Hugh Jackman has etched his name into the cinematic history books as a result of his epic seventeen-year tenure as Wolverine, but the actor’s track record of box office success is far from stellar when he’s not kitted out in Wolverine’s standard ensemble of claws, mutton chops and a white vest.
Every big-name talent stars in their fair share of flops, but the Aussie A-lister has lent his talents to more than a few. Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Aardman Animation’s Flushed Away and Joe Wright’s Pan all ended up losing a lot of money, while his most recent effort Reminiscence found a place in the history books after scoring the worst opening weekend ever for a title opening in over 3000 theaters.
One of Jackman’s most polarizing disappointments in Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie, which saw the filmmaker return to the sociopolitical thematic well for a third consecutive time, only to suffer greatly from the law of diminishing returns. A robot police officer being reprogrammed and gaining sentience is an intriguing premise in practice, but the execution was more than a little lacking.
Blomkamp even has the sneaking suspicion that Chappie‘s poor performance may have cost him his Aliens sequel with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn, but at least the high concept sci-fi still has people talking. Whether it’s your first or fifth time watching, you can decide for yourself whether or not the film is worthy of a reappraisal now that it’s streaming on Netflix.