CHAPPiE (2014)

District 9 - loved it.  Elysium - liked it.  But Neill Blomkamp's newest, Chappie, is the best of the trio - his most energizing, emotionally-involving and funniest film yet, featuring a virtuoso performance by Sharlto Copley (never seen on-screen, as he voices the title character).  Set in a near-future Johannesburg overrun with crime, Chappie opens looking like a vintage Mad Max film but plays out at first like RoboCop, via tech genius Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) who's created programming leading to an army of robotic cops that are taking a huge bite out of crime at last.  Deon's co-worker, ex-soldier Vincent (Hugh Jackman), is shut out with his older crime-stopping creation at the company, but when Deon is kidnapped and forced to put his new artificial intelligence program into the half-destroyed body of a former robot cop, the remarkably childlike and human Chappie is "born" ... and Vincent is out for blood.  Chappie is a marvelous, funny, very moving portrait of humanity, as seen through the eyes of one just learning how to be human.  Truly wonderful. (rated R)  A