Bias and prejudice will hurt your chances of enjoying this film

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2016)

One of the things I loved about ELYSIUM was the idea that the main character was a criminal. Yes, you read that correctly. As a matter of fact, one of the things that I absolutely LOVED about this film was the fact that the primary characters were mostly criminals, trying to etch out a life in a less-than-satisfactory world.
Matt Damon stars as Max, a nice enough guy who is obviously trying to put his life back together now that he's tasted the punishment of his criminal days. Alice Braga plays his love interest, back in the days when love and friendship were like gold to us, back in the days of our childhood.
Funny how bonds like that never really improve. Indeed, it is like STAND BY ME said, "I never had friends like I did when I was twelve. God, does anyone?"
No. We don't.
Max, who's trying to play by the rules, is abused by his boss, resulting in his aforementioned death in a matter of five days. With nothing to lose, his only chance is to reach Elysium, the hovering station of prosperity and economic elitism that has decided to separate itself from the problems of Earth (believable because the upper one percent truly do believe that the rest of us are just scum, as they are portrayed in the movie. I think that's why the movie suffers in the ratings department, but more on that later).
Sharito Copley plays the heavy here, Kruger, and does it masterfully, as he plays both sides like a true mercenary, caring only about his immediate pleasures and his profit as he goes about his business raping women and slaughtering people.
Jodie Foster does not phone it in as Delacourt, but I do have to wonder why they insisted on having her force an accent here, when it was painfully obvious how much trouble she was having with it. Would anyone really have cared if she just talked normally? Did it have a purpose in the overall plot? I don't think it did.
People argue one way or the other about the plot, but the one thing that sticks in my mind is the overall negativity regarding the CLASS of people represented here. I honestly believe, after what I have read, that there are two things that hurt the reviews of this movie: One being the fact that it is the follow-up to the obviously superior DISTRICT 9, and two, the terrible bias toward a selection of characters that society of today believe they have some right to look down upon.
You read that correctly. Reading people's reactions to this movie, I have to say it has revealed some very disturbing and even alarming patterns with regard to prejudice in our culture. Prejudice, of course, is judging a person without knowing them. On the Earth presented to us in ELYSIUM, criminal behavior is, in my opinion, understandable. Robotic policemen and computer-programmed parole officers raise our already pointlessly labeled "correctional facilities" to a whole new level, where the idea of the upper crust carelessly throwing the poor aside is no longer a matter of veiled faces smiling at you while they lie, but a matter of flat-out uncaring as to whether or not the poor know it. It is the equivalent of urinating in your face, if you are a poor person on Earth. Faced with these kind of odds, ANYONE can be a criminal. And for good reason.
Even when Max TRIES to play along with society, DESPITE the fact that it is terrible and unfair in every aspect, he has no rewards to reap. His death is all but an illustration of what he and his fellow inhabitants of Earth have become: Roaches, waiting to be eradicated.
Unable to choose our origins, unable to choose your place in the world, and faced with the life of the Earthlings presented in this film, criminal behavior would almost seem NECESSARY, just to try and stay alive.
One of the things that constantly comes up in a lot of movies is the positive reward for breaking the rules. Batman does it constantly, assaulting criminals and getting away with it on a regular basis. He breaks into buildings, he raids computers. One of the ONLY things I liked about BATMAN V SUPERMAN was the statement that "Alfred, we've always been criminals".
There are so many movies where breaking the rules results in positive change. In WORKING GIRL, the only way Tess (Melanie Griffith) can get ahead is to cheat her way into a business deal by committing fraud. Andy Duphresne (Tim Robbins) is only able to find and enjoy his freedom after stealing the warden's money in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. In THE DARK KNIGHT, the only way to find the Joker is to invade the privacy of everyone in Gotham. How many of those screens had people having sex in them, while Lucius was trying to pinpoint the Joker?
Cast your judgment aside, and try to accept all human beings as equal in their abilities and their desire for survival. Do that, and you might enjoy ELYSIUM as much as I did.