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 (1)
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)
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Reviews (13)
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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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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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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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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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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