Elysium
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Welcome to Elysium, a veritable paradise orbiting the Earth, where topical diseases like cancer are cured instantaneously due to medpods—a deus-ex-machina of medical innovation—and altitude is a metaphor for class separatism.
This space-borne dwelling is strictly for those who can pay their way into it, and its idyllic surroundings do justice to its aspiration to be the Elysian Fields of the future.
A lot of credit should be given to director Neill Blomkamp and his art direction team right off the bat, as the contrast is illustrated spectacularly between Elysium and Earth, which has become a polluted, overpopulated cesspool of industrial decay and moral rot.
Elysium is predominantly set in Los Angeles circa 2154, where industrial products have replaced entertainment as the primary export, and you either have to settle for homelessness or work for second-rate corporate suits in an ugly assortment of factories.
When we first meet Max DaCosta (Matt Damon), he is an orphaned child living in a convent, where his entire world revolves around his friend Frey (Alice Braga) and his naive dreams of living on Elysium.
As an adult, he has become one of the factory cogs, thankful for some form of employment and not a life spent in prison.
After an accident at work leaves him with radiation poisoning, he is forced to seek out people entrenched in illegal operations who provide him with an exoskeleton life-support system and a chance to get into Elysium to try and heal himself, and later on, Frey’s daughter as well.
His most significant obstacles? Control-freak Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her psychopathic right-hand man, Kruger (Sharlto Copley).
As this is only Blomkamp’s sophomore feature film effort, Elysium will inevitably be compared to its predecessor, 2009’s District 9.
While both are technically superb and visually arresting depictions of an all-too-near future, District 9 is the only one that truly succeeds in terms of a thoroughly original allegorical narrative.
Blomkamp’s extensive imagination as both director and screenwriter is clearly on display here—it’s refreshing just to see a sci-fi that isn’t based off some other existing work. And Elysium is ultimately nice to look at, but it ends up becoming ‘Occupy in Space’ with a dash of ‘Obamacare’ thrown in.
When Max receives his almost superhuman boon from the surgeons who give him his outfit, it’s both a blessing and a curse. The action ratchets up, we get to see more of Elysium towards the end, and the stakes are effectively established, but it also takes away from basking in the fascinating near-dystopia that District 9 immersed its audience in.
On its own merit, however, Elysium is still a terrific testament to Blomkamp’s talents as a visual filmmaker.
