"ELYSIUM" (2013) Review

"ELYSIUM" (2013) Review

Four years ago, writer-director Neil Blomkamp made a name for himself with the release of his science-fiction thriller,"DISTRICT 9". The movie made a celebrity out of the movie's leading man, Sharlto Copely, as well. A few years passed before the two men paired up with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster to make a second science-fiction movie called"ELYSIUM". 

Set in the year 2154, "ELYSIUM" told the story of Max Da Costa, a parolee and former car thief who lives in ravaged Los Angeles. In the 22nd century, two classes of Humans exist - the very wealthy, who live on a luxurious space station called Elysium; and the poor, who live on an overpopulated, devastated Earth. Ruthless androids police the impoverished residents on Earth, while the Elysian citizens are serviced by robotic servants in a comfortable and luxurious setting. And while Earth's citizens receive questionable and ineffective health care from health care workers at rundown hospitals, Elysian citizens regularly use man-sized medical devices called Med-Pods in their homes that keep them free from disease and wounds. Max, who had grown up as an orphan and spent a good deal of his life in prison, now works on an assembly-line at a robotic factory that provides the technology for Elysium called Armadyne Corporation. 

An accident at the plant exposes Max to radiation and he discovers that he has five days left to live. Armadyne CEO John Carlyle has Max fired. His friend Julio introduces him to a notorious smuggler and hacker named Spider, who organizes illegal caravans to Elysium. Spider agrees to get Max to Elysium, if Max can help him steal valuable financial information from Carlyle. Spider arranges for Max to receive a fake Elysium ID needed to use the Med-Pods, a primitive powered exoskeleton that increases his strength to rival the android sentinels, and a cerebral data uplink, which will allow Max to transfer information from Carlyle's mind to his own. With help from a team that includes Julio, Max intercepts Carlyle's space shuttle and steals the latter's data (including the program), uploading it to his own brain. The team, however, finds the data scrambled by Carlyle's security measures and cannot transmit it to Spider. Even worse, Max and the others are forced to deal with a brutal mercenary named Kruger, who works for Elysian Secretary of Defense Jessica Delacourt. And Delacourt wants the information that Max had downloaded from Carlyle's mind in the hopes of using it to stage a coup d'etat against Elysium's President Patel. The information from Carlyle's mind could also help Max's childhood friend, Frey, who is not only a nurse, but also the mother of a young girl dying from leukemia.

Although I had been impressed by "DISTRICT 9" four years ago, I have to be honest and say that I found a few aspects of the movie a little off-putting. I cannot say the same about "ELYSIUM". There is nothing about it that I found off-putting . . . only questionable. However, "ELYSIUM" failed to impressed me. I am sorry, but it simply did not. The movie did benefit from some virtues. I have to give credit to Blomkamp's screenplay for exploring issues that affect our lives today . . . and may even have a bigger impact upon our future - immigration, transhumanism, class issues and especially health care issues. And I must say that I found Blomkamp's vision of 22nd century Los Angeles, reinforced by Philip Ivey's production designs and Trent Opaloch's photography, to be very interesting and original. And I cannot help but wonder if his vision will prove to be prophetic. The movie's action sequences struck me as impressive. And I found Blomkamp's handling of the sequence featuring Max's theft of Carlyle's data from the latter's mind to be first-rate. Personally, I feel that it is the best sequence in the movie.

Too bad "ELYSIUM" featured even more aspects that I found either questionable or simply . . . off-putting. Yes, I know that I had earlier claimed that the movie did not have any off-putting aspects about it. I now realize I had been wrong. My biggest complaint about "ELYSIUM" happens to be its second half. Whatever intelligence Blomkamp injected into the script's first half, he seemed to have ripped it away in its second. And this happened when Max made a bargain with Kruger for a trip to Elysium in exchange for Carlyle's program (threatening suicide by a live grenade next to his head). It did not help that Frey and her daughter were along for the ride with Max as hostages of Kruger. So many stupid incidents occurred during the movie's second half; including the reconstruction of Kruger's damaged face from an exploded grenade held by Max with the Med-Pods. Kruger should have been dead after what happened to his face. But following his recovery . . . oh God! It was just one big mess! I would tell what happened, but I fear I have given away too much of the plot, already.

There were other aspects of "ELYSIUM" I found disturbing. According to its premise, 22nd century humanity will be divided into two classes - working class and the elite. So, what happened to the middle-class? Did economic upheavals caused its elimination? And if the middle-class had ceased to exist, to which class did Max's immediate supervisor at the plant belonged? Or the doctor that Frey worked with? And why did Max seemed to be the only white person among the working-class in Los Angeles? Surely, there were other whites among the working-class. And if Blomkamp intended for Los Angeles' working-class to consist mainly of a large majority of Latinos and less blacks and Asian-Americans, why cast the obviously white Matt Damon as Max Da Costa?

Speaking of Damon, he gave a decent performance as the movie's protagonist, Max Da Costa. But he did not exactly rock my boat. He tried. But Max never struck me as a particularly interesting character. I would have been more impressed by Jodie Foster's portrayal of the cold-blooded Jessica Delacourt, if I were not so confused by her accent. If anyone has an idea of what her accent was supposed to be, please let me know. One could always count on Sharlto Copely to give a top-notch performance in any movie. His portrayal of Delacourt's thug, Kruger, was certainly an all-out effort on his part. Unfortunately, Kruger struck me as one of the most-one-dimensional villains I have ever seen on the movie screen in the past few years. One would think that an old friend like Blomkamp could have written Kruger with a little more dimension for Copely. I have never seen any of Alice Braga's previous performances. And she struck me as a very competent actress. But like Copely, she was saddled with a one-dimensional character that no skillful acting could overcome. At least for me.

There were some performances that impressed me. William Fitchner gave a first-rate performance as the businesslike and brainy CEO John Carlyle, whose bigotry toward the working-class led to a dislike of being touched. Wagner Moura infused a great deal of energy into his performance of the smuggler and hacker, Spider. And this energy carried into every scene he was in. Diego Luna, whom I last saw in 2012's "CONTRABAND" gave a very compassionate performance as Max's loyal and caring friend, Julio. It was nice to see Faran Tahir, who portrayed Elysium's President Patel, after a few years. And like Moura, he infused a good deal of energy into his performance and the movie, thanks to some skillful acting.

"ELYSIUM" could boast some virtues, including an interesting premise, excellent production designs and photography, and skillful acting from some of the cast. But a few one-dimensional characterizations and a plot that lost a great deal of intelligence in its second half resulted in "ELYSIUM" becoming something of a disappointment for me.