Post-Viewing: Who should take the blame for Chappie’s failure?

While watching Chappie, an interesting thought popped into my head; just how much can creative control affect a product depending on where it is placed? If a studio has a majority of creative control over a project then it can drastically affect a director’s vision and Sony Pictures has been no stranger to controversy over the years. The recent release of The Interview and the cyber-attack were large fiascos for Sony and now it’s even rumoured that the latest Bond film, Spectre, is has an unnecessarily high budget. Could they have had a part in Chappie’s frustratingly butchered inception?

A similar case occurred with The Amazing Spiderman 2 last year; some who found fault with the webslinger’s most recent adventure believed that Sony (who has complete creative control over the character) forced too many components into the film that didn’t work from product placement to dubstep music and false advertising for the Rhino (who only appeared in the film for around two minutes or less). Can we assume that the same kind of thing occurred with Chappie? It could be possible; at one point in the film Chappie uses connected PlayStation 4 consoles to wire an artificial intelligence network and on several occasions the human characters are sporting Sony VAIO laptops. Product placement is never a good idea, especially when you want to create a compelling world; District 9 had none of this, allowing its creative world and scenarios to shine through. Sony may have also contributed to the hiring of Die Antwoord in that they may have been shooting for the most popular music in an effort to gain as a wide a market appeal as possible.

Or could Chappie’s failure be pinned on Blomkamp himself? Even the best directors suffer missteps once in a while as proven by the likes of George Lucas and Ridley Scott. Blomkamp’s South African heritage may have compelled him to bring on Die Antwoord in a bid to bring more attention to the Zef counter culture movement in the country. But really, what kind of decision was this? Having two rappers who practically played themselves in the film and contributed nothing to the world that Blomkamp created? Any whimsical or sympathetic tone the film was trying to put across was completely undermined by the both of them. Whilst Chappie may have been attempting to set itself apart from District as a side story in a similar universe, relying on clichés didn’t result in an engaging film and perhaps in this sense the film went too far in the wrong direction. Maybe if the film had gotten rid of Die Antwoord and shown Chappie learning gradually of his own accord then it could have been more effective.

It’s a shame that Chappie didn’t turn out too well, but ultimately creative control is a large factor in deciding just how a film will turn out when it is finally released to the general public. It will be interesting to see what Blomkamp will do with the Alien franchise; will 20^th Century Fox take a similar attitude to Sony or will they give him full rein over the project? Either way I'm hoping that Neil Blomkamp can bounce back; he's a director with great potential and he should be able to fully realise it with time.