ELYSIUM (2013 - ACTION / ADVENTURE) ***1/2 out of *****
(So that's how the 1% live - in an ivory tower bubble cut off from the rest of the World. What a fucking surprise...)
CAST: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlton Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura, Brandon Auret.
DIRECTOR: Neil Blomkamp
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and some compelling reasons to move off Planet Earth - straight ahead....
IT'S LIKE THIS: It is Los Angeles, year 2154, and for lack of a better term, the place blows donkey dick. For starters, it is smoggier than ever, and it looks like whoever was in charge of the city's makeover should be taken out at mid-day and shot in front of everyone. Let's just say that if you didn't know you were in L.A., you'd think you were in some bombed-out project in Afghanistan. Wait... do they even have projects in Afghanistan?
Whatever. Anyhow, it turns out the reason the City of Angels now looks like the City of Crack Whores is because the economy has taken a serious nose dive (even more than it already has) - and there are now only two kinds of folks who live in the USA. First, there are the wealthy, privileged "1 percenters" who have given Mother Earth the royal kiss-off and moved to an orbiting satellite called "Elysium." And second, there are the rest of us dumb assholes working ourselves to the bone back on Earth.
One of those dumb assholes is Max (Matt Damon), some lunkhead who works in some factory that creates technology for use on Elysium. Max has dreamt of moving to Elysium ever since he was a young blonde boy growing up in the City of Crack Whores. Even though his childhood girlfriend, Frey (Alice Braga), has always told him straight-up that there's a greater chance of Los Angeles suddenly developing a 100% clean atmosphere than his pasty ass getting a one-way ticket to Elysium, which might as well be heaven.
Of course, this "keep-the-unwashed-out-of-Elysium-at-all-costs" credo is primarily the brainchild of the vicious Secretary of Defense named Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who basically acts like Elysium is her own backyard - and no one who isn't a bazillionaire can come to her barbeques. If you doubt me, let me just add that this chick thinks nothing of shooting "illegal immigrants" (desperate folks trying to invade Elysium for medical care) right out of the sky as they leave Earth's atmosphere.
Then something awful happens: one day at work, Max gets exposed to an assload of radiation (or something) and is told he only has a few months to live (or something). He hits on the idea of escaping to Elysium to use on of its "healing medical pods" to flush the radiation out of his system. Of course, he still has to, you know, find a way to get off Earth and into orbit first. Enter Julio (Diego Luna) and his wacky boss Spider (Wagner Moura), who agree to help Max infiltrate Elysium - in exchange for them tagging along.
But will Max, Julio, and Spider be able to invade Elysium that easily? And even if Max manages to use one of the med pods to heal himself, how is he supposed to get back to Earth? Does he plan to stay on Elysium forever? Will Delacourt just sit there and let this happen? What happens when she hires a bizarro assassin named Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to kill Max and his cronies? And what about Frey and her sick daughter, Matilda (Emma Tremblay)? Will Frey also risk her neck for her daughter to get proper medical care on Elysium? Will they get caught in the crossfire?
Wow. And folks thought Obamacare was controversial...
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Writer/director Neil Blomkamp's last film was the quirky and atypical alien-invasion film DISTRICT 9 from 2009. DISTRICT 9 was an unexpected success that took what was, by then, a tired premise (aliens invade earth) and turned it into an uncommonly intelligent examination of racism, discrimination, friendship, love, and sacrifice. It is not everyone's cup of tea, but those willing to stick with DISTRICT 9 and give it a chance will find a rewarding story that is most definitely not your usual alien invasion thriller.
ELYSIUM attempts to do the same thing as DISTRICT 9: take a common and over-used premise and infuse it with political subtexts about inequality and humanity - and it largely succeeds. For DISTRICT 9, it was "alien invasion." For this film, it is "the dystopian future." Blomkamp effectively sets the stage in the early sequences of a young Max (Maxwell Perry Cotton) and young Frey (Valentina Giron), impoverished children both, staring up at the phantom-like Elysium satellite in the afternoon sky above them. It hangs above the ravaged Earth, a utopian heaven casting its shadow on a dystopian nightmare below. Blomkamp plays these scenes out with a minimum of dialogue, establishing Max's yearning for a better life with gestures and looks alone. It's a great, haunting opening.
It's in the transition to the second act that we realize ELYSIUM is going to be more of a conventional action/thriller than DISTRICT 9 was. The second half of the film plays out with the expected "action flick" beats, and doesn't quite have the lyrical feel of the first act. This is to be expected, I suppose, since this film is locked into a more predictable formula than DISTRICT 9. Nevertheless, Blomkamp and his cast manage to give us a reasonable amount of suspense and tension.
Speaking of the cast, they are all competent - and in the case of the two villains, even commanding. As the older Max, Matt Damon is okay but curiously muted. Damon can be a fiery and charismatic actor, and Max, as written, is certainly a fiery and charismatic character - but Damon seems to hold back here in his portrayal. It is a curious acting choice that doesn't necessarily hurt the movie, but still robs it of some power. By contrast, Sharlto Copley (who plays main baddie Kruger) brings the same intensity and magnetism that he did to the lead role in DISTRICT 9, almost overshadowing Damon and stealing the show. Most of the energy in ELYSIUM comes from him.
Alice Braga is a nice warm presence as Frey, but her promising storyline with Max is left undeveloped and the character isn't as fleshed-out as she should have been. Nor is she used adequately in the plot. It certainly feels in the early going that she will have a bigger role in the unfolding events, but it never comes to pass. I have to wonder if earlier drafts of the scripts had more scenes with Frey in them - or if there were scenes cut out of the final cut of the movie.
As for the other major female character, Jodie Foster is good as Delacourt, the ruthless government-type who will do everything in her power to keep Elysium safe. The character is interesting, since she is the kind of villain who is doing things not to be evil - but for motives that actually make some sense. Foster has a formidable, steely air about her that signals someone who doesn't suffer fools gladly - and whom people mess with at their own peril. When we first saw ELYSIUM, I thought the strange Euro-American accent she used was a little distracting. Now I realize that Foster, as always, was just trying to be as authentic as possible to the character. After all, Elysium is a multi-national utopia, and it just makes sense that Delacourt would have somewhat of a mixed background, leading to her peculiar accent. Solid job from Foster.
As with DISTRICT 9, ELYSIUM is both an action film and also a political commentary about inequality between classes of people - especially when it comes to access to proper medical care. In these interesting political times, when the nation is divided on how best to deliver that medical care, ELYSIUM deserves some credit for attempting to give voice to those issues, while still delivering a solid action/adventure film.
