Despite the runaway success of Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, the writer-director has faced increasingly diminishing returns as a filmmaker ever since.
Whiz-bang visuals and an impressive cast weren’t enough to save Elysium, while Chappie has become better known in film circles as an internet meme (“That’s Chappie!”)
The goal is to communicate with and make films for the audience as if I was an audience member.
Like all of Blomkamp’s work, the visuals are impressive, but the shorter format allows him to tell a sharper story.