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#397 - Elysium
Neill Blomkamp, 2013
In a future where Earth is ruined and left to the poor while the elite class live on the eponymous space station, a terminally ill working-class man tries to reach the station in order to cure his condition.
I liked Neill Blomkamp's mainstream debut District 9 because of its ability to combine somewhat rudimentary socio-political satire (unsurprisingly aimed at apartheid thanks to its lower-class South African setting) with a fun plot about an alien ghetto filled with explosive superweapons and the hapless schmuck who finds himself stuck in a Kafkaesque situation due to alien interference. Letting his last couple of cinematic features slide in and out of theatres without me paying attention was probably not the greatest sign of faith in his talent, but I have only recently decided to rectify that with the free-to-air playing of his follow-up to District 9, District 9 2: Dist Harder - sorry, I mean Elysium.
While District 9 at least managed to distinguish its own take of class warfare with its use of crustacean-like aliens and a body-horror plot for its bureaucratic human protoganist, Elysium somehow manages to take some of the most distinctive aspects of that particular film (South African setting, technology-centric effects, class-divide theme) and either disregard them completely or run them so far into the ground they might as well bury out of the other side of the planet. In the year that gave us the exceedingly generic Oblivion and (technically) the masterful yet no less fundamentally nonsensical Snowpiercer, Elysium fails to distinguish itself in either a positive or negative manner (though you'd think that failure to be positive would automatically designate it as negative, but it fails to be even be that much of a failure). It's the sort of have-versus-have-nots that is characterised by a protagonist (Matt Damon) that is generic to the point of coming across as parody. Of course, the blandness of Damon and many of the other characters is counter-balanced by the two villains whose hammy performances may offer the film some personality but at the expense of general quality. As the film's corrupt executive villain, Jodie Foster delivers a bizarre performance with an inconsistent European accent (which might be justified by Elysium's multi-cultural population, but still sounds pretty ridiculous). District 9 lead Sharlto Copley plays her monstrous South African henchman, who is extremely one-note underneath his thickly but consistently accented performance.
While Elysium does promise an interesting dystopian narrative with its protagonist doing what he can to escape the ruined slums of Earth and reach the titular station (which includes having an implausible-looking exoskeleton grafted onto his body to supposedly give him super-strength or something) while helping his friends along the way, it spends perhaps too much time on Earth and thus feels far too much like a retread of District 9 for its own good, especially when it comes to its protagonist alternating between hiding and fighting. Not even the scenes that actually do take place on Elysium make much of a difference as they just run through trope after trope without having any impact. Even the plot holes aren't of sufficient enough interest in this slick yet soulless dystopia-by-numbers. You're much better off watching Snowpiercer, which does cover the same rich-versus-poor dynamic but with a lot more grit and personality. (Addendum: I like how there was one scene that featured "Loner" by Burial. Truly a song that deserves to survive into the 22nd century).
Neill Blomkamp, 2013
In a future where Earth is ruined and left to the poor while the elite class live on the eponymous space station, a terminally ill working-class man tries to reach the station in order to cure his condition.
I liked Neill Blomkamp's mainstream debut District 9 because of its ability to combine somewhat rudimentary socio-political satire (unsurprisingly aimed at apartheid thanks to its lower-class South African setting) with a fun plot about an alien ghetto filled with explosive superweapons and the hapless schmuck who finds himself stuck in a Kafkaesque situation due to alien interference. Letting his last couple of cinematic features slide in and out of theatres without me paying attention was probably not the greatest sign of faith in his talent, but I have only recently decided to rectify that with the free-to-air playing of his follow-up to District 9, District 9 2: Dist Harder - sorry, I mean Elysium.
While District 9 at least managed to distinguish its own take of class warfare with its use of crustacean-like aliens and a body-horror plot for its bureaucratic human protoganist, Elysium somehow manages to take some of the most distinctive aspects of that particular film (South African setting, technology-centric effects, class-divide theme) and either disregard them completely or run them so far into the ground they might as well bury out of the other side of the planet. In the year that gave us the exceedingly generic Oblivion and (technically) the masterful yet no less fundamentally nonsensical Snowpiercer, Elysium fails to distinguish itself in either a positive or negative manner (though you'd think that failure to be positive would automatically designate it as negative, but it fails to be even be that much of a failure). It's the sort of have-versus-have-nots that is characterised by a protagonist (Matt Damon) that is generic to the point of coming across as parody. Of course, the blandness of Damon and many of the other characters is counter-balanced by the two villains whose hammy performances may offer the film some personality but at the expense of general quality. As the film's corrupt executive villain, Jodie Foster delivers a bizarre performance with an inconsistent European accent (which might be justified by Elysium's multi-cultural population, but still sounds pretty ridiculous). District 9 lead Sharlto Copley plays her monstrous South African henchman, who is extremely one-note underneath his thickly but consistently accented performance.
While Elysium does promise an interesting dystopian narrative with its protagonist doing what he can to escape the ruined slums of Earth and reach the titular station (which includes having an implausible-looking exoskeleton grafted onto his body to supposedly give him super-strength or something) while helping his friends along the way, it spends perhaps too much time on Earth and thus feels far too much like a retread of District 9 for its own good, especially when it comes to its protagonist alternating between hiding and fighting. Not even the scenes that actually do take place on Elysium make much of a difference as they just run through trope after trope without having any impact. Even the plot holes aren't of sufficient enough interest in this slick yet soulless dystopia-by-numbers. You're much better off watching Snowpiercer, which does cover the same rich-versus-poor dynamic but with a lot more grit and personality. (Addendum: I like how there was one scene that featured "Loner" by Burial. Truly a song that deserves to survive into the 22nd century).