Elysium, 2013.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner.
SYNOPSIS:
150 years from now humankind has split in to two; those who live on Earth in poverty and disease, and those who live on a space station in Earth orbit, rich and healthy. One man fights to change the social system.
Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, an analogy for Apartheid and a critique of how certain countries treat immigrants, is a fantastic sci-fi film. Full of raw themes on the worst of humanity, District 9 looked great and had a great screenplay to back it up. Elysium does not. Set in the year 2154, the late 21st century saw disease run rampant across the Earth with mass poverty ensuing. In response, an enormous space station was built and placed in to Earth orbit, on which people could live free of disease. However, Elysium is only for the super rich. Elysiums live lavishly and, most importantly, complete free of medical worries as every disease has a cure – even having your face blown off can be repaired. To be cured/repaired one need only lie in a medical scanner and let it do its work. On Earth things are not quite as wonderful. Los Angeles is essentially one giant slum, and this is where we meet the film’s protagonist, Max (Matt Damon). Max is a reformed ex-con now working in a robot manufacturing plant. Having dreamed of one day making it to Elysium – a fools dream – he is forced to seek out that goal when an accident at the plant douses him with a lethal dose of radiation giving him just days to live.
The theme of the film is of the have and the have nots, of the one percenters who are able to enjoy life with far too much whilst the rest suffer and struggle to survive. Kudos to Blomkamp for tackling the issue, and so forcefully too. The problem is that the story is lacking, the structure is a mess and the characters are weakly defined. The film tries hard to be powerful and have an impact, so much so that when Max is simply working in the factory pulling levers the score ramps up and delivers pounding drums that would be at home in an action piece from The Dark Knight Trilogy. It tries to stir your emotions but fails in its heavy handedness – something its predecessor was able to achieve.
In the film’s climax it takes a step into supervilliany, as one of the antagonists – District 9’s Sharlto Copley, who is pretty great here – places himself in a powerful exo-suit to take on Max, and it all gets very strange as the character turns on a whim. Admittedly there is a great looking scene with Kruger in shadows stalking towards Max like The Terminator, which is brilliantly shot.
Brilliantly shot Elysium is, and it is worth seeing on the big screen for the gorgeous visuals and the view of Earth from space alone. Elysium, the space station, is a magnificent feat of computer imagery from both afar and for profile shots of the pristine gardens and luscious lakes that adorn it. Blomkamp creates a world here that is begging to be explored in much greater detail with much more depth. On Earth too the world creation and the look of the decaying once-great city of Los Angeles is superb. Blomkamp has an excellent eye for visual detail and picks his shots beautifully. Unfortunately, however, Elysium can be viewed much like Earth is within the context of the film; beautiful from from far away, a decaying mess once you look closer. An admirable attempt that has ambition, but uneven writing with characters whose motivations change without reason from one moment to the next severely lets the film down.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Martin Deer
Originally published August 22, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
