|
Elysium
| Released |
21 August 2013 |
| Director |
Neill Blomkamp |
Starring
|
Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner |
| Writer(s) |
Neill Blomkamp |
Producer(s)
|
Bill Block, Neill Blomkamp, Simon Kinberg |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
109 minutes |
| Genre |
Action, drama, sci-fi |
| Rating |
15A |
|
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Matt to the Future.
The meek have indeed inherited the earth in Neill Blomkamp’s second fantastically realised sci-fi thriller. Unfortunately, the year is 2154 and the planet has been left a cataclysmic mess following decades of over-population and disease. While the everyman struggles to eke out an existence on this ruined global ghetto, the wealthy elite have long since relocated to a utopic Stanford Torus space station called Elysium; where sickness and old age are a thing of the past and borders are protected by the unscrupulous Secretary Delacourt (Foster).
Again working in the favoured futurist class-struggle metaphor previously seen in District 9, Elysium soon reveals itself as a far different beast, both emotionally and physically, with a straightforward hero lacking the wrenching moral arc of D9’s Wikus.
A heavily tatted, chrome-domed Matt Damon plays Max De Costa (indeed, channelling a bit of Mad Max); a former favela legend now on the straight and narrow, he punches the clock at a local factory, helping to build the robots that subjugate his neighbours every day. When an industrial accident exposes Max to a lethal dose of radiation, he’s forced to convene with some old faces to hitch an illegal shuttle ride to the titular sanctuary, where each home comes fitted with a medical bed capable of healing all ills and wounds. With only five days to live, he’s coerced into strapping on a weaponised exoskeleton and pulling one last heist (which turns out to be a “data heist” of the Inception variety). Meanwhile in orbit, the megalomaniacal Delacourt stages a coup d'etat on Elysium and dispatches belligerent super-mercenary Kruger (Copely) to deal with the problem on ground level.
In a recent interview, Blomkamp was quoted, "Elysium isn’t science fiction. It’s now." Indeed, his future-Los Angeles can feel hyper realistic at times; the Spanish-speaking population seemingly a nod to Blade Runner’s presciently imagined Chinese superpower - Elysium’s bourgeois communicate en Francais, which is a nice (if daft) touch. But unlike his last film, which seamlessly fused alien allegory with poignant human tragedy, Elysium’s emotional moments and social metaphors can seem tacked on. Wisely then, the film ignores its heavy-handed post-racial messages and is played out as a straight actioner for the most part. Making use of an ample budget nearly four times the size of D9’s, Blomkamp’s film is swathed in spectacularly convincing visual effects and heavily stylised close-quarter combat scenes.
Jodie Foster hams it up as the amoral defence secretary and gives a particularly awkward performance. The sharp suits and clipped British accent jar badly whenever she appears on-screen, and the characters motivations never seem to fit her cushy existence. Elysium finds its wild card in Sharlto Copely, however, as the sadistic, grizzly-bearded dog of war. Spouting babble in a distinct Afrikaans accent and dishing out ultraviolence whenever possible, Kruger gives the film a vital shot of black humour and charisma.
Like Prometheus before it, Elysium requires a slight expectations adjustment; but if this is carried out accordingly, it may yet emerge as the summer’s best sci-fi.
- Cathal Prendergast |
