Elysium

Neil Blomkamp's debut film, 2009's District 9, was and still remains one of the stronger Sci-Fi films in recent memory.  His follow up, Elysium, is nowhere near as thrilling, but it does have a lot of energetic action (which is unfortunately somewhat hindered by some shaky cam work), and more than enough qualities to recommend it.  There are a lot of great ideas here, maybe too many for a movie that runs a little under two hours.

Through a wonderfully paced and executed prologue, we learn about the background story.  At some point in the 22nd Century, Earth has become overpopulated and polluted.  The wealthiest people have left their homes to live in a luxury paradise space station called Elysium, where they spend their lives in leisure, and don't have to worry about illness, as they have the best health care available.  Meanwhile, back on Earth, the poor, the ill, the laborers and the criminals live in squalor.  Los Angeles has been transformed into a cramped and poverty-stricken home for those who can't afford a better life.  It's here that we meet Max DeCosta (Matt Damon), a former car thief who is trying to go straight, and is lucky enough to have a job in a factory constructing robots.  As we watch his daily life in the film's first 15 minutes, we get a first-hand look into this film's vision of the future, as well as learn about the main character's back story.  It's a fantastic use of exposition, and gets us quickly set up into the film's world.

One day while on the job, Max gets in an accident where he is exposed to a lethal amount of radiation.  He is told that he only has five days left to live, and the only way he can be healed is if he gains access to Elysium's advanced medical technology.  He can't afford a ticket on an illegal spaceship that will carry people to Elysium, so he has to take up an offer by one of his former criminal partners, and go on a dangerous mission for him in order to get the medical care.  Meanwhile, up on Elysium, the Secretary of Defense, Delacourt (Jodie Foster) is secretly organizing a coup where she can overthrow the ruling class, and put her supporters in charge.  She gains the help of wealthy tycoon, John Carlyle (William Fichtner), who has a computer program that can temporarily deactivate Elysium's central computer system, thereby granting Delacourt access to make changes to the ruling class.  When Max winds up getting his hands on the program, he ends up holding the fate of both Earth and Elysium in his hands, as he is pursued by Delacourt's lead mercenary, Kruger (Sharlto Copley).

While I enjoyed Elysium greatly for what it was, there were many moments that I thought this would work better as a novel or a TV mini series.  Mainly, there are so many ideas here, and while they all get explored in some satisfying manner, some still feel a little bit rushed.  For example, the whole political scheme being cooked up by Delacourt never truly takes center stage like it feels like it should.  It's constantly in the background, and as such, she is never developed into as truly as successful a villain as I thought she could have been.  Likewise, there is a somewhat romantic subplot for Max, involving a childhood sweetheart named Frey (Alice Braga).  She is a nurse who gives Max medical care in his time of need, but most importantly, she has a terminally ill little girl, and can no longer get hospital care for her, so she's looking for a way to get to Elysium also.  Both the relationship between Max and Frey, as well as the subplot involving the daughter, seems a little rushed at times.  Once again, there's nothing wrong with what did make it up on the screen.  It just felt like there could have been more if the movie had more time.

Still, don't let that dissuade you.  Just like this year's earlier release, Oblivion, this is a Sci-Fi film that's truly interested in its ideas, as well as supplying plenty of spectacle and special effects eye candy.  The action is also executed well, though as mentioned, the camera gets a bad case of the shakes every time a fight or a chase breaks out.  The performances are fine for the most part.  Damon is in action hero mode here, and looks appropriately intimidating with his shaved head and exo-skeleton add ons that he is fitted with for his mission.  Really, the only performance that doesn't seem right is from Jodie Foster.  She has an accent that's kind of all over the place, and seems to come and go at will.  The fact that her character isn't developed very well pretty much resorts to her being forced to sit in front of monitors for most of her scenes and glare.  It's great to see her in a movie again, I just wish she had either given more effort to the part, or had more to work with.

Elysium does have its flaws, but I still walked away entertained.  Blomkamp likes to tell very personal and human stories set in fantastic worlds of the future, and he succeeds at doing just that here.  And if it's not quite as memorable as his last effort, I won't hold that against him.  In the end, it's smarter than a lot of the big budget spectacles we've gotten this summer, and that alone is worth giving this a look.

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