Review: Elysium

TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment

There's no denying writer/director Neill Blomkamp's talent for futuristic sci-fi. The South African filmmaker began his career working with visual effects which is no surprise. Like it or hate it, District 9 had some very sweet special effects, not to mention a very good performance from Sharlto Copley. Blomkamp made it clear with District 9 that he likes to focus on harsh, gritty futuristic environments and action. I went into that movie unsuspecting of the high level of graphically exploding bodies and blown off limbs that were flying everywhere. So Blomkamp definitely has an eye for vivid settings and detail, but he can also get carried away with the visual effects and lose hold of the story's ambition.

With District 9, Blomkamp attempted to set up an analogy for apartheid in South Africa with the way that the humans segregate and poorly treat the aliens who land in Johannesburg. Suffice to say, Blomkamp attempted to tackle an extremely sensitive and complicated matter via a hypothetical sci-fi scenario, something that many famous authors have done in the past. So the idea is by no means new, but Blomkamp's name and ambition overstepped its bounds even with Peter Jackson's name attached to District 9. By the end of the film, the plot descends into albeit impressive and highly entertaining action but action that is unrelated to the analogy and unnecessary for its progression. Once again, Blomkamp has decided to tackle a very complicated subject in Elysium, and the result is very similar to District 9.

TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Enter Max (Matt Damon), a nobody who has grown up a thief on poverty stricken, polluted Earth, always looking up to Elysium, the shining ring in the sky that promises happiness and freedom from all troubles. For Elysium is where all the rich people live who can afford to move away from the ravaged Earth where they have machines that can cure any diseases as well as broken bones in seconds. In a string of chaotic, quick events, Max comes into possession of the key to closing the gap between Elysium and Earth. Essentially, he has the chance to become the ultimate Robin Hood and savior for the Earth.  From the get go and made clear in the trailers, Blomkamp is drawing an analogy for the extreme wealth gap in the world today: the extremely small percentage of the Earth's population that owns an obscene percentage of the entire wealth. With the recent recession and occupy Wall-Street movement, there's no denying that this analogy is timely, but is it effective?

Don't get me wrong, the wealth gap between citizens of the U.S. alone is sickening and astounding. There is plenty that should be done to try and find a feasible way to make it so that certain individuals do not hold so much economic and political power. But at the same time, Blomkamp's scenario is too drastic and extreme to take seriously. As with District 9, Elysium starts out slowly in a seeming attempt to tactfully develop the situation and environment, but Blomkamp becomes too obsessed with the visuals to pay enough attention to the story that gets out of hand.

TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment

First of all, the mission Max finds himself a part of and the seemingly impenetrable defenses of Elysium are inconsistent and contradictory. Without going into specific plot details, it's one of those situations in a movie where something seems impossible, but then the hero just has to try hard enough and figures it out or finds a very obvious loop-hole in the system or whatever. Not to mention that Max as a character always seems so frantic and confused that it's a miracle and makes no sense that he's able to achieve what he does. This kind of every-day-man hero is along the same lines as Clive Owen in Children of Men: a guy who's forced into a task or predicament that he doesn't want but must find a way for the sake of humanity. Owen and the writers for Children of Men did a fantastic job of portraying and capturing that type of character, but in Max's case, it never feels like he's the one achieving anything rather than the writers making a way for him. 

TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment

In this way, Max is very similar to Wikus (Copley) in District 9 who unintentionally becomes embroiled in the feud between humans and aliens and becomes the key to helping the aliens out of their terrible predicament, but Wikus and his environment are much more developed than the Earth and Elysium. Sure, we get to see a lot of really crowded, dirty, gross looking shots of the conditions on Earth and a few shots of the sparkling, pretty looking life on Elysium, but that's about it. I really wish Blomkamp would've provided a better look at Elysium specifically and developed better bad guys as well. Jodie Foster's character is supposed to be the main threat to Earth because of her plan for a coup against the current president, but that is never fully developed and basically left in the dust. Plus, her accent is terrible. It's like a mix of British and French, if that's even possible. Ultimately, Copley's Kruger, a crazed agent for Elysium, steals the show and becomes the main threat to Max and his friends. Copley is definitely an underrated actor and his performance here, although not given enough attention or screen time, is really good. 

Overall, Elysium suffers from the same problem as District 9 by becoming to engrossed in the action and visuals by the end to effectively pull off the analogy it set out to create. However, District 9 was more effective in executing its gritty violence and setting. One thing's for sure: Blomkamp loves exploding bodies. J.J. Abrams has his lens flares, and Blomkamp has his exploding bodies. You can almost hear the visual effects artists in the production studio being like "Aaaaaaaah SHIT! YEAH!" as they blow up computer generated humans on a giant, Mac computer screen and then make specific tweaks so that the arm goes flying in this specific direction. Still, Elysium does showcase some pretty cool action scenes and a tasteful spattering of slow motion throughout. Although my friend (who got me into the movie for free!) said the cinematography almost gave her motion sickness at times because the editing is fairly choppy and erratic. All the special effects in general are very good, but if you're expecting something better and  beyond District 9 that thoughtfully deals with a complex issue, then you'll be disappointed. But Elysium is still good enough to make me hold out hope that Blomkamp can deliver something much better in the future.