Review of Elysium (2013) by Joetaeb D — 17 Aug 2015

Elysium is an astoundingly stunning, action packed, well paced and full throttle science fiction romp, more focused than Blomkamp's previous, District 9 and far more bombastic, fling on top a reasonably big named cast and your on to a winner right? Wrong! Straight off the bat, I like Elysium, yeah its got the depth of a paddling pool, some pretty lack luster characters and some really head scratching moments, but it packs an adrenaline fueled punch, with awe inspiring effect work, done both practically and physically.

Elysium may be more focused on what it wants to be, ie a science fiction, action romp, however compared to District 9, its emotional depth and themes are just not present. Set in 2154, the earth is rotting from pollution, the air unbearable and entire cities ran into slums.

This is for the poor however, up in the orbit of space lies a space station called Elysium, run by power hungry democrats and coupe de ta inspired generals. It is essentially a very black and white version of the glass ceiling.

So Max, who is an ex convict, one day fatally injures himself in a nuclear accident, leaving him 5 days to live, his plan, do a dirty job for some slum mobster, get a ticket to Elysium and heal himself using their state of the art technology.

However Elysiums general, Delacrioux, played shambolically by Foster, will stop at nothing to let him and his plot through. It is bare minimum story telling and do you know what, the film does suffer from it.

The cast although decent on paper, Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga and William Fichtner all having very little, substence wise to play with, leaving everyone's motives, questionable or completely unrelatable.

Damon convinces with an action hero but little else, Braga is decent, but giving the one note substance she has to play with, she actually has the best motives here and can react off them. Foster and Fichtner are absolutely god awful, these are 2 actors I can usually get behind, especially Foster, but both of them are not even trying, I would even go so far as to say they have had post audio work done on their dialogue and it still sounds bad.

Leaving Copley with the best and most memorable character, even if he is written like a complete straight out of the Bronx "gangsta". Which is a shame because the visuals and the cinematography, concept art and CGI design are all, completely out of this world.

Watching Elysium, it is completely understandable to note the Blomkamp has been signed on to direct a sequel to Aliens, as long as he doesnt write the script, he is going to smash it out the park, his visual eye is a cut above the rest, he mixes practical and CGI flawlessly, for the most part and its so refreshing to see effect work stand up even 2 years after it has been done and dusted.

The art direction is astounding, following a lot of Sid Mead's work, its all very practical and believable, while also managing to obtain a sense of futurism about it. The set pieces are also pretty bold, and the nature of this film requires they be.

Elysium is edited within an inch of its life, with quick cuts, kinetic camera work and excellent sound design, really tossing and turning you as an audience member about. The problem is, when all is said and done and you think back, it is pretty hard to remember.

The plot is literally so one note it has nothing much else going on, of course some sub text is shoe horned in here and there, but its inclusion is only just to move the plot from A to B. It's impossible to get behind the characters, as they have zero likability and very little motive, Max literally is so self centered for 95% of this movie, its completely impossible to root for him and although this worked in District 9, it had more impact their as the character had a lot more time to be fleshed out.

Elysium is not a terrible movie, its big, bold, stylish and fun, is it anything else? No, and that makes it a huge upset. I could have done with a bit more, more subtext, more character development, a bit more time to breathe and I could have done with Jodie Foster actually acting, rather than looking like she was forced on set at gun point.

A visual delight, not much else going on however.