Ever since September 2011 it seems cinema has been wrought with all science-fiction films dealing with class divides. The haves and the have-nots. The 1%-ers and the 99%. Since the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement.
Elysium takes that stance pretty quickly showing the pros and the cons of being a part of either of those factions. The top tier class being able to live on the perfect construct in space, that is Elysium — where all illnesses are cured and generally the world is awesome — and the rest of the population having to remain on the polluted deteriorating mass that is the remains of Earth.
Max (Matt Damon) is a former trouble-maker trying to keep on the straight path on parole for numerous crimes. One day at work there’s an accident which gives him only five days to live. With that he takes it upon himself to make his way to Elysium whatever it takes to make himself whole and continue as best he can.
For me to call the film lost would be wrong. If all you wanted was a rambunctious science-fiction action film with a loosely utilized allegory then that it is. I wouldn’t go much further. However, the problem is the hierarchy of what this movie is and where it really wants to service itself. It has a lot of the science-fiction beats and general allegory down apt from the get-go. There’s a dirty landscape, new world in the sky that could pretty much be a Death Star, droids and people with exo-skeletons making them super powerful. Where the film falters is on the action.
In almost every action sequence that lasts more than ten seconds, i.e. not just when we get excited to meet Kruger (Sharlto Copley), it becomes pretty incoherent all around. It amazes me because of how much I was engaged by the action in Blomkamp‘s last film , District 9. In District 9 most of it was very matter of fact and well placed camera work allowed for a very easy to follow feel of action, but here we’re closer a lot of the time and some of the finishes makes it harder to follow and generally confusing. Even the final sequence between Kruger and Max had a few moments of camera work that felt very digital in how movement was accomplished, almost like what they did in Crank High Voltage and The Matrix with multiple cameras moving viewpoint, but didn’t help in adding any effect in the moment.
Don’t get me wrong. On the surface, with exploding bullets from AK-47s, laser shields and a bearded Sharlto Copley with a sword walking around they have all the elements of a badass action film. The filmmaking part of it is where it failed.
Which leads me to the best part of this movie, Sharlto Copley. He’s amazing in this role as a sleeper agent for Elysium on Earth doing what needs to be done. If you loved him as Wikus in District 9 he plays bad even better here. His general demeanor and posture is enough to make you recognize that he can play weird crazy better than most and I almost wished we got the film of how he went from being regular asshole gun fun guy to the deep sleeper agent he is when this film starts.
Everything else about this film screams okay. The ideas are well put out and the characters feel placed but never more than just to set up the situations for Max as he has to fight his way to Elysium. Delacourt (Jodie Foster) is the rigid want to be leader of Elysium, John Carlyle (William Fitchner) is the head of corporation that’s all about the dollars that looks down on the world he’s hoisted himself above, Frey (Alice Braga) and Julio (Diego Luna) are those people that tie Max to his past and represent the best and worst of him while at the same time showing us what kind of person he is. While he can do questionable things he still at his core remains a good soul, which is why we’re okay with him throwing on the super powers to take on the corrupt leaders of society that deem him, and many others, unworthy of their god like powers that are all available in Elysium.