Review: Elysium (2013)

Now that the DVD/Blu-ray gods have elected to release this film, I have finally gotten around to seeing Neill Blomkamp’s latest entry into the world of cinema, Elysium.  Most people compare it to District 9, given that that was Blomkamp’s first big film, and most seem to agree that it wasn’t as good as that flick.  Me, I’d tend to agree, but on a much smaller scale.  For while Elysium was every bit as compelling in a visual sense, the characters were bland and almost incidental to the message of class warfare that permeated the movie.

The story of Elysium is set in a world where the Earth has been wrecked by environmental degradation.  The rich, not wanting to live in such a crappy place, built a big-ass space station in the sky - the titular Elysium.  They live up there with all their needs met, from food on their plate to machines that can instantly cure cancer.  Everyone else lives on the slum that is planet Earth.

Which leads us to our plot.  Main character Max (Matt Damon) finds himself in dire circumstances after being hit with a blast of lethal radiation.  So he decides that he’s going to figure out a way to get to Elysium so he can use one of those fancy machines to keep himself alive.  In order to get there, he has to do a job for a shady character and steal some date from the brain of a highly-placed executive.  The goal is bank account numbers but what they end up getting is the key in a plot to overthrow the government.

So in come the mercenaries, hunting down Max so that they can steal his head.  Eventually the entire party ends up on Elysium, everyone trying to get a hold of Max’s brain so they can rewrite the government.  Things blow up, boss battles ensue and things are made better for everyone.

First and foremost, this is a visually superior movie.  All the art and set design was done with a care that sets it heads above other sci-fi flicks.  The dirty things look dirty and the high-tech things are shiny and clean.  The elements of the film contrast with each other and really lend well to the overall theme.

Acting is a little above average.  Jodie Foster does a great job as the lady villain, most of the support characters put in enough personality to be memorable and even Damon succeeds in being the walking-piece-of-meat/hero that he’s supposed to represent.  As far as character development goes, however, there really isn’t much to look at.  The movie is a message and not about the individuals involved, so little time is spent on them.

Though I hate to revert to comparing this to District 9, I would have to say that Blomkamp’s ability to direct action has greatly improved with Elysium.  District 9 left me rolling my eyes at some of the ridiculous and cliché ways they handled the action scenes but Elysium toned all that down a bit.  We still get very cliché scenes in general, as in when they occur and what types of action scenes they are, but they’re much less painful to watch.

While I wouldn’t burden Elysium with the harsh 69/61% that the folks over at Rotten Tomatoes gave it, I wouldn’t say the critical assessment is too far off.  All-in-all, I enjoyed watching it.  Would I see it again?  Probably not.  It’s fun to watch, but not compelling enough to merit another go.

Photo Credits -           

Elysium courtesy of nerdspan.com