Review: Elysium

Set in the year 2154 where the populace is divided by wealth. The rich have relocated to the title space station where they enjoy technological innovations in health care and the like. The rest of human society, however are pretty much worker drones on an overpopulated, but decrepit Earth. Matt Damon plays a ne’er do well former car thief in need of a ride to Elysium after coming into contact with radiation that leaves him with about a week left to live. Meanwhile politician Jodie Foster enjoys the affluent life on Elysium and is attempting to introduce anti-immigration laws so that the status quo is kept. Damon has enlisted the aid of some of his former contacts from the bad old days, who agree to help him get to Elysium- for a price, of course. This involves a heist, and the CEO (William Fichtner) of the company Damon works for. Said CEO (who therefore works for Elysium) has a bunch of super-secret, super-important information stored in his head. He is also in league with Foster, who is attempting to usurp the president on Elysium. When she finds out that Damon has hijacked the shuttle the CEO was on, she resorts to re-hiring an unhinged, recently fired mercenary (Sharlto Copley, as a feral badass) to take care of Damon. Alice Braga plays a childhood acquaintance with a sick child, whose help Damon enlists.

 

I was the one guy on the planet who hated the previous film from writer/director  Neill Blomkamp, “District 9”. It was boring, facile, horribly shot, heavy-handed, and cheap-looking. Well this 2013 sci-fi flick is a huge improvement, only faltering with one poor performance, and the unnecessarily shaky hand-held cinematography by “District 9” offender Trent Opaloch. It’s more stable than in “District 9” but so are most wedding videos. But overall, yes this one’s at least interesting and entertaining, if hardly re-inventing the wheel (you’ll see all kinds of influences, and I’m not just referring to the J.J. Abrams school of lens flare eyesores).

 

The prologue makes you think this is going to be a rip-off of an earlier 2013 sci-fi flick, the rock-solid “Oblivion”, but Blomkamp takes things elsewhere, thankfully (at times it actually reminded me of a version of “Johnny Mnemonic” that didn’t suck, or perhaps “Metropolis”). Also thankfully, Matt Damon and his giant head are more interesting company than Tom Cruise was in “Oblivion”. Even better, and rather surprising to me, is “District 9” lead Sharlto Copley, who pretty much runs off with the whole film with a hoot and a half of a performance. As a grungy, “Mad Max II”-inspired hired killer, he like the director atones for his earlier sins. Alice Braga is pretty good too, continuing to prove that she’s a better version of what Maria Conchita Alonso was in the 80s.

 

Like “District 9”, this is a film with a message, but it’s done a lot more effectively. Some have suggested that it’s a film about US immigration policy, but I actually think the subtext is closer to universal health care (The film works better than a certain website, however).

 

Not everything about the film works, though. In addition to the poor cinematography, there’s one of Jodie Foster’s worst-ever performances to contend with. Foster’s career choices haven’t always worked out (“Nell”, “Flightplan”, “Anna and the King”), but she’s really disappointing in this, and looks both really, really old, and really, really unhappy. I’m not sure what accent she’s going for here, but I think it’s Seth Effriken, and boy does she never, ever hit it. Some have suggested British, some have suggested an indistinct accent befitting the non-regional vibe one might expect on a planet like Elysium. I think it’s just really, really bad and botched. But her entire performance is stiff, glum, and unenjoyable. What was she thinking? William Fichtner is well-cast in a sort of “Max Headroom” kinda performance, but he too seems to be trying and failing at some kind of accent, and it’s distracting. If they were indeed both going for South African accents, then did they not listen to their Seth Effriken cast mate Copley? That might’ve helped. Overall, though, this is a really interesting and entertaining sci-fi film that shows its influences, but never in a way that suggests a rip-off.

 

Rating: B-