Directed by:
Neill BlomkampScreenplay:
Neill BlomkampCinematography:
Trent OpalochComposer:
Ryan AmonCast:
Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Michael Shanks, Carly Pope, Talisa Soto, Sharlto Copley, Wagner Moura, Faran Tahir (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
In the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) will stop at nothing to preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium - but that doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in by any means they can. Max (Matt Damon) agrees to take on a life threatening mission, one that could bring equality to these polarized worlds. (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (12)
Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar crossed with Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. Elysium has a rawer exposition than many artsy social dramas. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, out of the fire and into the shit. Work hard, die in pain. In a setting as equally shabby as that in District 9. Poverty, filth, disorder (the repressive regime makes itself known only when someone penetrates the world of the privileged). But you hope that the melodramatic flashbacks won’t dictate the tone of the narrative and that the film won’t deteriorate into an equally irritating spiritual handbook as Cloud Atlas. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen. Elysium puts up a brave fight against its nicer self – which I would like to believe was imposed by the studio – until the end; only then does the ultimate idealistic softening come. The romantic storyline unfortunately fails due to the brief time that the partners spend together and the intention was probably to make the class struggle a stronger motivation than love. The main objective and uncompromising deadlines are established with B-movie directness: the protagonist wants something and he must do this and that within X number of days at the latest in order to get it. A bonus for the Marxists is that Max’s mission is indirectly motivated by the unfair healthcare system, excessive punishments for illegal migrants and the inequality of citizens who obviously no longer care about race or nationality, but only about social class (in addition to that, an important role in the story is played by the leaking of the powerful elite’s sensitive data to the public, which can only be seen as an allusion to the Wikileaks and Snowden affairs). Given the insidious adoration of capitalism in most Hollywood blockbusters, I consider the indignation expressed by some American critics’ over the naïve propaganda of Elysium, in which the good people are truly good, the bad are seriously bad and any more ambivalence is taboo, to be shortsighted at the very least. Regardless of its ideological essence and the guilelessness with which it presents that essence, Elysium is primarily a brutal, high-octane cyberpunk dystopia with an almost horror-like atmosphere (see, for example, most of the scenes with the monstrous Copley), unpredictable development (the characters act erratically, occasionally something just simply goes wrong and at one point the star system is nicely mocked) and, unfortunately, extremely chaotic action scenes. With the exception of the extreme-slow-motion shots, which are cool thanks to the fact that Blomkamp doesn’t squander them, but I found it very difficult to tell who delivered blows to whom because of the overabundance of cuts. The variability of the direction that the narrative takes makes Elysium one the most video-game-like films of recent years alongside Battle Los Angeles and Dredd. The ending is determined, the course is marked and the specific form of the action depends on the player (who in this case is half man and half machine) and his abilities, and it thus doesn’t necessarily have to be as neatly planned out as in the case of more conventional action. Elysium surely could have provided more material for study (whether that would involve ideology or narratology), but it’s definitely still good as summer entertainment. 75%
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One of my 10 most anticipated films of the year turned out to be meh. Neill Blomkamp still is an interesting talent as director, you can feel his almost fanlike zeal for smart science fiction, but like District 9, this movie stumbles with the script, though here it’s unfortunately worse. Elysium mixes a lot of things that are great with things that are far from great, and the result is inconsistent. First of all, I didn’t like: 1) The dense, black and white left-wing discourse. For most of the time, it isn’t so loud and I would have been fine with it, but the film lost me with the naive happy ending presented with a very serious face. Anyone with half a brain, or anyone capable of deducing the consequences of those left-wing ideas would realise that this can’t work. A couple of hospital ships (even if there were a lot more than shown, say, 1000) equipped with Med-Bays will peacefully go from slum to slum to treat an overpopulated planet, and people will stand in line and wait patiently? Yeah, right. And even if we assumed that “the resources are there”, i.e. that there are enough hospital ships, the film would deserve and even lower rating due to its hyperbole of putting all the rich people in the role of assholes who oppress the poor on Earth just for the fun of it… that would be extremely manipulative by Blomkamp, and I wouldn’t be willing to accept it. 2) The holes in the script, the half-assedness and the reliance on coincidences. All the activities of the Spider gang are so weird. Where do they get the codes or the ships? Why doesn’t the defence of Elysium do anything about it and waits to shoot at them one by one when they’re approaching? Why doesn’t Elysium have a modern defence system and instead uses some deranged agent to shoot down the ships manually (!!!) from Earth’s surface??? A criminal with his notebook is able to overwrite the entire system with the right codes? After one second of looking at a mass of code, the criminal is able to figure out that he’s holding a treasure in his hand and what that treasure can do? Earth is full of poverty, disease and destroyed buildings, but from the air it appears that lights work everywhere (=electricity)? The Med-Bays can’t cure a neck injury but they can cure half a head blown by a grenade? Or he didn’t die after being shot in the head? Really?! 3) Pathos, pathos, stupid pathos. I wouldn’t mind the left-wing stuff if it wasn’t adorned with slow-motion sunny scenes from the hero’s childhood. And the wise fairy-tale about a hippopotamus and a meerkat told by a cute little girl dying of leukaemia? God, why?! :-D____ And what I did like. 1) Magnificent sci-fi set design. The amazing design of Elysium, while on earth everything looks very realistic, worn-out, dirty. The world where the story takes place is brilliantly put together. 2) Sharlto Copley’s Agent Krueger, a brilliantly portrayed lunatic. 3) Certain moments in the script. Spoiler alert! For instance, the part when Krueger decides to take control of Elysium. I believe that the film would be much better if it focused only on Delacourt’s attempt at a coup d’etat, followed by Krueger’s military putsch and treason. They should have sod from the beginning that fairy-tale of the poor bastard that saves everyone.
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The classic writer's evergreen about how a promising debutant from a remote corner of our planet came to Hollywood only to be scrapped by the very next film makes me want to sing along this time. But this is Blomkamp’s own fault. I would have also tolerated the leftist agitprop about an individual rebelling against a ruthless system this time if I hadn't had to ask so many questions during the screening, especially regarding elementary logic - How does Elysium work? Why does his defense work in such a stupid way? Why is the Minister being punished for defending him? And many others. It functions mostly because action-wise it's probably the best in years, and Blomkamp delivers the shots and moments in that central cut with such certainty that other directors would sell their mothers and their souls for it. Go back to the slums, Neill. And take those metamorphosis ideas with you. One day you will be a worthy successor to James Cameron.
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Neill Blomkamp is certainly one of the most prominent characters in world cinema. Above all, he’s definitely an idol for sci-fi maniacs, because what he did with aliens in the middle of Joburg this time shook me in several ways, and I haven’t really come around from that to this day. I got really happy when I learned that Neill was making another sci-fi movie, this time with Hollywood actors, which promised a bigger budget and possibly a more epic story. In the end, I was hoping that all those Hollywood weirdoes and big-wigs wouldn’t make it into a political agitation, dictating what Neill could and couldn’t do in a good old American blockbuster. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t quite perfect either, just like District 9. Maybe because it was pretty similar. The worst thing for me was the camerawork. I didn’t mind it as much in District 9 – it was a low budget movie with a unique idea, done in a distinctive half-documentary style, at least in the first half. But Elysium is a blockbuster, and in that case I expect that all these space-ships, monsters and modern machines will be well-visible. And not that I would look at it all as if I were sitting in a carriage pulled by a horse through some bumpy path somewhere in the mountains. That was quite a problem for me. However, the director of photography Trent Opaloch collaborates with Neil on a long-term basis, so I don’t expect Neil’s films to change much in the foreseeable future. On the positive side, we get to see Sharlto Copley, who delivers an almost demonic performance.
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A socialist blockbuster? Why not. It's too bad that at the core the only deviation from classic Hollywood is that everything is the other way around. Those who protect the status quo are disgusting, those who creep in the dirt and humiliation are nice and dedicated people. Damon does not excel from the periphery as Jesus, but no one also expected him to. The guy eaten by radiation and riddled with knife cuts feels forgettable, anti-heroic, and most of the time he does his own thing, even though at the end he understands what a meerkat hippo is for. The fairytale concludes nicely to my satisfaction. It is once again a pity that the difference between Bay and Blomkamp lies mainly in the fact that guys here act like they are from Brazilian social dramas, and some of the bad guys have an obvious political officer (Jodie Foster really forced Maggie in there). At its core, Elysium is actually quite dull, but (for me) sympathetically "do-gooder". The problem for me is where many see excellent directing. I see a magnificent art / sound design and a number of partial nice shots, but which have an unusual stylish scattering. With a bit of exaggeration, it's like a mix of the City of God, Elite Squad and what I'd call "Paul Greengrass imitates Paul W. S. Anderson". Some of the elements are inconsistently used (the video game shot "over the shoulder" including the accompanying blur effect) and, unlike District 9, the constant jumps between different styles are choppy. Kinetic games and section cuts sometimes result in clutter. It occurs to me that what Blomkamp had to do as efficiently and simply as possible in his first film, here was able to "fluff" it unnecessarily. Unfortunately, Elysium then loses its energy and its tightened atmosphere. Paradoxically, the closer to the end, the more fun it is, because I was able to absorb the inconsistency. Similarly to In Time: sympathetic but terribly unfinished. P.S. Copley is two levels higher in this film than everyone else... the sociopath of the century. [70%]
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The shaky (like really!) camera and crazy (like really!) editing hand in hand kills all action in this movie; and the stupidly and superficially forced social conscience would also have killed the action... If there were any. Simply awful. And if that wasn’t enough, it seems that half of the movie is missing. And of course it’s the half where Neill “I like to make ‘too many cooks’-style movies" Blomkamp devoted to the story, characters, elementary inner logic and the links between the (unlinked) scenes.
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Once I got through District 9, I had hoped it was just an unfortunate accident. However, Elysium confirmed to me that I don't understand Neill Blomkamp and it would be best if we went our separate ways. Never mind that this skeleton of an unstoppable machine suits Matt Damon perfectly with its camera shaking and flying around in the action scenes, while the story stumbles into plotholes despite its simple premise. Not to mention that practically all of the supporting characters are played strangely, to say the least. Jodie Foster, who doesn't fit her role, is an unpleasant surprise, William Fichtner disappoints in a way that is merely dull, but Sharlto Copley is actually annoying. His unintelligible hissing and desperately overplayed slickness are truly maddening. But I could forgive all of that if the screenplay had met me halfway and tried to play a different note in the finale than a humane and nostalgically romantic one. The social appeal was already starting to annoy me in the middle of District 9, so that was just predictable, while the sentimental storyline annoyed me because Max's relationship with Frey is nothing more than a distant memory that would never stand a chance in this vision of the future. And when emotions, characters, and actions don't work on the path to freedom, it makes for a rather sad ending. Elysium ultimately ends up being a giant nothing that tries so hard to aim high, but from the beginning, has no way up.
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I considered District 9 a revelation in the field of dying sci-fi, and Blomkamp as a herald of a better future for the genre. Not that I didn't find any weaknesses in that movie, but it falls into the category of likable where you tend to overlook the flaws. Elysium was supposed to confirm Blomkamp's position as a promising talent and genre specialist. But alas. Elysium is a dull B-movie in terms of content, where the attempts at an intellectual superstructure come across as untrustworthy. The characters are flat, the story shallow, and the world Blomkamp created is naive and dysfunctional. I felt sorry for the actors, especially Jodie Foster. She belongs in A productions, but in movies of this kind, it feels inappropriate. For people who follow these types of productions, the film may be average, but I really expected more. A lot more. And I was warned about it by a number of negative comments. Overall impression: 25%.
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A story comparable with the picture book about the hippo that Damon quotes from in the movie, but the way they did it! A flawless rendition of the future that meets my demands. Perfect atmosphere and awesome action which sometimes stops short of the proverbial icing on the cake (which is a shame). The exosuit fight at the end is one of the best action sci-fi (hand-to-hand) fights I’ve ever seen. Blomkamp has gone a bit soft since last time and even though most of the characters behave like swines, they don’t mean it badly, which is a drawback compared to D9. The main powerhouse of the picture is the fantastic Sharlto Copley as Kruger, a fanatical psychopath (and my favorite character) whose alternative would probably have made for the best ending. Max, where are you?!
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Blomkamp, Kosinski, Snyder, etc. are all cut from the same cloth. Visually, they are very original, with an incredible sense of innovation and aesthetic creativity, usually producing simpler, even skeletal films. It's not always necessarily bad, but Elysium was in many ways very clichéd and unnecessarily simplistic. Of course, there is a political subtext with references to this or that regime, and a twisted rhetoric of "the poor, dirty and smelly" being the good guys and the "rich, successful, and thriving" being the bad guys. No matter how you look at it, we have a predictable plot with a clear script, several thrilling action scenes, and unbelievably polished and over-the-top shots that you'll want to see again and again. It's an unprecedented mix of futuristic sci-fi with brutally raw action and blurry imagery, that continues the trademark of District 9, just with a slightly bigger budget, so everything is smoother and more refined. Finally, we can't forget the show-off objects like the Versace lounge chair or the private Bugatti jet. The director is a big fan of image, and unfortunately, this film is purely "image-driven". Nevertheless, it is incredibly captivating filmmaking.
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"Activate Kruger!" After The Lone Ranger, I got to see another new film this year that excited me. Fault-finders may argue that Elysium does not have a very original plot, and they will probably be right. They can criticize the film for anything, and they will certainly criticize it for anything, but that is probably their vagary. I was entertained, thrilled and surprised. There aren't so many action scenes that they get tiresome, there are plenty of ideas in the film and the whole messy future looks very believable again... And the mercenary Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley, must go down in film history!
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Such high hopes, and nothing coming out of it. Blomkamp is excellent at his craft, there's no doubt about that, but if he continues to choose themes from the "Pretty Silly Blonde" category, it will all come down to his memorable debut. Elysium looks good, has an interesting cast and the basic premise is not worthless, but something so clichéd and ridiculously serious cannot even be considered the work of an A-list filmmaker. It's still good entertainment, but the ambitions of the film were somewhere else – and that's the main problem. 50%
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