Elysium review

                Plenty of genres, such as science fiction, use classic storytelling tropes as a platform for sharing universal ideas, such as politics, religion and racism. Director Neill Blomkamp likes this. In fact, he seems to love this, perhaps, even too much. With his first film, the Oscar nominated, Peter Jackson produced, surprise-hit “District 9”, he came out with his metaphor guns ablaze and subtly turned the well-worn alien-invasion genre into a story about class war and poverty. With his follow up “Elysium”, Blomkamp furthers his exploration of District 9’s themes with a much bigger budget. However, though the genre stuff is kicked into bigger, bloodier, intensified gears, the subtext breaks through the veil of subtlety and bluntly becomes the text.

                It’s the year 2154 and Matt Damon plays Max, an underpaid, underprivileged factory worker living in the worst conditions of an earth-bound slum.  He has a prior prison record that keeps him from advancing in his day job and he’s desperately trying to reconnect with his childhood friend, a nurse named Frey (Alice Braga). Unbeknownst to Max, Frey has her own financial problems to worry about, as her only child is suffering through the final stages of cancer, with no hopes of ever affording treatment.

                Both Max and Frey dream of one-day living on a utopian, cancer-free, space station called Elysium; a home for earth’s richest elite. Their desire is put into action when Max is exposed to lethal amounts of radiation from a work-related accident. At which point, he and his would-be lover put a plan into motion to hijack a shuttle to the orbiting satellite resort to find adequate medical attention. 

                In the process of locating a usable ship, he attracts the attention of Delecourt (Jody Foster), an evil, scheming, multi-accented, over-starched pant-suit, who is trying her hardest to keep illegal earthlings from coming into her home. She hires a government mercenary named Krugar (District 9’s Sharlto Copley), to hunt and kill both Max and Frey before they break into Elysium.

                So, if you are keeping count, this film tries to tackle, all at once, health-care reform, immigration, and the problems with the prison system, all in wrapped up in the attitudes and attentions of the occupy movement.  All of this, while thematically rich and relevant, overwhelms the story, especially as it hops from one issue to the other without really exploring them with anything more than a headline’s  level of depth.

                However, while the screenplay may bludgeon you with its broad political gesturing, luckily, this is still a completely entertaining science fiction movie. Blomkamp does dirty, cybernetic slum-punk like nobody else, and the over-the-top action displayed in this film shows that he knows how and where to use his expanded budget. With much creativity, he mixes his visual reference points—everything from “Road Warrior” to the “Halo” videogames—and his worlds feel real, tangible and lived in.

                Damon is a convincing leading man here, dialing his performance to a balder version of his Bourn-like frequencies.  South-African actor, Sharlto Copley turns out another terrific character under this director, showing a completely new, more menacing side of his range. Jodie Foster is unfortunately the weakest link, doing an embarrassing, muddy assemblage of Martha Stuart, Hilary Clinton and…that British chick from “The Weakest Link”.

                “Elysium” doesn’t exactly live up to Neill Blomkamp’s promise with “District 9” but it does distinctly resemble his personality as a director. Perhaps tackling science fiction again was not the best move he could have made for a second feature, but I sure do like the way he does it. The violence is ultra and the movie moves along quite well. Even though Blomkamp is using genre to talk about his political ideals, it’s actually the well-shot, well-designed sci-fi tomfoolery that saves the picture from becoming obvious lecturing. In all, “Elysuim” gets the job done, even if it doesn’t cure cancer.

Grade: B-

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Aug-2013