Elysium Review

Matt Damon in action in Elysium

Photo Credit: Sony Pictures

Elysium

A-

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

This summer has had its fair share of big budget, premise based Sci-Fi films. Elysium is the latest and the best of this crop of films. Writer, director Neil Blomkamp, who was responsible for the fantastic District 9, creates a dark and destructive vision of the future with heavy political undertones. Such a film could turn out to be a disaster, but under the steady eye of Blomkamp Elysium manages to shine as bright as possible given its just less than two hour constraints.

At the end of the twenty first century Earth has been practically destroyed. Overpopulation and pollution have ravaged the earth forcing the rich to build a super high tech new habitat called Elysium and the poor to be left behind on the barren wasteland that is Earth. Max a former thief and now lower class worker on Earth suffers an accidental incineration after his boss forces him to try to do unsafe work to keep his job. He is hit with a lot of radiation from the accident and is told that he has only five days left to live. Not ready to die Max sets out for aid from an old boss Spider (Wagner Moura) to get him to Elysium to fix his illness. Spider accepts if Max is willing to do one job for him steal the information that is in an earthbound Elysium executive John Carlyle (William Fichtner). Turns out Carlyle was given the reboot codes for all of Elysium by Elysium’s somewhat extreme defense senator Delacourt (Jodie Foster) who uses frowned upon methods such as her super evil super soldier Kruger (Sharlto Copley). After the codes are stolen let’s just say that Delacourt wants them back and so a now part robot (so he can have more strength while suffering from the radiation) Max has to outrun Kruger’s team of assassins but also ensure that his childhood friend Frey’s (Alice Braga) young daughter Matilda (Emma Tremblay) can get up to Elysium as well to heal her stage three leukemia.

Elysium has a ton of moving peaces which for the most part actually plays to its strengths. Elysium has a lot of political commentary hammered into its less than two hour running time including various comments on sustainability, the military, right wing extremism, and biggest of all immigration. The issues come fast and quickly but Neil Blomkamp manages to make it all work by making a very intense two hour experience one that keeps the viewer on their toes for the entire experience. Elysium is never hard to follow nor is it ever preachy because Blomcamp has a very good human story at the centre. The stories of Max, Frey, Delacourt, and Kruger are all super interesting and that paired with the very well shot action keep the film moving at a very intense pace; especially once the film reaches its second half.

That being said it’s hard not to escape the thought that the material that makes up Elysium isn’t really made to fit into a two hour film, but instead feels like something that should be drawn out over a ten to thirteen episode television miniseries. One of the strengths of Blomkamp’s previous film District 9 is that the story felt contained enough to fit into the span of two hours and all the issues fit well within the time span of the film. Elysium feels like there can be entire films based around one element of the premise alone, and that something like a miniseries could help flesh out many of the ideas and characters that are presented in the film. Ultimately the film has to be judged for what it is, which is a very good and very intense just shy of two hour film that happens to comment on a lot of different issues, but it’s very hard to shake the fact that if it were a longer experience and all the elements of the film were allowed to breath it could be something truly special. It has the potential to be like a season of the Wire that is set in the future, it really does.

The acting in this film is solid across the board. Matt Damon gets to be a more action hero version of himself (think something like a more down to earth Jason Borne) and pulls it off very well given the constraints of his character (which is the writing’s fault more than his, see the previous paragraph for why that is). Jodie Foster isn’t given all that much to do but plays what she is given very well. The real standout in the film is Sharlto Copley who gets to be fantastically evil as Kruger. Copley plays Kruger with so much energy and rage, and ends up steeling every scene he’s in. He carries much of the film’s tension and ends up creating a very memorable villain.

Visually Blomkamp has turned out to be quite the director. Elysium is a wonderfully shot film and one that manages to use its camera movements to dictate both its pace and intensity. There is still some of the camera shaking that remains from District 9 but this time Blomkamp is very smart with how he uses it, often leaving it for moments that are supposed to be utterly chaotic. The result is a beautifully gritty film that makes the most of its R rating. Yes the bloody violence seen previously in District 9 makes its return in full force providing a few exploding heads and bodies. It’s all ultimately well directed and shows how good Blomkamp has gotten over the course of just two films. The score scene here is usual intense Sci-Fi fair but does provide a good way to keep the film feeling constantly intense.

Elysium is the best of 2013’s crop of blockbusters, even though it doesn’t seem to fit in that category all that well. The film is a smart, energetic, and very intense two hour experience that manages to thrill and be thought provoking. The material may have ultimately be better served in a longer form of storytelling, but ultimately Elysium manages to be a very good film that just misses greatness because of its unfortunate constraints.