Chappie unlike many other sci-fi movies about Artificial Intelligence and robots, is little more than that. It's a study of human emotions, conscience and to what extent we may go to preserve what we believe in and what we love. It's filled with humor, great action sequences, good casting and stunning visual effects.
Although it could be little surprising to see Hugh Jackman as a "bad boy" willing to destroy the city for his purpose, he does a damn good job of it. Dev Patel is good as the nerdy "maker", conflicted between following the norms, saving his life and doing something new & unconventional. Who really manages to amaze you again is Shalrto Copley as the robot Chappie. Signoury Weaver is almost wasted in the movie. Action sequences look good, the robots look from cute & sweet to menacing and cruel and the HERO, where needed. The movie definitely has a stamp of director Neil Blomkamp, who brought us District 9 and Elysium earlier.
**Spoilers**
It's a movie about a city in South Africa, trying an AI Robot police "scouts" created by a company run by Signoury Weaver. Deon (Dev Patel) is the engineer behind these robots who has his own plans to create a fully AI robot with his own conscience like humans. Vincent (Hugh Jackman) is also an engineer and ex-soldier who does not believe in AI robots. He has his own war machine, which is controlled by human operator. Although, he's losing funding because the city prefers the scouts.
When Deon gets kidnapped by thugs (well played by Watkin Tudor, Yolandi Wisser and Jose Pablo) to get a remote to turn off the robots, he ends up creating a new robot with true conscience, Chappie (Sharlto Copley). From there starts the journey of Chappie, learning human ways, being a gangster, being lied to and deceived. And finally, Chappie has to take the fight to not only protect himself, but protect his maker.
**Spoiler ends**
Movie does have some weak spots in terms of plot holes. It lacks to explain some basic elements of robot design, manufacturing being controlled by a company and all that. But nothing to think too hard about in a sci-fi movie.
If you are a fan of robot action movies or AI based movies, this is definitely your kind of film. If you're an analytical science person or just not into sci-fi, this may not be it. Although, this is a sci-fi movie which has a conscience, which has a soul!