Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 32% approval rating, based on 221 reviews, and a rating average of 4.88/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Chappie boasts more of the big ideas and visual panache that director Neill Blomkamp has become known for — and, sadly, more of the narrative shortcomings.”[22] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 41 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.[23] According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of “B” on an A+ to F scale.

Justin Chang of Variety wrote, “Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, is one of the major casualties of Chappie, a robot-themed action movie that winds up feeling as clunky and confused as the childlike droid with which it shares its name.”[25] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “With unappealing one-note characters, retread concepts and implausible motivations, Chappie is a further downward step for director Neill Blomkamp.”[26] Tim Grierson of Screen International wrote, “…despite his ambitions, Chappie is a bucket of bolts, Blomkamp’s desire to say meaningful things outdistancing his ability to say them compellingly.”[3] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that Blomkamp “struggles with the material” but “even at his shakiest, Mr. Blomkamp holds your attention”.[27] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it “cartoonish and preposterous, and not in a good way”