Elysium (2013)

Elysium (2013)

The newest feature film by South African writer/director Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is a brilliant take on the classic dilemma of the 1% vs. everybody else.  You may recognise the name Blomkamp from his last hit, District 9.  If you liked District 9, you will definitely enjoy Elysium as both films have a similar theme and feel.

The Plot

Matt Damon stars as Max, a working class trouble maker who one day dreams of making it to the orbiting ringworld Halo Elysium. 

It's pretty cool I guess

The reason for this ringworld is simple; industry, pollution and irresponsible resource management have essentially destroyed Earth.  Its natural resources are nearing depletion, smog covers nearly the whole planet and jobs are running thin.  Most of the population seems to be unemployed and those who do work seem to make nothing more than pennies.  Elysium on the other hand is everything that Earth is not.  Only the wealthy populate it’s beautiful, if artificial surface.  There is grass, trees, and all of the buildings are pristine white.  All of the suits up there (these people are largely the ones responsible for ruining the Earth with their large, unsustainable corporations) enjoy the finer things in life.  Everyday seems to be a cocktail party.  The main benefit of Elysium, however, lies in its medical care.  They have invented a machine that literally turns back time and eliminates any illness, essentially making those who can afford it beautiful and immortal. 

Enter Max.  He spends his days working a tough manual labour job, makes a pitiful wage, and all for some dickhead who lives on Elysium.  Max gets distracted one day thinking about all of his issues and finds himself locked in a giant microwave.

I know that feel bro

While trapped inside Max is exposed to high levels of radiation.  He survives the incident, but he is given only seven days to live.  His boss, after essentially causing the accident, refuses to pay for any of the medical expenses.  He knows his only choice is to find a way onto Elysium and get to that machine.  Max’s old friend and current love interest Frey (Alice Braga) also has need of this machine.  Her daughter is sick with Cancer and her time is running short as well. 

Max wants nothing more than to get himself onto Elysium, but the bitch in charge of the defence of Elysium takes her job very seriously.  Delacourt (Jodie Foster) pulls no punches as she unleashes her mad dog Kruger (Sharlto Kopely) to make sure that nobody unworthy makes it from Earth to Elysium.  Max, in his weakened state, seeks the help of an old criminal buddy, who is willing to hook him up to a bionic exoskeleton that enhances his strength, memory and ability to move for a small price.  Max must upload a computer program into Elysium’s database, making all people, those on Earth included, legal residents of Elysium.

My Take

Elysium is a classic Robin Hood type of story.  Max is fed up with the rich knobs up on Elysium not sharing the wealth with the poor souls stuck on the disheveled, heavily polluted Earth.  He wishes to seek personal gain, health for himself and his girlfriend’s (ok friend whose a girl) daughter, while also sticking it to the man and bringing equal rights to everyone.  The politics in this film do not occupy too much screen time, but it is present.

The best surprise in this film was easily the performance of Sharlto Copely as Kruger.  He is a ruthless South African mercenary who is in charge of keeping the poor people off of Elysium.  He does the dirty work that Delacourt can’t.  Copely, you may remember, stared as Wikus in District 9 but he is hardly recognisable in his new role.

Uh, I'm cheering for this guy

You knew that Blomkamp would put a South African spin on this film, and the utterly insane mercenary is the perfect touch.

I’m not the biggest Matt Damon fan, but he kind of won me over in this film.  This didn’t change the fact that as soon as I learned about Kruger, I immediately jumped ship and started cheering for the bad guy.  I feel like I still got the message of the film though, that poor people are just as important as wealthy people.  Kruger is stuck living on earth as well, so in a sense, he is a good guy too right, despite the rapes and murders.  Ok I’m just talking out my ass, but fuck it, go Kruger!

The Verdict

This movie is visually striking, the acting is solid, and the atmosphere of the film will keep you watching.  As you can tell, the villain in this film really made it for me.  People will enjoy this film because everybody loves an underdog story, except maybe rich people.  Will they hate this film and cheer for Delacourt and the snobs?  I don’t really know any rich people but it would be interesting to find out.  What if rich people just love watching the favourite beat the shit out of the underdog?  They probably don’t even have the discretion to be secretive about it.  The same types of assholes who cheer for the Lannisters in Game of Thrones.

8.1/10