Chappie

There are some good ideas at play in the latest from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. The problem is many of those ideas are unabashedly lifted from other movies. Sharlto Copley voices Chappie, a sentient robot created by a nerdy computer guy (Dev Patel). The nerdy computer guy works for a big security corporation that builds cop robots. This feels a lot like RoboCop, especially when an evil, mullet-wearing coworker looks to get his new creation, The Moose, into mass production. The Moose is a direct rip-off of ED-209 from RoboCop, the big defense robot that can't negotiate stairs. The film never takes off as its own entity, and feels like a hodgepodge of every robot ever made. Well, every robot movie ever made with perhaps 10 percent originality thrown in, and the original part is lame. So now I'm concerned, because Blomkamp just got the green light from Fox to make Alien 5, possibly with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn. Now that Chappie is dead on arrival, and shows proof that Blomkamp isn't bowling strikes at the moment, is the Alien project in jeopardy?