Elysium, South African director Neil Blomkamp’s follow-up to surprising box office hit and Oscar-nominated District 9, reached movie theatres in August carrying big expectations. With a big name star in Matt Damon and a budget almost 4 times that of 30 million dollar District 9, Blomkamp’s unique vision and style is given plenty more room to work with but ultimately, the final result is a resounding disappointment. Making a long story short, in a future where the rich have fled an overpopulated crumbling Earth to a beautiful and plush haven in space called Elysium, Max (Matt Damon) is thrust by fate and desperation into a chain of events that will change this world order for good.
I always thought that the problem with Blomkamp was with certain aspects of the storytelling and while we catch glimpses of those flaws in District 9, especially in the action-packed grand finale, they are prevalent throughout Elysium. A ham-fisted and shoddily done opening is surely one of the most unsubtle and silly things I’ve seen all summer. The exposition introducing Max’s character in the beginning is overly simplified, juvenile and rushed. One of the main problems in Elysium, and something that is becoming very common lately in other R-rated action movies, is that it is graphic and bloody while also paradoxically incredibly simple and juvenile at the same time. Keep an eye out for an incredibly stupid and awkward scene involving Damon and a young girl’s story about a hippo for a good example of what I mean. Mix that in with a couple of very graphic deaths and ships filled with crippled refuges being mercilessly blown up and the movie comes off caught between two worlds in terms of what audience it’s really meant for. Blomkamp takes great pains to create this world and while some of the gadgets and technology are cool, it doesn’t really show up on the screen (one exception being an incredible facial reconstruction scene). We catch glimpses of the dystopian Earth and the utopian Elysium of this future but never really get a feel for either or experience them properly. This is especially true for Elysium where we only witness a couple of futuristic looking hallways or control rooms and the odd mansion here and there.
SPOILERS:
The film has an interesting supporting cast that is unfortunately terribly utilized. Jodie Foster, as the head of security of sorts for Elysium, is one of the villains in an awful performance that isn’t really her fault. Equipped with a bizarre American/English/who knows what else accent and willing to defend Elysium’s independence at any cost, this is one character who is definitely shortchanged and cheaply disposed of in the end. In an interesting choice, District 9’s Sharlto Copley also stars as psychopathic mercenary Kruger, a role that couldn’t be further away from the meek and scrawny Wikus van de Merwe. He looks the part and embraces the brutal physicality of the role but his portrayal is definitely hit and miss, especially in the finale where he becomes increasingly over the top and cartoonish in his delivery. Finally, there isn’t much to say about Damon’s performance. He isn’t really a good fit for the role but there really isn’t much for the character to do. While District 9’s Wikus goes through incredible hardship and undergoes a clear process of change from beginning to end, Max’s story is simply that he has a basic obvious desire to escape his surroundings and go to Elysium ever since he was a child, and as some old nun mentions to him in the aforementioned awful opening, he is destined for great things. There are obvious parallels in this messianic nature of his character, especially in the end, but luckily nothing as blatant as what we witness in Man of Steel (A cringe-worthy church scene with Superman and a random generic priest comes to mind).
The movie as a whole brings up many interesting themes about concerns of the ever growing and constant divide between the rich and poor. Immoral CEO types, always easy targets as villains in Hollywood films, do crop up here, but Elysium only scratches the surface of the fascinating possibilities and moral dilemmas such a world creates. Because of the juvenile nature of the film, certain questions arise regarding the technology and the shocking simplicity with which the entire system of Elysium can be taken over and controlled or of how easily three murderous rapist South African mercenaries could have taken over everything, or why Jodie Foster’s ill-fated character would trust Kruger enough to be alone with him and his men. Technology exists that can cure any malady and theoretically make you immortal but who if anyone should have the power to withhold or administer such technology one might ask? The movie bluntly answers that by giving us a childish happy ending where everyone supposedly gets medical aid. Does anything really get solved in the end? Earth seems to be completely controlled by marauding gangsters and I would have loved to see a sequel where people begin to kill each other to control that medical technology or perhaps override the system again.
C+
Trailer:
Movie info:
Runtime: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Wagner Moura
Director: Neil Blomkamp
Screenplay: Neil Blomkamp
Cinematography: Trent Opaloch
Distributed by: Sony Pictures
No comments:
Post a Comment