22.6 C
Byron Shire
March 19, 2024

Chappie

Latest News

Australia’s Environment Report card not looking good

2023 was a 'year of opposites' for Australia’s environment, but despite conditions fluctuating between wet and dry, overall conditions remain stable following a bumper year in 2022, according to the latest Australia’s Environment Report, led by the Australian National University.

Other News

State of destruction

Tasmanians go to the polls next weekend, in an early election brought on by Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockcliff, whose party has fractured during its ten years in office but is currently warning voters not to elect a Labor minority government, which he's been calling a 'Coalition of Chaos'.

The case for natural parks

Between One Mile Beach and Big Rocky Island, just south of Nelson Bay, lies the stunning Samurai Beach, a part of the Tomaree National Park. 

COVID-19 pandemic has cut life expectancy globally

COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal.

Nurses in shock as Murwillumbah surgical unit closes

Nursing staff at Murwillumbah Hospital were shocked and saddened earlier this week to find out that the surgical unit of the hospital will be closing and that they had just one week to decide what their future employment would be.

Demands for increased housing in Byron Shire raise significant concerns for CABS

Serious concerns have been raised over the Byron Shire Residential Strategy 2041 by the 12 Byron Shire-wide associations that make up Community Alliance for Byron Shire (CABS).

Cannabis

I’m not sure Andrew Hall understands how politics works if he is blaming the Greens for cannabis not being...

There is an ‘all that glitters is not gold’ moral here: Unheralded South African director Neill Blomkamp caught everyone’s eye with his confronting futuristic drama District 9 (2009).

As so often is the case, its success resulted in his being lured to Hollywood where, with a quadrupled budget, he came up with the less challenging Elysium, a blockbuster in which CGI typically took precedence over the sort of dark, worrying narrative that drove D9.

Back in Johannesburg again, with much less money at his disposal, he has returned to form.

The inhabitants of the city (in reality, Joh’burg is one of the world’s most violent) are kept in check by squads of police robots, including the astonishingly believable Chappie (voiced by Sharlto Copley).

When Chappie is captured by ‘gangsta’ drug dealers, Blomkamp, without foregoing the thrills and spills expected from the genre, is able to take his story to a philosophical level rarely attempted in mega-bucks sci-fi flicks.

Intelligence – artificial or otherwise – love and learning, identity, creation itself all come under the spotlight as Chappie becomes aware of his own being, and his shelf-life.

So convincing is the walking-talking hunk of metal that the scene in which he is beaten up by street thugs elicits genuine despair (I was more distressed by it than I would have been if Chappie were a normal flesh-and-blood screen hero).

From there, the battered Chappie staggers to a junkyard where his encounter with a stray dog is in every way as poignant as when Frankenstein’s monster found comfort in the cabin of the blind peasant.

This is a fabulous movie that manages the perfect balance between brawn and brain and in which Blomkamp is handsomely rewarded by exceptional performances from his big-name stars – Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman (fantastic as the bullying Aussie tech-head) – and local actors alike.

Yo-Landi Visser, ‘Mummy’ to Chappie, is adorable and it is only fitting that she is the focus of an end shot that pays rightful homage to Avatar.

~ John Campbell


Support The Echo

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week – or maybe more – we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

New tourism plan for Lismore region

In a move aimed at bolstering Lismore's visitor economy, Lismore City Council has greenlit a roadmap to navigate the region towards tourism growth.

New charitable funding round opens

Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation’s first funding round for 2024 opens today, Tuesday 19 March, with more than $500,000 available for local community groups and charities with new and existing projects.

Tech companies grilled on how they are tackling terror and violent extremism 

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has issued legal notices to Google, Meta, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, Telegram and Reddit requiring each company to report on steps they are taking to protect Australians from terrorist and violent extremist material and activity.

Ballina burnout workshops to support local community

The Northern Rivers community will have an opportunity to learn from leading burnout experts across March and April in a series of free workshops presented by Ballina Shire Council.