Neill Blomkamp's Second Film Fails to Reach DISTRICT 9 Levels

Rating: 7/10 (3 May 2014)

DISTRICT 9 was one of the best surprises from 2009. A director I've never heard of creating one of the best science fiction films I've seen in recent history. It had phenomenal effects and production design, creating a world in which aliens existed and lived confined in slums, suffering hatred at the hands of an untrusting mankind. The movie provided a solid social commentary while entertaining and amazing the audience, leaving many (including myself) excited for director Neill Blomkamp's next film. After four long years, Blomkamp returned with his sophomore effort, ELYSIUM. It contained many of the same elements as DISTRICT 9: social commentary, science fiction with a less than stellar future, special effects that feel embedded in the real world. But ELYSIUM isn't on the same level as DISTRICT 9. I wish I could say it had exceeded its predecessor, but no. It fell a bit short. The plot: in the year 2154, humans have divided into two separate societies. The Earth has fallen victim to disease, overpopulation, and pollution and it's driven the richest of our species to create an orbital space station. This utopia, named Elysium, is a perfect society where only the most wealthy are allowed to dwell. The rest of us, the lower class, are relegated to the Earth's surface to live in hovels and do the dirty jobs. Max (Matt Damon) is a former felon living in Los Angeles when he's injured in an industrial accident. He absorbs a lethal dose of radiation and he's told he has five days to live. He knows Elysium has advanced medical facilities that could cure him in minutes and agrees to join an information heist in exchange for a ticket on the next refugee ship to the station. The heist goes wrong and Max goes on the run with a world-changing computer program downloaded into his brain, while a psychotic commando gives chase on orders from a high-ranking Elysium official hoping to wrestle control of the station from the existing president with the contents of Max's mind.
First, the good. ELYSIUM is an entertaining movie. It's still got the fantastic production design that made DISTRICT 9 such an amazing world. The special effects in this film are on par, if not a little better, than Blomkamp's first, and there's a boatload more this time around. The orbital paradise of Elysium is a wicked sight. It's designed as a ring structure with the inhabitants living on the interior rim, using the station's rotation to create an artificial gravity. The people live in one giant super-rich neighborhood with giant mansions scattered across the landscape and robots doing anything resembling work. Earth (or at least Los Angeles, where a portion of the film is set) is a barren landscape with people living in hovels piled on hovels and fighting for what meager resources are available. The volatile population is kept in line with a series of robots used as brutal law enforcement. It's got a little MAD MAX vibe with familiar vehicles being outfitted with armor and weapons for the heist sequence. It's a dirty, miserable environment and the total opposite of what we see in Elysium. Overall, ELYSIUM is a beautiful movie. The CG is also used to give the violence in the movie some extra punch. If you remember the action in DISTRICT 9, there was some bloody violence in that film. Alien weapons would detonate their targets and leaving a bloody smear on the wall. It's no different here. ELYSIUM earns it's R-rating with some brutal violence (including one particularly awesome moment with a grenade and someone's face). Dishing out a good chunk of the violence is one of the film's other best elements: Sharlto Copley as Kruger, the force of violent insanity chasing our hero. I've enjoyed Copley in both DISTRICT 9 and THE A-TEAM but his turn as a villain is just plain cool. Copley can do crazy well and, as Kruger, he's at his craziest. He's a raging ball of murder, barely controlled by Jodie Foster's Delacourt.
And there's my first of two complaints about ELYSIUM. Jodie Foster isweirdin this movie. She's really phoning it in here. She grandstands through her role as the evil whatever she is. Seriously, I'm not quite sure what her role on Elysium is. Some sort of head of Homeland Security or something, I think, who's at odds with her superiors for using Kruger to blow up refugee spacecraft from Earth. And she's using some bizarre accent for her character. It's not quite European but I can't figure out what it's supposed to be. A minor misstep, but still a distraction. Finally, my biggest complaint with the movie is the social commentary. Yes, the same thing I was just praising DISTRICT 9 for is a complaint about ELYSIUM. Because this movie continually slaps you in the face with it. There's no subtlety here. It's all right there, shoved in your face. There's more than enough to reinforce the theme of the rich oppressing the poor, and there's plenty to compare the plight of the Earthbound humans trying to find a better life on Elysium to America's current immigration issues. ELYSIUM just feels a little too "on-the-nose" with it's social themes and I miss DISTRICT 9 where it's themes were a canvas on which the plot was painted as opposed to the entirety of the movie.
It's not enough to ruin the movie for me. I enjoyed ELYSIUM. It may not be all that memorable once it's over but it's a good time while you're watching it. Cool action, Copley's killer Kruger, fantastic production value, and a real basic story that doesn't require much thought. I would've like something a little more on par with DISTRICT 9 but I'm not about to rule Blomkamp out yet. The man's got vision and a love for science fiction, so I can't wait to see what he comes out with next.