Elysium stands as an excellent example how to fashion a
brilliant setting welded to a political statement and then largely waste the
effort. While Neill Blomkamp succeeded in social commentary via sci-fi in his
previous outing, Distrinct 9, his new movie Elysium failed to convince me that
this splendid society of economic inequality was created for something more
than furistic gunshots and exo-suit powered fist fights.
The story takes place in 2154. Matt Damon is the Earth-bound
Max, a man with a criminal past just trying to make his way on a planet that
has long since been abandoned by the wealthy elite. This patrician class has
fled the desolate and ruined surface to a luxurious man-made habitat satellite
in the sky called Elysium. When he finds himself with only a few days to live,
he makes it his desperate mission to travel to Elysium where his solution
awaits.
With Jodie Foster playing homeland security chief for the
satellite promised land, the two soon find themselves at odds. Max battles an
agent in her employ, Kruger (Sharlto Copley). Kruger is amoral, lives for
combat, and has a terribly confusing accent. And of course, he has a major case
of JWD (Just Won’t Die).
This conflict steals the show, but not for the better. The
brutality of their back-and-forth devours the intended satirical effect of the
movie. I was left longing for more exposition about the fascinating state of
Elysium, or the day-to-day toils of those down on the surface of Earth.
Instead, I got explosions, guns, and fistfights. These could have been lifted
from any number of movies you’ve seen before. For example, within the whole
fascinating world of Elysium, Blomkamp chose to put a protracted ten minute
fight seen on a barren patch of dirt. Not only are the fights nothing special,
they aren’t even performed on the proper stage.
With a premise as promising as Elysium’s, every punch thrown
and shot fired felt like another wasted opportunity. It seems to me like
Blomkamp might have taken the wrong lesson from his previous movie, District 9,
ascribing its success to the action-packed bits at the end. What made that
movie splendid was its attention to world-building and the characters that
lived there. On the other hand, Elysium teases a dystopian future with depth to
spare, yet barely dips a toe in the pool and fails to deliver characters that
can carry the story. Perhaps next time Blomkamp ventures back into the realm of
bleak sci-fi as social commentary, he’ll give his viewers a bit more credit.
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