Well, Elysium is a little more subtle than, say… Machete, but that’s not saying much. This movie makes its message very clear, but in the end it doesn’t have much to say. The first few minutes (or a trailer) tell you everything you need to know about the setting: most people live on an overpopulated, disease-ridden Earth, but the most wealthy few decide to build an orbital habitat for themselves called Elysium. They have access to unbelievable medical technology, and they strictly control all transportation to and from Elysium. The rest of the film is, for the most part, a sci-fi action movie using that premise as a backdrop. Where some people described District 9 as a smart sci-fi allegory masquerading as an action movie, the opposite seems to be true for Elysium. But at least it ends on a less pessimistic note than District 9 did.
I think I would have enjoyed this movie more if the allegory was more subtle, or just dropped altogether. The action scenes taken by themselves are very good for the most part, though I wish movies like this would rely less on fast cuts and shaky handheld shots to convey those scenes. But that’s just me. The action is believable and even though the film uses CGI heavily, it doesn’t overpower the film. There’s enough that isn’t shot on a green screen to make the film feel concrete. The visual effects in general are very well done, and the movie has an abundance of cool sci-fi technology to show off those effects. As with District 9, the futuristic tech here is believable and is largely grounded in existing technology. It helps the world-building immensely, since you can imagine most of these technologies in the not-so-distant future. I should mention that I agree with MovieBob‘s assessment from his review of the film; so much of that tech is used in only a few scenes. It would have been great to see that used more in the movie.
 |
| taken from imdb.com |
That tendency to introduce interesting technology then show it in only a few scenes is an issue that I noticed in District 9 as well. Really, it seems like Elysium gets a lot of the same things right as District 9 did, but it also has many of the same flaws. However, one thing Elysium does better is the characters. Most of the characters in District 9 were selfish, cowardly, myopically prejudiced, or some combination of those traits, and it was hard to empathize with any of them, least of all the protagonist Wikus. District 9 presented a world that was too far gone to change for the better in any significant way. On the other hand, Elysium has characters who are actively fighting against injustice and the film has a much more hopeful tone.
The characters in Elysium are still pretty one-dimensional, but at least they’re easier to relate to, and the actors all perform their roles well. Matt Damon plays the protagonist Max, a car thief turned factory worker turned freedom fighter who actually has some character development. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that he begins the film caring only about his own life, but he ends up risking everything to help the population of Earth. Since I keep bringing up District 9, I should say that Sharlto Copley is back in Elysium, as Kruger. On the surface he’s playing a much different character in this film, but really Kruger is just as despicable, cruel, and slimy as Wikus. He’s simply far more badass.
Speaking of despicable and cruel characters, Elysium’s defense secretary Delacourt (played by Jodie Foster) is perhaps even worse than Kruger in that regard. Delacourt bothered me more than most of the other characters. Out of all of them, she really presents a flat image of evil with little nuance. She’s the straw man that this movie sets up just to knock down; she is just as much a biased and implausible depiction of the wealthiest 1% as any character in Atlas Shrugged.
Still, the movie is entertaining, though it does get fairly predictable towards the end, and the climax just isn’t very satisfying. I won’t go into why that is because it would be difficult to without spoiling it, but it does raise an interesting point that the film seems to sideline. The whole society in Elysium seems to be crippled not just because of the gross inequalities and cruelty, but also by their reliance on technology. That ends up being centrally important in this movie, not the oppression of billions, which is mostly a backdrop. I won’t say more than this, but one line of code changes everything, and it seems like that change might not last very long. Simply put, I thought the ending was weak, but I don’t want to spoil why that is.
After watching, it seems like the whole premise just isn’t that well thought-out. The film paints a big picture, but overlooks some important details. It’s a decent movie though; if you don’t mind the heavy-handed allegory, there’s a lot of cool sci-fi tech and some good action scenes that are worth seeing.
Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He wonders how painful (or lethal?) it is to take off one of those exo-suits. You can follow his attempts to board a ship to Elysium on Twitter at @Augustusing.
The Red Shirt Crew Blog and Podcast Network 