Movie was ok, enjoyable at most. Plot had a lot of potential but just lacked that "it" factor to take it beyond a enjoyable movie to be awesome. Also too many plot holes. Blomkamp did a good job as Agent Krugger, and really carried the movie IMO. Loved his character. 7/10 for a good popcorn movie.
Not to mention that hobos should have *made* the movie too. I'm sure they could have crowd-sourced the $100M, especially if they promised hobo actors. Who wouldn't invest in *that*?
I thought it was ok Not too special The end left me feeling like. . ok . . NOW WHAT? Spoiler While it was made to seem like a resolution it seems like it would cause more problems than it solved. Rocket River Disappointing.
I thought it was a solid movie, but like many others I thought District 9 was better. I also hope the Director tries something different when coming up with the plot for his next movie instead of using current political issues and wrapping sci-fi around it. I'm sure he has to be debating a movie about an alien with a hoodie and eating skittles unjustly getting shot.
Not questioning the accuracy, merely the gumption of a guy preaching about income disparity while living here. http://www.celebuzz.com/photos/matt...-ben-affleck/matt-damon-15-million-mansion-1/ Personally I don't begrudge him his success and good fortune. But he certainly doesn't practice the socialism he preaches.
I thought the movie sucked. 3/10. Not remotely comparable to District 9. Story kinda sucked. Characters were too mechanical. Jodie Foster and the bad guys accent were horrible. Even the action scenes were jerky. Expected soooo much more from this movie.
Maybe it was mentioned already here or I read it somewhere else, but I believe his next movie, "Chappie," will be similar in style. He's making a trilogy of movies that blend sci-fi with socio-political themes. Not against him doing that, but when he completes that third movie I hope he moves in a different direction. He could stay within sci-fi but maybe move away from the heavy handedness. God I wish he would have done a Halo or do a Mass Effect movie. I was actually thinking that myself. Not that I want see a sequel, but it would be interesting to see where they go from here because two things I see happening are: Spoiler With everyone having access to med bays, the whole world would be cured of illnesses and would become even more over-populated, which is the same problem Elysium would have in time I imagine. And then again with all illnesses being cured, I would think the principles of evolution and Darwinism would lead the world to even more dangerous diseases that the Med Bays couldn't heal. And what happens to Elysium if everyone has access to it now? See to me they didn't seem to explore the movie's theme and ultimate message enough. Is it a movie about class warfare, or is it about health care. I feel like it should have been one or the other. But as such it was a little too general and vague.
Jodie Foster I can definitely agree with but you do know that Sharlto Copley is South African right? It's the same accent he had in District 9.
Nothing wrong or hypocritical in Damon's actions. Perhaps liberals aren't what you wish they were? Maybe the liberal coalition itself is compromised of groups that are pro-capitalist and groups that are anti-capitalist. Damon is a Carnegie/Buffet-style liberal who wants more opportunity for people willing to work for it and ubiquity in what he sees as basic human services. He can rich and think that. Not all liberals are hippies. Ones options are not 110% pipe dream socialism or 100% pipe dream unregulated markets. Markets have their place as do social safety nets and socialized projects. With that said, how about we keep this stuff in the segregated slums of the D&D and instead of injecting liberal conspiracy into every thread inject it on the otherwise of the tracks where it belongs? Anyway, saw the film. Follows typical sci-fi dystopian tropes (Mand the story about a thug who just wanted healthcare for himself is alright. Would have Ben nice to flesh out the other characters/the other argument FOR Elysium more. You have Jodie freaking Foster on cast, use her.
Spoiler This is where I think the film missed the mark. Blomkamp just complained about a condition but didn't analyze it much. He doesn't have to offer policy solutions, just explore the issues of resource scarcity that he established were at the core of earth's problems. How does the economic divide and access to healthcare fit into that?
Hey! All you need is some oil money behind it all and you got Atlas Shrugged! Similarly, I'm sure that's why Commodore couldn't take the actors seriously--they were "complaining about a <strike>Elysium</strike> poor and unsuccessful lifestyle they themselves partake in"... Yeah, that was another thing! Spoiler At the end, I'm thinking, "Hey the Earth is already overpopulated and now you're keeping people from dying?!". I think Matt Damon just killed Earth. *credits*
This was made a long time ago... Spoiler except the candy may have been Reece's Pieces. One thing about Elysium I forgot about that bugged me: Spoiler I understand I have to suspend disbelief for the majority of the movie, and I'm OK with that, but how the hell did Kruger get his entire face blown off... yet his brain was COMPLETELY unharmed? dafuq?
7.5/10 Like Oblivion, I gave this higher marks than normal because I love sci-fi films with great visuals. I wish the characters had not been so one-dimensional. The pro-immigration/pro-universal healthcare idea was dominant. A group of young conservatives was sitting in front of me. They were really turned off by the political messages, but I didn't mind as much. I thought District 9 was a better movie too. I also would've liked to see a counter-argument by the rich against why Earth should remain such a hovel. Themes of a man's self-worth because of his wealth in a post-industrial society, whether we are doomed to destroy our environment because of our nature, and if humans need an Elysium to always hope and yearn for only to die trying to reach it - this would have been a darker, yet more complex film. Instead, this was an enjoyable summer popcorn-movie. My benchmark for quality science fiction movies that are entertaining yet full of depth: Blade Runner, the Matrix, and Metropolis.
100% agreed. This movie was one scene away from being very good: Spoiler Matt Damon and Jodie Foster actually never met in the movie. It would have been great if they met towards the end of the movie and had some sort of a debate on the merits of Elysium's existence like dmc89 mentioned. It would have done wonders for the philosophical depth of the film, but Blomkamp was too far up in his own ass smelling his farts to think about any other message than "UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE AND IMMIGRATION WITH NO LIMITS IS A-OKAY, EVERYONE SHOULD BE EQUALLY POOR!".
Saw this last night. I give it a 7/10 Very good conceptually, extremely good effects, they pretty much have the 'flying shuttle' effect down perfectly by now, absolutely looked real every time. The Space Station/Halo Ring/Elysium was very well done, but in the way it was portrayed, it couldn't have had a population of more than a few thousand - way too much wasted space and far too small to house a population implied in the movie. The performances were great across the board, everyone bought into the concept and gave it their all. Where the movie lost me was, like many others, in the extremely childlike naivete regarding the social/political issues 'explored' in the film. First - this movie is a fairy-tale, it's not really science fiction. In the movie, the citizens of Elysium have 'magic', not science. They can travel from outer space to and from the surface of the planet in less than twenty minutes. They also possess magic boxes they can lie upon and magically heal themselves of any and all maladies. Because of the above things (and many others), the movie is not really science fiction as much as it is a rather naive fantasy. And then because essentially the entire movie hinges solely upon these magical healing boxes, the movie becomes nothing but a fairy tale. Actually, in a way, it's a very constructive illustration of how people of a certain mindset 'think'. The premise makes no sense. For example, Elysium cannot possibly produce its own crops, food, nor can it have any natural resources of its own. And in keeping with the movie's premise, Elysium is completely absorbed by its own self-interest. Therefore, Elysium's own self-interest would dictate that it keep an efficient and strong source of crops, resources and fuel coming from Earth. Elysium would therefore not simply ignore Earth and leave it to rot. Makes no sense. And the notion that people can easily be completely healed 'up there', but not, apparently, 'down here', is absurd. There is nothing magical about 'up there' other than what appears to be a senseless hoarding of the magic healing boxes by the citizens of Elysium. But a people absorbed by self-interest always make choices based on how their choices directly benefit themselves. And hoarding the magical healing boxes would not benefit Elysium in any way. We even see how easily Elysium could have sent 'medical shuttles' at any time, filled with magic boxes, down to Earth to heal as many people as needed it. So the notion of 'up there' being the only way to get healed, and the notion of Elysium 'hoarding' the magic boxes, is nothing more than childlike populist nonsense. Beyond that though, I still liked the movie. One thing bothered me though. We see early on the shuttles being destroyed by Elysium's defenses. So we have it established that someone cannot merely 'fly up there. But then, in the last act, 'Spider' and his pals just hop in a shuttle and fly on up there, land, and run around freely. Um, what? Lastly, something else completely annoyed me. And I don't blame Blomkamp for this either. It's the marketing of the movie. The marketing was once again a 'lie', giving certain impressions of what the movie was about, and what the premise was, but then it turned out to be something entirely different. The marketing led viewers to believe that Damon's character needed to get to Elysium for some important reason, sometimes shown as having to take a young girl (his daughter perhaps) up to Elysium, or she would die. Fair motivation for sure. Also, it led us to believe that his character was outfitted with some sort of exo-skeleton device which also gave him control over other technological devices, implying that he himself would have the power to control his surroundings, maybe something slightly akin to how Neo could control his environment in the Matrix. And that he was therefore such a threat to Elysium that he became Target #1, and would be hunted, but would become this badass avenger who could still defeat the evil Elysium. That is how the movie was marketed, and honestly, it probably would have been a more fun movie. Instead, Damon was nothing more than a dying dude who was looking out for himself, nothing more, and the skeleton was merely a way to keep him upright while he committed a heist and other crimes, merely in an attempt to gain access to one of the magical boxes for himself. Not nearly as interesting. Also, unfortunately, I could not understand about half of what the people on Earth were saying - their accents were so thick and heavy, it was often unintelligible. Maybe on DVD with closed-caption on... All in all, well made, well done, excellent effects, excellent concept. Story was a little too simple-minded and naive for my tastes though.
Spoiler I kept thinking . . WOW! The world is overpopulated now you just made everyone immortal. How does that help things . . . exactly? It was an ending that 'looked' good but did not have the depth needed to make it a good ending. Rocket River
