Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Elysium Was Good, But No District 9



Elysium was a good example of serious science fiction with plenty of action, but was not as good as District 9.  In the year 2154 Matt Damon plays Max De Costa, a poor worker living on an over populated, overly polluted planet Earth with dreams of one day moving to the beautiful, massive space habitat for the wealthy known as Elysium.  Max is an ex –criminal who is just trying to turn his life around and work a steady job in a factory making military robots who keep the peace down on Earth.  However, after a serious accident leaves Max with only a few days to live, he suddenly has nothing to lose and is determined to make it to Elysium by any means in an attempt to save himself.  Max’s primary opposition is Jessica Delacourt, Elysium’s Secretary of Defense played by Jodie Foster, and her mercenary lap dog Kruger.  As Max attempts to save his own life he ends up becoming the key to unlocking Elysium for everyone on Earth and must decide which is more important.  Exploring themes like immigration and class struggle, the film drives home a lot of current world issues.  Brilliant special effects akin to those in District 9 make the movie very believable but certain aspects could have been better thought out.  Overall, the film didn’t have the same kind of sociological and political impact that District 9 had which was disappointing but the gritty future world and over the top luxury of Elysium drive home the serious division between rich and poor that exists today and will only get worse in the future.  In the end, Elysium is a hybrid of the classy, serious science fiction films like Moon or 2001: A Space Odyssey and sci-fi action movies like Star Trek or Transformers which is great because it has a little something for everyone.

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