's performance in
Elysium (2013)
so much more. As C.M. Kruger, Copley fucking owns his campy, obscenely over-the-top repulsiveness; and is a relieving distraction from the film's self-seriousness. In
CHAPPiE, Neil Blomkamp tries to recreate this with every single antagonist. First it's the South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord, making their film debut, as two tweeker criminals; and their cartoonishness is exhausting. Then there is Hugh Jack as a former-soldier-now-scientist who has made a war robot no one wants to use. His performance can be broken down into three parts: Mad Jackman, Madder Jackman, Maddest Jackman. And in a single film he strives to make up for all of the roles that didn't allow him to speak in his Australian accent. Then, just in case we didn't get the subtlety, he brings in Brandon Auret to play a pseudo-crime lord constantly screaming incomprehensible gibberish (to the point where subtitles were deemed needed). And all each of these characters amount to is a mirage of embarrassing impressions of Copley's crazed brilliance.
