Not Subtle, Not Creative

Rating: 2/10 (25 May 2014)

This is unwatchable. Jodie Foster does not make subtle movies. In "Silence of the Lambs," there were no good men——except for the Scott Glenn character, who was up in his years and not interested in chasing skirts. He was good, the elderly, harmless male. The rape-victim movies she has starred in were not exactly full of good, decent men, either. Now, in "Elysium," set 140 years in the future, the good people are all Latino. All of the poor, disadvantaged people still left on a hellish, polluted Earth are all Latino. I didn't spot any African-American or Asian faces, unless some extra was in the frame, 300 feet from the camera. If you're white, you are evil. Somehow, all the Caucasians are in the top 1 percent.
Matt Damon's lead character is bi-racial. You have to be part Latino and speak Spanish for us to know you're one of the good people. Not a subtle movie. And by the way, film-makers showing us how things will look in 140 years could be a little more imaginative. Will people still be dropping the same f-bombs they drop now? Still flipping the bird? Will tattoos still be the rage, and the more ink you have, the more impressive it is? These film-makers went for maximum action and huge, metal-fortified droids. Not very creative at all.