The Trouble with Robots - CHAPPiE and The Avengers: Age of Ultron

A movie update, while we're all waiting for Star Wars to turn up in December. This time it's all about robots and their relationship with their creators (without Mary Shelley, where would the film industry be?).

First up, CHAPPiE from District 9 and Elysium director Neill Blomkamp. To cope with the increasing crime rate in Johannesburg, the police turn to Tetravaal and their latest robot invention, created by Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), while Deon has a bright idea...

With a workable, if rather slow, story and decent enough effects, with a few A-List names to pull in the punters (Sigourney Weaver as Deon's boss and Hugh Jackman as his rival), this is a pretty good pizza movie IF you can stomach the idea of Afrikaaner Punks, which is where it falls down for me. And, for South Africa, surprisingly few black people.

Continuing the theme, I watched the latest Marvel release (Antman hasn't come out on DVD yet). After a successful raid by the Avengers on a Hydra fortress, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) experiments with what appears to be a new form of intelligence.

With lots of bangs and crashes we've become accustomed to by now, the plot is reasonable and tries to include a softer side, with the unlikely romance between Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) domesticity. James Spader provides the wit as the voice of Ultron, and I liked Iron Man's Hulk Smasher suit, but this felt to me like a mash-up of previous films, a film between other films. Plus this looks just awesome in comparison!

Elysium

Through my LoveFilm subscription, a(nother) sci-fi film from Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9. Having been fatally irradiated at work, Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) makes a deal with local activists to break into the orbital space station Elysium for a chance at being healed.

With a rather good plot, breath-taking special effects, and decent acting (although I would have preferred someone Hispanic instead of Damon, but I suppose it required a name to sell it), Elysium makes for a rattling good sci-fi film. I especially liked spangly space station and the robots, but all the weaponry was cool, especially the exploding bullets. Recommended.

Along similar lines, there's a new series out in the states called The 100.

Mmmmmm, teenagers in space. Yeah, I'll give that one a miss, I think, assuming anyone over here is going to buy it.