Starring: Matt Damon and Jodie Foster
Director: Neill Blomkamp
In a few words...: Whilst the poor people of the world languish on earth, destined to a slow death, the rich and influential live on an artificial world in the earth's orbit, called Elysium, where everything is perfect, where there is no pollution or political troubles, and where there are machines that cure every illness known to man in just one second.
Rating: 6/10
In a few words...: Whilst the poor people of the world languish on earth, destined to a slow death, the rich and influential live on an artificial world in the earth's orbit, called Elysium, where everything is perfect, where there is no pollution or political troubles, and where there are machines that cure every illness known to man in just one second.
Rating: 6/10
Beware: SPOILERS AHEAD
Max Da Costa (Damon) is not lucky enough to know someone or have enough money to be able to live in endless health above earth on Elysium. He's also a convicted felon, and comes under the watchful eye of the robotic police department whilst working on the assembly line for the Armadyne Corp., the company that built Elysium. In the midst of the overpopulated, devastated earth, Da Costa is lucky to have a job, and everything's going well until he's exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, poisoning him so badly that he's given just five days to live.
At the same time, a group of Earth residents attempt to illegally gain access to Elysium, and Elysium's Secretary of Defense, Jessica Delacourt (Foster), ordered one of her agents, on earth, a vicious man called Kruger, to shoot down their shuttle. It's a move that earns the ire of Elysium's president, and Delacourt, deciding that she's had enough of being ordered around, recruits the president of Armadyne Corp., John Carlyle (the always-excellent William Fichtner) to stage a coup that would end with her being installed as president. Carlyle writes a program that can override Elysium's central computer, allowing Delacourt to do just that, and uploads the data to his brain for safe keeping.
Da Costa, increasingly desperate to use one of the Med-Bays, uses the knowledge of a close friend to find a smuggler named Spider, who supervises installation of a powered exoskeleton apparatus that's drilled into his body to combat the increasing reach of the radiation poisoning over his body. He is also given a chip, into which data, like what Carlyle has in his mind, can be stored.
Abducting Carlyle, Da Costa transmits the information to his own mind, and has to escape Kruger and his group who are after the knowledge Carlyle has, working for Delacourt. In the ensuring battle, Da Costa is the only one who survives, and he takes shelter in the house of an old friend, Frey (Alice Braga), whose daughter is dying of leukemia, and is equally desperate to access the Med-Bays on Elysium to cure her. When the information is extracted from Da Costa's head, he bargains with Kruger for a ride to up to Elysium, but doesn't know that the mercenary has Frey and her daughter hostage.
And so, of course, Elysium is breached. Kruger has his own ideas. He kills Delacourt and tries to steal the data in Da Costa's head to become. president of Elysium himself. Spider and his men have snuck aboard Elysium in the midst of the action. A showdown between Kruger and Da Costa later, and Carlyle's program is used to ensure that everyone is a citizen of Elysium, which means that Frey's daughter can be cured in a Med-Bay.
This film didn't reach out and grab me, which is a surprise, because I normally love a good science fiction film. I must confess that Elysium wasn't my choice of film, but I went anyway, because my companion was keen to watch. I found it dragged at times, and I spent a lot of time checking Twitter's reaction to the film. That's rare for me. I almost never do that.
Also, the story line was confused, muddled between a poor-versus-rich squabble and a guy fighting for a girl (and her girl). Because of the premise, I went in with high hopes, and I came away disappointed. Damon just didn't fit the part of a brutal ex-con. I wasn't nearly as excited by proceedings on the screen as my companion was. I guess it had something to do with the fact that she loves Matt Damon in anything, and I was more interested in keeping an eye out for a possible Ben Affleck cameo.
There are some bright spots, like the spectacular visuals and the interesting depiction of a ravaged earth. Jodie Foster is good, too, but it felt like her storyline was pushed to the sideline for the most part, the director instead focusing on Damon's character. And we didn't see nearly enough of one of my favourites, William Fichtner. It was a wasted opportunity. Sort of like this film, altogether.
This film didn't reach out and grab me, which is a surprise, because I normally love a good science fiction film. I must confess that Elysium wasn't my choice of film, but I went anyway, because my companion was keen to watch. I found it dragged at times, and I spent a lot of time checking Twitter's reaction to the film. That's rare for me. I almost never do that.
Also, the story line was confused, muddled between a poor-versus-rich squabble and a guy fighting for a girl (and her girl). Because of the premise, I went in with high hopes, and I came away disappointed. Damon just didn't fit the part of a brutal ex-con. I wasn't nearly as excited by proceedings on the screen as my companion was. I guess it had something to do with the fact that she loves Matt Damon in anything, and I was more interested in keeping an eye out for a possible Ben Affleck cameo.
There are some bright spots, like the spectacular visuals and the interesting depiction of a ravaged earth. Jodie Foster is good, too, but it felt like her storyline was pushed to the sideline for the most part, the director instead focusing on Damon's character. And we didn't see nearly enough of one of my favourites, William Fichtner. It was a wasted opportunity. Sort of like this film, altogether.
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