In the year 2159, 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 Rhodes, a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that, if successful, will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
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Reviews
The Worst Film Ever
That was an excellent one.
hyped garbage
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Neill Bloomkamp's Elysium is a good science fiction film which has a lot of social commentary themes going on like his previous endeavor District 9. In this instance it is a look at the economic injustices that he decides to play out. The film is set on a space station orbiting Earth and our lead, played by Matt Damon lands there to save his own life. He realizes the difference between the rich who inhabit the ship and the not so well off and decides to fight the injustice. The film looks stunning and Bloomkamp's visual style can easily be distinguished. Matt Damon is adept in playing a mercenary and Jodie Foster is especially delicious playing against type.
Elysium is the name of an orbiting satellite. It has a controlled environment and is where the rich and powerful live. The United States has been reduced to a land of illegals in an extension of class warfare. Health care is different for the rich than the poor. The "illegals" attempt to go to Elysium to get health care. The film also is an extension of surveillance drones, automated robots, and how computers run the world.In an unusual role Jodi Foster plays Delacourt, the emotionless Secretary of Defense who protects Elysium. At times she is similar to Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men" and really needed to be more like him. It was not a good role for her. Matt Damon plays Max in his usual man against the system. After an industrial accident, Max has 5 days to live and opts to join the resistance against the powers of Elysium.I have not read the book, but you can tell from the film that the book was better as there are massive parallels to today's society which most likely the film couldn't incorporate them all. Yet at the same time, I felt a bit bogged down by the overtness of this morality film.Good looking graphics. Good ending. Fair plot. Dialogue needed to be lighter. Politically to the left.Parental Guide: F-bombs. No sex or nudity.
After seeing this, I would hire Neil Blomkamp as a director, but not as a writer. He put a lot of pretty good work into building his world here, but in terms of structuring scenes, creating characters, and writing good dialogue, he failed pretty gloriously. I had actually gone into this movie with pretty high expectations, but after an hour I was considering stopping. Once I could see that the story was not in good hands, I lost interest. The characters were annoying by and large, particularly Kruger. Matt Damon brought a good performance as always, but I am disappointed that he chose to attach himself to a script this bad. But his talent was wasted along with that of all of the well-known actors here. Even worse, there was very inconsistent conflict between them. The whole subplot of Carlyle's power struggle against Delacourt probably should have been left out because it bogged the plot down and didn't need to be there. I found that the movie was better to watch when nobody was talking. There was even a scene where Max was debating with his friends about how to get to Elysium where one of his friends urges Max to go to Elysium, and then a few seconds later is telling him not to because it will never work.On top of that, the dystopian world that had been created felt like the most basic textbook dystopian society ever and was very forced. The way that the citizens of Elysium treated those on earth with disdain felt too extreme to be real and took me out of the movie whenever it came up. This mostly came up with Willam Fichtner's character John Carlyle. The revolution that ends up taking place at the end of the movie also didn't make that much sense. Yes, I understand that all of the people living on earth want those on Elysium to share their wealth, but the fashion in which they did this would probably just result in chaos instead of equality. I think it might have been better if the story had stuck more with Max helping Matilda and Frey get to Elysium. The good action choreography made it tolerable to watch, but I didn't find that it was of a quality that sufficiently accounts for the cult following around Neil Blomkamp. I will admit that he has a talent for explosive action and cool set designs, but it was not enough to save the extremely lacking story of this movie. The action is good enough that I would recommend this to people who like explosive and futuristic action set pieces. To anyone else, I would advise that you find something else to watch. Overall Rating: 4.6/10.
The good special effects and other "top-gear" junk&stuff are just wraps for the basic idea which is being propagandized and blessed by "god": the "elite" with money can treat other people (crowd) like animals (waste material). And the "biggest" dream of this waste material (animal crowd) is to get themselves up to Elysium and get well. No character does not even try to give a thought that this whole "elite-crowd" society idea is the biggest crime against Humanity itself. In the first place. The "big victory" in the movie's end is a pure coincidence, which will not change anything: the same old animal instincts, "joys", fight for power and resources. This is the whole "masterpiece".