Elysium
Year: 2013
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon & Jodie Foster
Runtime: 109 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 17/07/23
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Matt Damon & Jodie Foster
Runtime: 109 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 17/07/23
Following up on District 9 was always going to be a tough job for writer/director Neill Blomkamp, even more so considering that because District 9 was his first feature film, he had set expectations of his own work so astronomically high with little else to compare it to other than a number of short films. Studios were bending over backwards to get Blomkamp on board following the critical and commercial success of District 9, but it took years for his next project to get off the ground. Elysium promised more of what people loved about District 9, dystopian sci-fi with a heavy political and humanitarian focus. But when the film released to a mixed reception, Elysium arguably suffered greatly for not being a repeat of what Blomkamp achieved before. Is Elysium disappointing, or should it be celebrated on its own merits?
The year is 2154, they Earth is overpopulated and heavily polluted, it is dying and there’s no way to repair the damage done. This has prompted Earth’s rich and powerful to build an orbiting space station, Elysium, where they can live comfortable lives whilst the poor are left on Earth to fight over the scraps.
Max (Matt Damon) builds peacekeeper robots for the Armadyne Corporation in order to keep his parole in check. A former criminal, Max wants to turn over a new leaf in the hopes of winning the affections of his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga). But when Max is involved in an industrial accident that sees him exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, he is given five days to live as his body slowly and painfully falls apart.
In a last-ditch attempt to save his life, Max agrees to a suicide mission. Steal valuable information about Elysium from the CEO of Armadyne, in return Max will be able to use one of the valuable healing stations on Elysium which will cure his radiation poisoning. But when Max learns what the data is, he may be able to save the whole human race.
The year is 2154, they Earth is overpopulated and heavily polluted, it is dying and there’s no way to repair the damage done. This has prompted Earth’s rich and powerful to build an orbiting space station, Elysium, where they can live comfortable lives whilst the poor are left on Earth to fight over the scraps.
Max (Matt Damon) builds peacekeeper robots for the Armadyne Corporation in order to keep his parole in check. A former criminal, Max wants to turn over a new leaf in the hopes of winning the affections of his childhood friend Frey (Alice Braga). But when Max is involved in an industrial accident that sees him exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, he is given five days to live as his body slowly and painfully falls apart.
In a last-ditch attempt to save his life, Max agrees to a suicide mission. Steal valuable information about Elysium from the CEO of Armadyne, in return Max will be able to use one of the valuable healing stations on Elysium which will cure his radiation poisoning. But when Max learns what the data is, he may be able to save the whole human race.
Elysium is a classic case of a writer having lots of great ideas but not really knowing what to do with them, and so the end result ends up feeling generic and as though it underutilises all of its core concepts. You got good ideas of overpopulation, pollution, transhumanism, class warfare, ethnic cleansing, and more…but they’re all just put into a blender, served up in the traditional template for an action movie, and so it all feels a bit so-so and half baked. Because it never fully commits to any of these concepts, the whole point of the film seems kind of moot, and it feels like just another dumb action flick.
There are too many stories happening. Every single character has their own sub-plot of sorts, and they all end up coming together in a reasonably uninspired way, feeling like either Blomkamp just ran out of ideas for them, or he wrote himself into a corner and the only way out was to tie their story to Max’s. Take Frey for example, she’s literally trying to cure cancer, but she rarely takes initiative with this pursuit and instead it falls on Max as part of his mission to Elysium. This is far from the only example, and it sort of ends up feeling like a videogame, everyone has these motivations, but Max is seemingly the only person who can do anything about it because he’s going to Elysium.
This might not even be so bad if these stories are what drove the plot, but they aren’t, it’s the uninspired actions sequences. Like District 9, Elysium has a habit of using these action sequences to prop the film up, and they’re far more frequent and even less interesting than those seen in District 9. They can be fun, particularly when Sharlto Copley’s Agent Kruger is involved, but they often come at the expense of character development or deepening the plot.
There are too many stories happening. Every single character has their own sub-plot of sorts, and they all end up coming together in a reasonably uninspired way, feeling like either Blomkamp just ran out of ideas for them, or he wrote himself into a corner and the only way out was to tie their story to Max’s. Take Frey for example, she’s literally trying to cure cancer, but she rarely takes initiative with this pursuit and instead it falls on Max as part of his mission to Elysium. This is far from the only example, and it sort of ends up feeling like a videogame, everyone has these motivations, but Max is seemingly the only person who can do anything about it because he’s going to Elysium.
This might not even be so bad if these stories are what drove the plot, but they aren’t, it’s the uninspired actions sequences. Like District 9, Elysium has a habit of using these action sequences to prop the film up, and they’re far more frequent and even less interesting than those seen in District 9. They can be fun, particularly when Sharlto Copley’s Agent Kruger is involved, but they often come at the expense of character development or deepening the plot.
Speaking of performances, nobody stands out. Damon has as much charisma as a cardboard cutout here, he really is just a generic criminal that wants to turn his life around. He’s a walking cliché and you get the impression that Damon doesn’t particularly care for the role. Copley just spends the whole film aggressively swearing, and whilst he does bring a good level of energy to the action sequences, outside of them he stands out as one of the worst actors in the film because he’s just on a totally different energy level to everyone else. Even Jodie Foster, the films main villain, feels like she just walked on set, said her lines, and then called it a day. There’s no energy or passion behind it, and I find it quite strange because a lot of these actors were excited to work with Blomkamp following District 9. Is the script just bad? Was he not giving them the right kind of notes? Or do they just not care?
The one area where Elysium does excel is in its special effects. Similar to District 9, because of how the film is shot, the special effects look totally natural and genuinely stunning. The design of a lot of these things are great too, with Elysium being a 2001 style wheel shaped station. This does have the capacity to be a really pretty film at times, and it proves that Blomkamp really has an eye for details in a way that a lot of other directors don’t.
It's a shame that Elysium doesn’t carry the torch on from District 9 by feeling like a totally original and unique science fiction film. Especially because it feels totally the opposite. Whilst I do rewatch District 9 every few years, I can’t see myself ever going back to Elysium, because I’ve seen a lot of what it’s trying to do done before and better. It’s just not particularly interesting, and the performances do nothing to try and convince me otherwise. If you want a sci-fi action film then it might scratch an itch, but there are a lot of better films out there that’ll do it better.
The one area where Elysium does excel is in its special effects. Similar to District 9, because of how the film is shot, the special effects look totally natural and genuinely stunning. The design of a lot of these things are great too, with Elysium being a 2001 style wheel shaped station. This does have the capacity to be a really pretty film at times, and it proves that Blomkamp really has an eye for details in a way that a lot of other directors don’t.
It's a shame that Elysium doesn’t carry the torch on from District 9 by feeling like a totally original and unique science fiction film. Especially because it feels totally the opposite. Whilst I do rewatch District 9 every few years, I can’t see myself ever going back to Elysium, because I’ve seen a lot of what it’s trying to do done before and better. It’s just not particularly interesting, and the performances do nothing to try and convince me otherwise. If you want a sci-fi action film then it might scratch an itch, but there are a lot of better films out there that’ll do it better.