Review of elements of movie

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2017)

Elysium is a fantastic movie set in the mid-22nd century where the rich live on a beautiful space station (Elysium) free of illness and war. The poor live on Earth which is overpopulated, disease ridden, and full of oppressive violence. Matt Damon's character Max could only dream of getting to Elysium, then an accident at work has put him in a race against time to cure his terminal diagnosis. The only way to survive longer than 5 days is to get to Elysium and get healed using one of their med-bays.
The major thematic element that is constantly being brought to light are social problems. The contrast of life on Elysium and life on Earth is like night and day. Earth is portrayed as having minimal resources and also being extremely hot and arid. Elysium on the other hand has lush green vegetation, beautiful white homes and happy citizens. Jodie Foster's character Delacourt is always portrayed in white clean-looking outfits as if she is being depicted as extremely wealthy. On the other hand, Max, is always wearing dirty outfits with holes in them. One scene towards the beginning of the movie, Injured and unhealthy citizens are piling into space crafts to attempt to land on Elysium. They attempt to cross the border despite the risk of being shot down in space. Only 2 of the 3 ships lands safely and all the refugees wanted to do was spend 10 seconds in a medical bay to heal themselves. Most of the movie had me wondering why Elysium residents were hoarding the healing technology for themselves instead of sharing with the rest of the human race. Even when Elysium residents are on Earth for various reasons, they talk down on Earthlings and even go as far to remind the Earthlings not to breathe on them.
The director used lighting and color schemes to really compare the difference of living styles in Elysium vs. down on Earth. When shooting scenes on Earth the color palate used was mostly reds, browns, yellows giving it a desolate feel. When on Elysium there were a lot of greens, blues, and whites being used to give the feel of comfort. Neil Blomkamp used a lot of the same color schemes on Earth in Elysium as he did in the movie District 9. Overall this was a fantastic movie because it sent a strong political message, was extremely entertaining, and Matt Damon did a fantastic job acting.