[Note: Out-of-town last week and just caught up with "Elysium"]
In 2154, the world's population occupy two very different
places. The poor live in a diseased,
polluted and overpopulated earth. The
rich reside in a heavenly space station called Elysium, disease-free, exclusive
and luxurious.
While mainly a sci-fi, the film is an allegory to our
society, and depicts real issues, such as illegal immigration, fake
citizenship, healthcare access, and politics, and how those in power choose to
handle these issues.
One of the opening scenes is a striking sequence where the
robots, under the command of cold-hearted Elysium's Secretary of Defense
Delacourt (Jodie Foster), target hordes of people coming in space shuttle,
breaching into Elysium in hope for better lives, including a mother desperately
trying to get her sick daughter to a healing body-scanning machine.
Matt Damon ("The Adjustment Bureau")
is Max, a reformed ex-con and droid assembler, living in the slum. When he's exposed to a radiation blast in
the factory and his days are numbered, he gets in touch with a former friend,
Spider (Wagner Moura), a criminal who runs an underground high-tech
network. He makes a deal with Spider -
he'd become a walking data storage and agree to download the contents of the
brain of an Elysium industrialist overseeing his factory, John Carlyle (William
Fichtner), in exchange for a ride into space and thus heal himself.
Unbeknownst to Max and crew, John's brain contains
classified data, including a secretive
agreement between John and Secretary Delacourt to stage a political coup and
the key to Elysium's existence.
Embedded with exoskeleton, Max is hunted by a souped-up sleeper agent,
Kruger (Sharlto Copley). Tangled in the
manhunt are Max's childhood friend, Frey (Alice Braga), and her dying daughter.
Director Neill Blompkamp creates a disturbingly realistic
portrayal of the two worlds, a reality that might actually exist in a distant
future. The degraded earth appears
believable. The paradise in space is
sleekly futuristic with a tropical touch.
Facial reconstruction, courtesy of special effect, looks very cool.
"Elysium" would have a better film by thoughtfully
exploring the human themes and developing the characters, instead of focusing
on merciless actions, excessively shot with shaky cams. The brutality, with a gore factor, is a
surprise. At 109 minutes, this is one
movie that could benefit from a longer running time.
"Elysium" is big and bombastic, but it doesn't
live up to its potential.
DVD (blu-ray): http://tinyurl.com/msk6krd
