“Elysium” is writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to his 2009 Best Picture Academy Award nominee “District 9”. He teams-up again with that film’s breakout star, Sharlto Copley, who joins Oscar winners Matt Damon and Jodie Foster in yet another of 2013’s movies in which Earth is no longer a great place to live.
Let’s spin the wheel and see the year in which this futuristic action film is set: We’ve landed on 2154. For decades, Earth has become diseased and overpopulated. The poor live in the streets, most people are sick and don’t have jobs. However, the wealthy and powerful have escaped the dying planet and have moved to the luxurious world of Elysium, a satellite station hovering above Earth, where all illnesses are cured and residents live in total paradise. But not for long.
Damon’s Max has dreamed since he was a boy of going to Elysium, but he’s stuck down on Earth. A former car thief, Max works at a factory that repairs robots. Following an accident on the job Max is given the opportunity to finally get to Elysium, but he has to do a few drastic and dangerous things to get there. He accidentally comes into possession of some valuable information – and soon everyone either wants him, or at least wants his head, where the info is stored. That includes Defense Secretary Delacourt (Foster). She desperately wants to become President of Elysium, and uses her power to stop invaders. And then there’s Agent Kruger (played by Copley). He works for Delacourt and is ordered to track down Max before the information gets into the wrong hands. Kruger and his men mean business.
And what would a big action film be without a sentimental subplot? In this case, it involves Max’s former girlfriend and her young daughter who has leukemia. They need to get the girl to Elysium to save her life. This unnecessary storyline gets too much screentime, especially in the film’s climactic moments.
There isn’t much set-up in “Elysium”. Outside of Max, who we learn a little about through flashbacks, the characters are flat and superficial. And we aren’t really sure why Elysium is such a paradise (except that it’s green and Earth is brown) or how this society in the sky works. For a science fiction movie there’s very little science. But there’s plenty of action and good performances. I’ve enjoyed Damon in practically all of the films he’s been in recently (“We Bought a Zoo” being the exception). He’s good here again, in a physically demanding role. Max is constantly in pain and is involved in brutal fights throughout the film.
Foster’s role is limited to talking tough. But there’s a HUGE problem. It’s clear that all of her audio was looped (added after the film was shot) and her lips do not sync-up with her voice. And the fact that she’s doing this weird, slightly British, slightly sinsiter accent makes it even worse. I hope this mistake was only in the version of the film I screened, and not the one that’s going out to thousands of theaters.
Speaking of sinister, Copley plays a really bad guy really well. He’s got great screen presence and needs to be in some more movies – in villain and non-bad guy roles. Two other impressive elements of “Elysium” are the special effects – which may be the most believable of any sci-fi movie this summer, and the set design. You do feel like you’re in gritty, grimy Los Angeles and the space station shots are quite convincing.
This is an intense,
very violent film, with some shocking, disturbing images and plenty of blood. It’s rated R for all of that and adult language. It’s appropriate for teens and up. It’s certainly not a classic, but worth the ride.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Elysium” gets a B-.