"Elysium" - directed by Neill Blomkamp
First a confession....
I liked Neill Blomkamp's debut feature "District 9".
Liked not Loved.
I fully realise that anyone who calls themselves a Science Fiction and/or Horror fan should really tie their tongue in knots in expressing their love for the universally adored 2009 film but I think it is just a little bit overrated.
The effects are superb, the story original and the direction and overall production are slick.
It is a damned good film.
I just don't think it is the great film that most people seem to.
And now comes "Elysium" - the tricky second film.
The stars are bigger, the budget is bigger and expectations are higher.
"District 9" cost $30,000,000 - "Elysium" just short of four times that at $115,000,000
It is still pretty modest for an effects heavy sci-fi movie but there is a lot of pressure on this film to perform.
The trailers make it look a lot like "District 9" in terms of the themes, the setting and the production design.
We still have a rundown population victimised by the ruling body.
Instead of Aliens downtrodden under the boot of humans it is the sick and poor being mistreated by the wealthy.
They are doing so from a space station named "Elysium" that orbits an Earth inhabited by those too poor to leave the disease and pollution ridden planet.
The Earth is an overpopulated, disease ridden, polluted mess.
Everyone with money has left for the orbiting Utopia named "Elysium" where diseases can be cured in seconds with a sophisticated machine.
Life is designed to be like a perfect version of the planet the populace of the space station have left.
For those on Earth however life is a daily struggle to eat and to survive.
The police force is made up of ruthlessly stringent robot cops only too happy to administer beatings and harsh sentences for the smallest of infringements.
Max (Matt Damon) has a job on a production line that makes these machines.
When he is forced to do something that Health and Safety would have an absolute aneurism over he is exposed to a deadly dose of radiation, given 5 days to live and a bottle of pills to ease them.
Clearly he needs to get to Elysium and use one of the magic healing machines.
Easier said than done.
In an earlier, beautifully executed sequence we see three shuttles attempt to get from Earth to Elysium.
Two are destroyed by ground based missiles fired by the psychotic Elysium 'asset' Kruger (Sharlto Copley).
Throw in a sick girl and her Mother (Alice Braga) who has a history with Max and you have the set up for a pretty simple plot.
The man must get himself and the kid to the space station in time to save them both.
In his way are Kruger and his wrangler Delacourt (a coldly vicious Jodie Foster) who is the administrator of Elysium.
A solution presents itself in the form of a job opportunity provided by Spider- an Earth resistance leader of sorts.
If Max will steal the operating system for Elysium from the mind of the man who has just redesigned it he will be granted passage.
William Fichtner is in full on "What's the Worst That Could Happen" mode with his portrayal of John Carlyle - the man with the head full of code.
He is effeminate and prissy- more interested in keeping the infirmary sheets clean than saving a workers life.
I love a William Fichtner performance and the little bit of one you get here is good.
Likewise Jodie Foster is in edgy form as the clinically detached Delacourt.
I have no idea what accent she is attempting but it comes off as a disconcerting combination of upper class English and Boston.
If Foster sounds odd she has nothing on Sharlto Copley whose South African accent is cranked up to eleven.
It sounds like a non native trying to pull off the accent and going too far.
Regardless, with the inclusion of the great Faran Tahir ("Iron Man"), the underrated Carly Pope and an utterly lovely Alice Braga as Max's childhood love this film is not lacking in talent.
This extends to the effects, score and production design all of which are top notch.
In the case of the visual effects they are to all intents and purpose flawless.
Featuring some of the best spaceship and character designs I have seen in a sci-fi film for some time (perhaps only bested by "Prometheus") this is a gorgeous looking film.
Even the scenes of the decimated Los Angeles area with its crumbling skyscrapers and favela-like slums look stunning.
It is shame then that with all of the pieces in place the film stumbles in the third act.
Everything that is set up to provide a big finish just sort of chugs along over the goal line.
I got the sense that a much bigger finale was intended and maybe budget concerns or time constraints made it necessary to pull it back some.
Whatever the reason, the final thirty minutes do not provide the finale that the first sixty demand.
So many great ideas are wasted and so many possibilities squandered as it degenerates into a standard action climax.
Sure- the action is well shot and there are some crowd pleasing splatter effects of the sort that "District 9" used so well but really this is pretty disappointing for a film that had such a great premise.
Blomkamp's script also suffers from some plausibility issues that leave parts of it baffling.
To gain total control over Elysium Delacourt has Carlyle re-write the entire space stations operating system in a matter of hours.
He will hand it over in exchange for military contracts secured for 200 years.
If has the ability to create code to effectively rule the world why not just use it himself?
Surely that is far more interesting to him than sole manufacture and distribution rights on police robots for two centuries?
Foster's rotten to the core Delacourt is short changed when it comes down to the crunch too with her motivations left largely unrevealed.
Also puzzling is the amount that has been trimmed from the final film.
The medical scanning/curing machine so well portrayed in pre-release trailers ('trace cancer detected') is left short in the finished product.
We get half of the scene in which the red bikini clad sunbather cures herself but none of the explanation.
In fact Elysium the place itself is underdeveloped.
The structure looks glorious and we see hints of the idyllic lifestyle we are told people live but it fails to convince.
The politics are muddled also.
How powerful is Foster and what control does the President have over her?
Sometimes it seems like she is constricted- others like she has all of the power.
All faults aside and weak ending notwithstanding "Elysium" is still that rarest of beast- a genuine Science Fiction film.
It is loaded with good ideas and solid performances and the production is super, super slick.
With a better ending and some plot holes plugged this could have been the movie that cements Blomkamp as a master of the genre.
For me though he still hasn't shown the extent of the talents it is clear he possesses.
I hope that his upcoming "Chappie" will be the film that elevates him to genre great with his name sitting deservedly next to Scott, Kubrick, Spielberg and Cameron.
"Elysium" is good enough to make its faults all the more frustrating.
It is never dull and is by no means even close to a 'bad' film.
It entertains and often excites but still must count as a disappointment.
I liked Neill Blomkamp's debut feature "District 9".
Liked not Loved.
I fully realise that anyone who calls themselves a Science Fiction and/or Horror fan should really tie their tongue in knots in expressing their love for the universally adored 2009 film but I think it is just a little bit overrated.
The effects are superb, the story original and the direction and overall production are slick.
It is a damned good film.
I just don't think it is the great film that most people seem to.
And now comes "Elysium" - the tricky second film.
The stars are bigger, the budget is bigger and expectations are higher.
"District 9" cost $30,000,000 - "Elysium" just short of four times that at $115,000,000
It is still pretty modest for an effects heavy sci-fi movie but there is a lot of pressure on this film to perform.
The trailers make it look a lot like "District 9" in terms of the themes, the setting and the production design.
We still have a rundown population victimised by the ruling body.
Instead of Aliens downtrodden under the boot of humans it is the sick and poor being mistreated by the wealthy.
They are doing so from a space station named "Elysium" that orbits an Earth inhabited by those too poor to leave the disease and pollution ridden planet.
 |
| Visually "Elysium" is a treat. |
As with Blomkamp's first film the subtext is there in plain sight if you like that sort of thing.
The opening scenes of "Elysium" efficiently present the world of the future to us.The Earth is an overpopulated, disease ridden, polluted mess.
Everyone with money has left for the orbiting Utopia named "Elysium" where diseases can be cured in seconds with a sophisticated machine.
Life is designed to be like a perfect version of the planet the populace of the space station have left.
For those on Earth however life is a daily struggle to eat and to survive.
The police force is made up of ruthlessly stringent robot cops only too happy to administer beatings and harsh sentences for the smallest of infringements.
Max (Matt Damon) has a job on a production line that makes these machines.
When he is forced to do something that Health and Safety would have an absolute aneurism over he is exposed to a deadly dose of radiation, given 5 days to live and a bottle of pills to ease them.
Clearly he needs to get to Elysium and use one of the magic healing machines.
Easier said than done.
In an earlier, beautifully executed sequence we see three shuttles attempt to get from Earth to Elysium.
Two are destroyed by ground based missiles fired by the psychotic Elysium 'asset' Kruger (Sharlto Copley).
Throw in a sick girl and her Mother (Alice Braga) who has a history with Max and you have the set up for a pretty simple plot.
The man must get himself and the kid to the space station in time to save them both.
In his way are Kruger and his wrangler Delacourt (a coldly vicious Jodie Foster) who is the administrator of Elysium.
 |
| Matt Damon and Alice Braga |
If Max will steal the operating system for Elysium from the mind of the man who has just redesigned it he will be granted passage.
William Fichtner is in full on "What's the Worst That Could Happen" mode with his portrayal of John Carlyle - the man with the head full of code.
He is effeminate and prissy- more interested in keeping the infirmary sheets clean than saving a workers life.
I love a William Fichtner performance and the little bit of one you get here is good.
Likewise Jodie Foster is in edgy form as the clinically detached Delacourt.
I have no idea what accent she is attempting but it comes off as a disconcerting combination of upper class English and Boston.
If Foster sounds odd she has nothing on Sharlto Copley whose South African accent is cranked up to eleven.
It sounds like a non native trying to pull off the accent and going too far.
Regardless, with the inclusion of the great Faran Tahir ("Iron Man"), the underrated Carly Pope and an utterly lovely Alice Braga as Max's childhood love this film is not lacking in talent.
This extends to the effects, score and production design all of which are top notch.
In the case of the visual effects they are to all intents and purpose flawless.
Featuring some of the best spaceship and character designs I have seen in a sci-fi film for some time (perhaps only bested by "Prometheus") this is a gorgeous looking film.
Even the scenes of the decimated Los Angeles area with its crumbling skyscrapers and favela-like slums look stunning.
 |
| The villains.... A robotic, coolly beautiful Jodie Foster as Delacourt and an over the top Sharlto Copley as Kruger. |
Everything that is set up to provide a big finish just sort of chugs along over the goal line.
I got the sense that a much bigger finale was intended and maybe budget concerns or time constraints made it necessary to pull it back some.
Whatever the reason, the final thirty minutes do not provide the finale that the first sixty demand.
So many great ideas are wasted and so many possibilities squandered as it degenerates into a standard action climax.
Sure- the action is well shot and there are some crowd pleasing splatter effects of the sort that "District 9" used so well but really this is pretty disappointing for a film that had such a great premise.
Blomkamp's script also suffers from some plausibility issues that leave parts of it baffling.
To gain total control over Elysium Delacourt has Carlyle re-write the entire space stations operating system in a matter of hours.
He will hand it over in exchange for military contracts secured for 200 years.
If has the ability to create code to effectively rule the world why not just use it himself?
Surely that is far more interesting to him than sole manufacture and distribution rights on police robots for two centuries?
Foster's rotten to the core Delacourt is short changed when it comes down to the crunch too with her motivations left largely unrevealed.
Also puzzling is the amount that has been trimmed from the final film.
The medical scanning/curing machine so well portrayed in pre-release trailers ('trace cancer detected') is left short in the finished product.
We get half of the scene in which the red bikini clad sunbather cures herself but none of the explanation.
In fact Elysium the place itself is underdeveloped.
The structure looks glorious and we see hints of the idyllic lifestyle we are told people live but it fails to convince.
The politics are muddled also.
How powerful is Foster and what control does the President have over her?
Sometimes it seems like she is constricted- others like she has all of the power.
 |
| "Elysium" is a pretty good Science Fiction film that falls well short of greatness |
It is loaded with good ideas and solid performances and the production is super, super slick.
With a better ending and some plot holes plugged this could have been the movie that cements Blomkamp as a master of the genre.
For me though he still hasn't shown the extent of the talents it is clear he possesses.
I hope that his upcoming "Chappie" will be the film that elevates him to genre great with his name sitting deservedly next to Scott, Kubrick, Spielberg and Cameron.
"Elysium" is good enough to make its faults all the more frustrating.
It is never dull and is by no means even close to a 'bad' film.
It entertains and often excites but still must count as a disappointment.
| Rated | R16 for some brutal violence and medium level profanity |
| Running Time: | 110 minutes (1hr, 42 mins without end credits) |
| Starring: |
| Matt Damon | --- Max |
| Jodie Foster | --- Delacourt |
| Sharlto Copley | --- Kruger |
| Alica Braga | --- Frey |
| Diego Luna | --- Julio |
| Wagner Moura | --- Spider |
| William Fichtner | --- John Carlyle |
| Brandon Auret | --- Drake |
| Josh Blacker | --- Crowe |
| Faran Tahir | --- President Patel |
| Emma Tremblay | --- Matilda |
| Carly Pope | --- CCB Agent |
| Jose Pablo Cantillo | --- Sandro |
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