Review of Elysium (2013) by Leigh H — 08 Jan 2015

The world we live in right at this moment is currently split into two people, those who have and those who don't. Most of you reading this I'd dare say would be part of the "haves" crowd, what if though, what you currently possess was stripped from you and all the things you have were gone? What if suddenly you were no longer a person who had it all but a person who had nothing, a person who struggled to find food, a person who struggled day to day just to survive? What if though you had an opportunity to escape that life and move to another place where perfection was everywhere, there was no food, no work, no housing shortages everything was perfect. What would you be willing to do to escape your situation to make it to the next and become a have it all once again?

The year is 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, and everyone else. The very wealthy live in a place set amongst the stars high above the planet on a space station called Elysium, everyone else lives amongst the ruined Earth in squalor and hovels amongst an over populated, sick and desperate peoples. Max an ex con works in one of the very few factories that still run on the Earth's surface maintained by the workers of the planet but Managed by the wealthy citizens of Elysium. After a major accident Max's only chance of survival is to make it to Elysium and into a medical bed that has the ability to fix any ailment no matter how close to death the subject may be. The problem is the wealthy citizens of Elysium will never let the poor Earth people to live amongst them. Max agrees on one last criminal activity and as a reward his payment will be a trip to the space station that can save his life.

This film has one purpose, one message and that message is so political in its nature it's actually quite arrogant about what it's trying to say. The writer director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) definitely has a political agenda with everything he does, Elysium doesn't escape this. It doesn't help the movie much it just makes it quite preachy but with all the action going on you can forget what lies underneath and enjoy more what is being played out on the screen. The story was actually pretty interesting the problem I found more were the characters created to help create Blomkamps ideas. Matt Damon (Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar) who plays Max is very one dimensional in his approach, I would have liked to seen more from him or even better one of the original actors who Blomkamp had chosen being Ninja from the South African Hip Hop group Die Antwoord or Eminem (actually in all honesty I'm glad he wasn't chosen). It could have given the character a very different feel. The one character I despised though was that of Kruger played by Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team) he really annoyed me, I'm not sure if it was the accent used or something but I found it so forced and over the top (really hope that's not his natural voice) either way he really annoyed me. The two worlds Blomkamp and his team have created was actually quite stunning for both its beauty and ugliness, Elysium itself is just a picture of beauty in every way you can imagine very much makes you want to be there.

Violence, death and destruction is throughout the film and the death scenes are very imaginative and brutal not too bad at all some of them. Not really one for the kids but let that be your decision. Elysium is a fun fast paced ride with some interesting moments and a very heavy message for the leaders of our world. Also Jodie Foster who plays Delacourt is in it too and I know how many people can't stand the poor woman, she's ok but nothing special so don't expect much from her.