Elysium

2013 • 109 minute

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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.

Graderings en resensies

Special effects are good, very much from the Avatar style but the script concept is nonsense and very old style 1980s thinking about "1984" and them and us ideas of technoculture. The scene where Damon talks to a avatar to complain is just not realistic in how tech would work or the overthrow of power by Foster is unoriginal to say the least. I was hoping for a more advanced perspective of technology, if they had been using tech advisors on the film it looks like it got lost in the rewrites and editing. No originalty. I would have expected a new idea or two of pervasive and invasive neural implants or some other kind of augmentated humans (Slan by A.E. Van Vogt has a nice idea on telepathy but has something in the ball park I was thinking of for example) The film seems to have impassive robot soldiers and an implassible cyber looking "suit" that Damon one man against the bad guys etc. While Im at it , the Elysium space world is a ripoff of the Halo ring world from xbox, I can go on. Note to investors please try a little harder on the originality of ideas in SciFi, the return on investmennt will be much greater, e,g, Blade runner, and even various popcorn like Riddick.

This is definitely Neill Blomkamp's weakest film to date, as the story isn't as gripping as his other films, but it's still a very action packed Sci-Fi that's interesting enough to continue watching. Again, Sharlto Copley is a very fun villain and keeps the fighting interesting, Matt Damon and Jodie Foster are also great, but quite dull. The flashbacks to their childhood was boring and typical of a love story, so that's not as fun either, but the film was good all in all.

A very believable portrayal of one possible human future: A world of slums and deprivation for the many, with an orbital "walled residence" for the tiny sliver of the population able to afford it. Raises issues without being overly preachy, providing some familiar scenes of the frustrations for any who have visited an emergency room without medical insurance, experienced wage slavery or had to deal with monolithic bureaucracy from the very bottom Great performances from Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley