When District 9 was released in 2009, at the time, I really had only cared to see it for two reasons: Peter Jackson was the producer and the film's absolutely brilliant marketing campaign had me hooked on what the film was about and why they had aliens encamped in a ghetto in Johannesburg. As I walked out of the theater, however, my mind having already been blown by how amazing the film was (still remains in my top 20 all time favorites list), only one name kept going through my mind: Neill Blomkamp, the director of the film. This had been his debut feature film and I was absolutely blown away by his visual style, especially considering the film was made on a budget of $30 million. I was greatly curious to see what his next film would be like. And so now, three years later, Blomkamp has released his second film: Elysium.
The film is set in the year 2154. Earth has become an overpopulated, desolate wasteland, with Los Angeles becoming a slum with extremely poor living conditions. While the poor live on Earth, the rich and elite live on Elysium, a giant Halo ring (no seriously, it looks like one of the rings from the videogame Halo), that is essentially utopia. There are no wars, no poverty. The air is clean and fresh, everything is green and beautiful, and there are medical chambers that can cure anything. Cancer, colds, paralysis, anything.
On Earth, we meet Max (Matt Damon), a former car thief who takes a job in a factory while trying to live a normal steady life. One day, Max gets in a factory accident that gives him only five days to live. Man figures that the only way to cure himself is to get up to Elysium and enter one of the medical chambers. Soon, after being outfitted with a robotic exoskeleton, Matt must try to find a way up to Elysium while trying to avoid power hungry Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who helps run Elysium's security and her liaison on Earth, Kruger (Sharlto Copley), a sociopathic mercenary who gets a kick out of killing anyone in his way.
This film has been one of my most anticipated of the year. I wanted to see if Blomkamp could pull off a film without any need for the backing of a Hollywood director. Plus, the film itself looked visually spectacular and I wanted to see what Blomkamp could do with a bigger budget. So how was Elysium?
Awesome. I loved this movie. Do I have some issues with it? Sure not every film is perfect. But for the most part, this movie kicked ass.
The acting in this movie was solid all around. Matt Damon was fine as the lead protagonist. He gave the character a nice believability to him, making you feel for him and rooting for his character, especially near the end. Jodie Foster gave Secretary Delacourt a nice cold demeanor. She was calculating, cold, and precise.....for the 10 minutes she was in the movie (more on that later).
But perhaps the best performance in the entire movie is Sharlto Copley as Krueger. He steals every scene that he's in and is an absolute blast to watch. He truly makes Krueger sociopathic and menacing, relishing in the opportunity to destroy anyone and anything. Now, I haven't seen Copley in a movie since 2010's The A Team movie and what I want to know is....where the hell has he been? Seriously, this man needs to be in more movies he is a fantastic actor. I mean look at him in District 9 and then this. He can go from playing a naïve character to one who is batshit nuts in the worst way possible. He can also be funny. I personally thought he was the best part The A-Team movie because of his performance. The man has fantastic range.
Hollywood, get on this. Put Sharlto Copley in more movies.
In terms of visuals and themes, this feels very similar to District 9. Once again, Blomkamp uses social issues as his major themes for the movie. Where District 9 focused on themes like racism, xenophobia, and inhumanity, Elysium focuses on elitists vs commoners, overpopulation, and health care. Blomkamp manages to handles these issues with deft ease, though at times I felt that he was kind of hitting the audience in the head a little too much with them.
As for visuals, these are the best visuals I have seen in a film all year since Oblivion came out back in April, if not better. Blomkamp's been given a bigger budget this time around and he uses it to its full advantage in order to show us his vision. He has this distinct visual style that's wholly unique. He's a director who knows how to shoot his way around an action scene (there is a heist scene midway through that is an absolute fun to watch. However, there are some scenes that literally look like they belong in a first person shooter games....it didn't really need that). Some of the visuals he does have are completely jaw dropping, especially when you first see Elysium. Blomkamp proves once again why he's a talented visual filmmaker.
As I stated before, I did have some issues with the film I've mentioned tiny ones throughout out this reviews, like hitting the social issue message over our head a bit too much and some of the shots (like the one that looks like it's from a video game). But there are others as well.
One of them was the fact is that Jodie Foster seems to only be in the movie for a short amount of time. I know that maybe this was intentional for her character, but when you have her all over the marketing material and all over the trailer along with Damon, you'd think she would have been in the movie more often than she was.
Another big thing I had was this movie was that they said the world had become overpopulated and desolate, yet all we see is what Los Angeles looks like now, a slum. What about the other big cities like New York? Or Chicago? Or what about Washington D.C. what does our nation's capital look like in the future? I wish they had shown more of how other cities were affected by this grim future.
But overall, Elysium is a kickass ride. It has its flaws, some that can't be overlooked, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a flat out blast to watch. I can't wait to see what Blomkamp has planned next.
Grade: B
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