Elysium - Noodles Review

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2013)

I was really excited for Elysium since I absolutely adore writer/director Neil Blomkamp's first film District 9. It had a gritty, realistic feel to it; the character development and acting was great, as well as the action; and there were interesting themes of social commentary in it. Thankfully, Blomkamp has delivered that yet again with Elysium. This is one of those movies that you walk into not fully knowing what to expect. However, it all pays off since this is the best movie of the summer and possibly of the year. Elysium takes place about a century or two into the future and Earth is in a pretty bad, crumbling type, condition here. Don't expect the world of Back to the Future 2 because this Earth is overpopulated, polluted; it sucks. And in this film, there's essentially no middle class of society is really present. We have the poor class living on this tattered Earth. Then we have the rich class (politically "the 1%") living on this perfect habitat in a space station called Elysium. On Elysium, life is great: everything's clean, everything's high society, they listen to classical music and speak French. There's medical machines that can essentially fix anything (from fixing broken legs to curing cancer). Jodie Foster kind of runs the place. She's actually the secretary of defense, but you know she really runs things. We know she's a great actress, and she's good here. Some people may be bothered by the weird, almost unique, accent she gives her character but I kind of felt it added to her character. However, she's one of the antagonists of the film as she pretty much hates the poor people who illegally immigrate to Elysium.
On Earth, we have Matt Damon's character Max. He's a really likable guy and easy to root for. He cracks jokes and kicks ass, but is also really determined to reach his goals. Matt Damon delivers here with probably his best performance since The Departed. Through a number of events, he's gotta get to Elysium so he gets an awesome robotic suit bolted onto his body. It's pretty graphic when this happens too, the guys who do it don't exactly look like professionals, more so like thugs in the slums. Also on Earth is Agent Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley. I have to tell you right now that this guy completely steals the show. He's an actor with incredible range, playing an innocent fidgety guy who becomes a determined fighter in District 9, and then playing an all out psycho (who is awesome) in this movie. He works for the Elysium government but he still lives on the slums of Earth with his guys. The entirety of Earth is essentially the slums and the movie spends a lot of time on Earth, which I actually enjoyed. The location filming is fantastic and the setting is incredibly engrossing. You felt like you were in this world with them and caring about what would happen. The action sequences were so cool too. It's not tame though, there's very detailed blood and gore. And there's the robots, too, whom I can't even tell if they're actual set pieces or special effects. Whichever it is, they look so real.
Another real thing about this movie is the social commentary of it. Yeah, with District 9, Blomkamp gave us the themes of apartheid and racism, while wrapping them up in a really interesting and unique movie with aliens. In Elysium, we have the issues of immigration, healthcare, and class boundaries discussed in this movie. My dad would even point out how interesting they made it, like where a group of poor Earthlings take some illegal ships up to Elysium and Jodie Foster wants to deport them because they're technically illegal immigrants. It really makes you think about how society is in our world today. When a movie can do that, while still being an incredibly entertaining and engrossing sci-fi flick, you know it's gonna be awesome. And whether you agree with the societal themes or not, you have to admire how much passion Neil Blomkamp pours into this film. In 2013, it's pretty rare to see that and I really love it. Elysium is a fantastic sci-fi drama with some deep human elements, as well as some amazing action scenes and awesome sequences (there's a Bugatti spaceship... how is that not awesome?)