Elysium
Don't Go! Sci-fi that you won't buy.
Dystopian class war in space.
District 9 (2009) was an unusual film. An independent South African movie, directed by a South African, starring a South African and set in South Africa, it was quite...how can I put this..."South African" - something that we don't see much of, eh bra? It placed a science fiction magnifying glass over a still racially troubled nation, replacing a divide of colour with a divide of species and making aliens the vulnerable and ostracised elements of society rather than black humans. It was interesting, surprising, memorable, satirical and nommed no less, for a Best Picture Oscar. With that success, and Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) throwing his weight behind the director, Neill Blomkamp, it is surprising that his second film - Elysium - has been so long in coming. Still sci-fi, but a little less South-African on this occasion, it is a bit like a cross between Wall-E and Blade Runner.
Bear with me.
Bear with me.
Similar to Wall-E, the film is set in a future dystopia where Earth has been over-plundered, forcing certain inhabitants to leave. However, unlike in Wall-E where everyone escaped safely, only the fancier humans could afford to leave and have set-up a satellite utopia called "Elysium" just a few hundred miles above the Earth's atmosphere. Sadly, all of the poor folks left on Earth lead a crumbling, brutal life, while the Elysium-ites enjoy a world without any illness, poverty, or significant effort. I daresay that there is some social commentary to be had there about our own, current reality.
Left on its own, that concept would probably be quite depressing for 109 minutes. To spice things up, Matt Damon plays an ex-con whose main desire is to escape to Elysium and have himself healed of the radiation poisoning he gained while working in a futuristic factory that lacks a workable health and safety policy. Jodie Foster plays the Defence Secretary of Elysium whose job it is to prevent undesirables like Damon from reaching and disturbing the perfect life of the fancy humans. In Blade Runner style, Sharlto Copley (the South African lead from District 9), is introduced as Foster's odious, super-human and seemingly unstoppable attack dog, who is set loose to prevent Matt Damon from leaving Earth.
Left on its own, that concept would probably be quite depressing for 109 minutes. To spice things up, Matt Damon plays an ex-con whose main desire is to escape to Elysium and have himself healed of the radiation poisoning he gained while working in a futuristic factory that lacks a workable health and safety policy. Jodie Foster plays the Defence Secretary of Elysium whose job it is to prevent undesirables like Damon from reaching and disturbing the perfect life of the fancy humans. In Blade Runner style, Sharlto Copley (the South African lead from District 9), is introduced as Foster's odious, super-human and seemingly unstoppable attack dog, who is set loose to prevent Matt Damon from leaving Earth.
All that sounds kind of interesting, right? The mix of left-wing, socio-political commentary, sci-fi, action and crazy South Africans is pretty tantalising. The Elysium concept is straightforward, and its simplicity should have offered a great platform for the launch of a very intriguing film. Instead, a clunky script and a desperately predictable storyline turn it into something agonisingly second-rate.
The acting lumbers from ordinary (Damon) to pantomime (Foster) to downright poor (Copley) and with a supporting cast that barely deserves a mention. For the audience, there is little connection to the characters who are neither likeable nor interesting. Foster's performance in particular was emptier than a politician's promise and would have left her Best Actress Oscar statuette rusty and tarnished by its own wept tears of shame. In terms of the story, at times the film leans into the horror realm with blood and gore distractingly taking centre stage in interrupting stabs. The flipping of genres simply reinforces that this is a film that doesn't know what it is trying to achieve. On the positive side, some of the action sequences are admirable, and the CGI effects are often impressive, but even the impact of the action is lessened by a close-up camera style that makes it too difficult to absorb.
This all leaves the film without any real sense of conviction, and aside from all the conceptual failings, it becomes an effortful blob that is often noisy but always boring. With its credentials, it could have been so much more, and instead it becomes a flabby disappointment that should have gone straight to VHS, forever relegated to the slag heap of "Second Movies by Independent Directors Who Were Given Too Much Money and Spent it On the Wrong Stuff".
So don't go. Instead hit up your Netflix and watch the dystopian masterpiece that is Wall-E. There's a guy with real conviction.
The acting lumbers from ordinary (Damon) to pantomime (Foster) to downright poor (Copley) and with a supporting cast that barely deserves a mention. For the audience, there is little connection to the characters who are neither likeable nor interesting. Foster's performance in particular was emptier than a politician's promise and would have left her Best Actress Oscar statuette rusty and tarnished by its own wept tears of shame. In terms of the story, at times the film leans into the horror realm with blood and gore distractingly taking centre stage in interrupting stabs. The flipping of genres simply reinforces that this is a film that doesn't know what it is trying to achieve. On the positive side, some of the action sequences are admirable, and the CGI effects are often impressive, but even the impact of the action is lessened by a close-up camera style that makes it too difficult to absorb.
This all leaves the film without any real sense of conviction, and aside from all the conceptual failings, it becomes an effortful blob that is often noisy but always boring. With its credentials, it could have been so much more, and instead it becomes a flabby disappointment that should have gone straight to VHS, forever relegated to the slag heap of "Second Movies by Independent Directors Who Were Given Too Much Money and Spent it On the Wrong Stuff".
So don't go. Instead hit up your Netflix and watch the dystopian masterpiece that is Wall-E. There's a guy with real conviction.
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