Elysium Review

[WillBrink]

ELYSIUM (REVIEW)

Anyone see it?

Watched it last night. Was disappointed. I had really high hopes and expectations for this movie: written, directed, and co-produced by Neill Blomkamp, who put out a great sci fi movie in District 9. Top notch actors. Great story plot. Big budget...A formula for a great movie, maybe even Blade Runner great, but it was not to be. Had this movie been done right, it could have been in the all time classic Sc Fi category.

The actors did their jobs commendably, the visuals are very good, but the story line falls very short and I was unable and unwilling to suspend my disbelief over constant stuff that made no sense, or were just convenient to keep the movie moving at the pace the Director wanted. And they attach the cool exoskeleton to him for no other reason than they have an extra one lying around (what?), and he doesn't even utilize it all that much. It tries far too hard to send a social message about the haves and haves nots, but beats you over the head with it. The ending also makes no real sense, but I wont say why as to not spoil that.

It's not a bad movie by any means. I'd give it a solid B, maybe even B+, but it had so much potential that anything short of great (A+) fell short for me. If you do want to see a really good movie by this director/writer, see District 9. It's a cult classic at this point and rightly so and a better movie (done on a far smaller budget) than Elysium.

[ptmccain]

same here: disappointed. Very much so.

[Kain]

I saw it in theaters with a friend and agree that it kind of fell short. Had a lot more potential that it delivered and being beaten over the head with the whole message did get preachy to me after a while.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Pure eye candy. Saw it in the theater and I enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for the dystopian sci-fi genre. I like how they show the Earth being over crowded, Kalifornia as Mexcio North. As with Avatar I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" in this one. Loved Sharlto Copley's character, Kruger he got ripped for that role. Couldn't believe what a hard ass bad guy he can play as we usually see him play nerdy good guy types (A-Team, District 9). Nice touch with the South African mercs, cool toys.

They attempted to explore "Class Warfare" a bit, per Hollywood SOP they go full retard with the progressive bovine feces.

[WillBrink]

Pure eye candy. Saw it in the theater and I enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for the dystopian sci-fi genre. I like how they show the Earth being over crowded, Kalifornia as Mexcio North. As with Avatar I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" in this one. Loved Sharlto Copley's character, Kruger he got ripped for that role. Couldn't believe what a hard ass bad guy he can play as we usually see him play nerdy good guy types (A-Team, District 9). Nice touch with the South African mercs, cool toys.

They attempted to explore "Class Warfare" a bit, per Hollywood SOP they go full retard with the progressive bovine feces.

Agreed with bold, but this movie could have been and should have been far more then that.

[Belmont31R]

Matt Damon has gone out of his way to make his views known. Not surprised this movie was about a liberal view of things.

[murphman]

Hope I am not the only one but the underlying political message that slapped me in the face was Elysium is the United States and earth is Mexico/Latin America and we need to take down the boarders and let everyone into America.

[Todd00000]

Pure eye candy. Saw it in the theater and I enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for the dystopian sci-fi genre. I like how they show the Earth being over crowded, Kalifornia as Mexcio North. As with Avatar I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" in this one. Loved Sharlto Copley's character, Kruger he got ripped for that role. Couldn't believe what a hard ass bad guy he can play as we usually see him play nerdy good guy types (A-Team, District 9). Nice touch with the South African mercs, cool toys.

They attempted to explore "Class Warfare" a bit, per Hollywood SOP they go full retard with the progressive bovine feces.

I agree, but I did not like District 9.

[JusticeM4]

Pure eye candy. Saw it in the theater and I enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for the dystopian sci-fi genre. I like how they show the Earth being over crowded, Kalifornia as Mexcio North. As with Avatar I found myself rooting for the "bad guys" in this one. Loved Sharlto Copley's character, Kruger he got ripped for that role. Couldn't believe what a hard ass bad guy he can play as we usually see him play nerdy good guy types (A-Team, District 9). Nice touch with the South African mercs, cool toys.

They attempted to explore "Class Warfare" a bit, per Hollywood SOP they go full retard with the progressive bovine feces.

+2

I enjoyed it very much. Would give it a solid B+. A few of the scenes and plot lines could've been done better i.e. minimal security on the billionaire guy who owned the factory? C'mon... Also when the factory section that Matt Damon was working on malfunctioned, there was no manual override to turn it of?? And this is in the future...pshhh.

The rest of the plot is solid IMO. I did like the fact that it showed how poverty can take over, and the use of robotic LEO's. The system is not going to be perfect in the Elysium which is why they still kept getting illegals. You would think that they would already have a fool proof security system, but it shows man's ingenuity regardless of the obstacles.

I highly recommend watching it if you like movies such as District 9, and Total Recall (new)

[JusticeM4]

And even in that attempted message, it utterly fails. The planet is over run with people, lack of food, etc, and making them all healthy via super med bays will is a good idea? Even the "happy ending" of the movie left me going "WTF?" You'll now have an over populated planet of healthy starving people who will not die? None of it made sense if you thought about it. So, the place the rich people had was now open to billions on billions of people on the planet. That's defacto a good thing? Why?

Movies like these will always have that type of ending where it leaves it to the viewers imagination what will happen when the credits roll.

District 9 is the same; is he really going to be able to return to human form when the bugs come back?

It is a happy (ish) ending. Some sacrifices have to be made in order for the greater good, Ala "300" and "Braveheart".
Viewers should never expect a perfect outcome of any movie, because nothing in life is perfect. Assuming such will always leave you disappointed.

I thought District 9 was awesome - especially for it being a directorial debut. As to Elysium it had cool effects but was underwhelming. The two thing that bothered me most was the fact a) Elysium was too small to house all the people etc. it was supposed to - which was most visible once things started crashing into the gardens and you could get a scale for how small the place really was (remember the ****ing thing had been up there for at least 30 years and no one apparently died up there - or at least must have lived longer than present day man - whilst at the same time increasing the population (having kids)), and b) it was still visible from earth.

Sharlto Copley is the only reason to see this movie (and there's probably a Best of Kruger video on youtube soon so I won't have to).

Regarding the bolded, you'd have to consider that it may be just the first Elysium and there is a possibility of building more.
a) The cost of building such a location/facility is stupendous, which is why only the super rich are able to go there.
b) Stars and the moon are visible from earth too. Elysium was not very far from Earth at all in the movie.

I tend to watch these sci-fi/futuristic movies with an open mind. Expecting too much all the time will always lead to questioning holes in the movie.