Elysium (2013)

Remember "District 9" ? I remember I've been quite acid talking about it at the time. Why saying that ? Because now, when I started writing about "Elysium" - "from the director of District 9" as the poster says, I've been hit by a deja vu ...

Neill Blomkamp is behind the two titles, a promising director as he was considered following the first of them. I'll try to hold the sarcastic line on my tongue and get to the movie subject. Which in "Elysium", as well as in "District 9" is actually quite ok as idea, setting, etc. To be precise we have a dystopian future in which the overpopulated Earth is the scene of an existential chaos where the lifer expectancy is short enough to ask yourself how long will it still be overpopulated. The rich created an artificial life environment on the orbit, called Elysium = a sort of satellite populated with vegetation and having the last technology in health preserving which apparently allows to cure any disease and to lengthen the lifespan of somebody up to .. forever (one of the many points maybe not that noticeable but which raise questions in this movie, or philosophically said - how SciFi can a SciFi be). Well, in this context, we have him - Max (Matt Damon) - a former outlaw who tries hard to make a honest life in the middle of a neighborhood filled with gangs, by going day by day to work on an assembly line. Until faith (to be read: the supervisor) makes such he has a serious work accident, after which his only hope is to get fast enough on a healing platform on Elysium. How this happens and what's going on around it .. the movie will tell. I move to the critics ...

Which part I'll make very short = there's one and single big problem with this movie. Meaning worse than all the rest. And unfortunately is the same as in "District 9". It becomes way too far fetched from some point onwards despite the SciFi label. I can get over the ultra-populist message it builds, but I'm sorry ... I can't get over a guy who continuously is on the verge of dying but moves successfully from fight scene to fight scene, and many of them looking like cut from wrestling shows. Or to ignore (light spoiler) dreams of political career from a mercenary who seems to have the sword sharpening as a favorite activity in his free time, or many others. I won't even stop on what's related to technicalities or IT because I'm used with the hilarious display in pretty much every movie.

As in "District 9" if you get over these + some excessively tear jerking scenes, you'll have a result that at least won't get you bored. One of the evil characters especially: Kruger (the mercenary) - played by Sharlto Kopley, a South African actor who had the lead part in "District 9" is probably a serious candidate to the title of "best villain" of the year. About the rest, what to say, Neill Blomkamp didn't move yet beyond "promising", maybe next time.

Rating: 3 out of 5