Review of Elysium (2013) by Heimskringla91 — 17 Aug 2013

I went into this movie extremely excited especially after loving District 9. I left the movie feeling extremely disappointed. From the very start the similarities between District 9 and Elysium were apparent. From a big space ship/station floating in the sky to the run down desert on Earth. I wouldn't have minded the similarities but it was too close. Then we go to Matt Damon, a character who I couldn't begin to care about. The attempts at reliving moments of his childhood are completely useless. The woman he once loved has a child and continues to now, clearly did not think about him as much as he did her. You'd think it would pull at a soft spot but instead that gets in the way. When Damon sees the child he tells her he wont save her (guess what happens at the end, a change of heart!) The change of heart was not as thought provoking or intense as in District 9. Where you started out hating the character but really begin to root for Wikus. I never had that in Elysium, he was all about saving himself until the last moments of the movie. But when Max died I felt nothing. When Wikus was to remain an alien, that pulled at the heart strings.

The story focuses needlessly on the political message which you get and understand in the first ten minutes of the film. I felt as though it was constantly trying to ram it into my head and as a viewer I didn't appreciate that. I understood it, just please move on. I just didn't care for the writing or the direction he took it, which was too closely related to District 9 just not executed as well.

All of the characters were extremely underdeveloped, the one that hurt the most was Kruger. Sharlto Copley did an amazing job, I thought his voice was perfect creating an eerie feeling. His look was awesome, big beard and all. However, I was never truly frightened of him. HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! He had an awesome katana and he only killed ONE person with it. When they got to Elysium and he killed Jodie Foster, it was supposed to go down. All that happened was, his lackeys through grenades at people in the station. I was expecting this moment for Kruger to shine to really go on a killing rampage with that katana. He didn't even attempt to rape the mother (Damon's love interest) which is not something I want to see but after the scene where he talks about it and plays with her hair it was weird that he sent a lackey to do so. Because, meanwhile he wasn't doing anything important. He is later seen walking down a hallway towards Damon where his nipple lights flash for a second. After that, you know exactly what is going to happen. I never got my Kruger rampage, basically, I never got Kruger. What did he do in this movie? Nothing. Just like everyone else. Completely disappointed.