Elysium

In a genre where an ‘apocalyptic earth’ setting is becoming both hugely popular and horribly overused, director Neil Blomkamp is trying his luck with Elysium his second sci-fi release after the immensely popular ‘District 9’. Having an intelligent eye for storytelling seen in his previous film, Blomkamp prefers to link the sci-fi storyline with a relevant current affair as to bring the story close to home and give it a subtle moral message. Whilst he certainly gives this a good go with Elysium, he finds himself getting carried away towards the end with an over indulgence in CGI and general stupidity.

Set in the year 2154, where earth has been reduced to ruin, burdened with disease and poverty and the human population work primarily for the rich, living on a utopian paradise modelled on a floating space station. After learning protagonist Max (Matt Damon), has only a few days to live after a radiation accident, he revisits his violent past in order to seek the superior medical aid of ‘Elysium’ whilst aiming to bring the distorted worlds to equality.

Beginning with real vigour and enthusiasm, Elysium spent little time procrastinating as it quickly introduced us to its dazzling and highly innovative world. Soaring overhead the fresh, organic world of Elysium brought stunning visuals which seamlessly merged both real visual sets as well as CGI. Frequently in awe of the films creative flair, it rarely follows linear sci-fi stereotypes being instead in favour of a storyline with more intelligence and class. Quickly establishing a self-made personality for itself, the grungy yet realistic tone of the film resulted in immediate engrossment as well as quick connections to the down-trodden protagonist. Played perhaps ‘by the book’ by Matt Damon, the protagonist Max showed to be dense and meaty initially only to wear thin towards the end, suffering from a lack of characterisation and real personality, a path which not only this character follows. Starting stupendously strong and intelligently, Elysium slowly depleted in brain cells as it transcended into idiocy and typical Hollywood flavourlessness. Plot strands become quickly contrived as the film runs out of fuel with no help from the half-hearted performance of the main antagonist, Jodie Foster. Performing with a bizarre and jarring accent throughout, she made little effort to beef out her already thin character resulting in little care for her character and her fate. Taking over as the real villain was the highly different Kruger, played by the fantastic Sharto Copley who induces so much passion and enthusiasm into his character that results in the audience overwhelmingly resenting him. This hatred for the villain makes each action scene seem much more passionate and thrilling as we really get behind Max and his good intentions. This entwined with a lack of shaky camera footage, makes each action sequence highly enjoyable and gut-wrenchingly disgusting with gratuitous violence being used sparingly to thrill the audience.

Elysium is quite far from perfect; however it is far superior to many recent sci-fi’s of little creative merit. Copley makes the film, giving it an almost 80’s feel with truly evil one liners as well as a ridiculous caricatured persona which never fails to thrill. Blomkamp has yet again created a highly enjoyable sci-fi possessing both brains and brawn, it’s just a shame he couldn’t withhold his excitement which spiralled out of control towards the end with idiotic and explosive style.

7.5/10- An intelligent, if overindulgent sci-fi.

Calum Russell