Elysium 6/10

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2013)

Elysium, a film that I was not at all excited for, but still saw it. Blomkamp is back after the success of one of the best sci-fi films in along time, D9.
So, visually the film is incredible and that's what I think is the films strongest aspect. The vast landscapes of this poverty filled Earth is beautiful, yet so dirty. You can actually believe this is Earth because with a lot of neglect over time, Earth may or may not turn out that way. And then there's Elysium, that I find to be an extremely cheesy Utopian world. I was chuckling every time there were shots of that world and the people in it. Everything too perfect. Yes, I know that's the point, but I just think the way it's executed is really cheesy. The visual effects are perfect and blended extremely well. The CGI looks as real as you can possibly get with CGI. There wasn't a moment when I was questioning whether it's CGI or not. I honestly thought it was all real. The robots are so fascinating because of their colors. The robots are bright colors like red, yellow, orange, which is a contrast to what Earth is. The set and production designers are top of their game with Elysium. My biggest problem with the direction of this film is the shaky-cam. I'm usually a fan of the shaky-cam because it can add a grittiness to the film and most of the times it does in the film, except for the action scenes. Almost every action scene has so much shakiness you get disoriented to what actually going and which character is where. I would have loved smoother and more clarity to the action scene because I want to see what's going and what fight technique each character has. And having a ton of cuts during the fight scene doesn't help either. It's like one shaky tight shot, cut to another and another, then to a medium, then to a wide and back to a million more close ups. Thus being said, that didn't stop me from getting into most of the fight scenes. My favorite fight scene is probably the first one once Max is attached to the exoskeleton machine because you get introduced to the weapons and the strength this machine brings to Max. My least favorite is the final fight scene between Max and Kruger because the way it's shot makes me so disoriented and seems really rushed to get over with. Also, I love the gore. Get ready for some imploding and exploding humans.
The script is by far the weakest aspect of the film and it really turns me off big time. The film starts out pretty good with comparing the situations on Earth and on Elysium to show the social and economic inequality. But we kind of lose all that once the action starts. These issues just back into a corner and stay hidden, so it just turns into the "good guys" vs the "bad guys." And that's it. Of course you know the character's motives and what not, but I still just found that way over powered by one dimensional characters. There's hardly any character development for except for Max and Frey, which told through flashback, which I fairly enjoyed, but nothing new to storytelling. Finding out about Max's and Frey's relationship/friendship in the past still doesn't get me emotionally attached to the two character. Their relationship and motives seem way too mechanical. No other character has any character development. I think it's really comical that basically everyone on Elysium are rich white people, which are portrayed as evil bigots and then Earth is only filled with people of different race and Matt Damon is apparently the last white person on Earth. The film also takes cheap shots at health-care. Elysium just rudely slaps you in the face with a political agenda about inequality of wealth, health-care, and race. The whole film is also carried by really cheesy dialogue that is quite laughable at times.
I'm just going to start out by saying that I think Jodie Foster is comically dreadful. I remember when she is first on screen and delivers her lines, my girlfriend and I look at each other with confused looks. Foster is way too over dramatic with the way she delivers her lines and facial expressions. She literally pauses after every other word. And what kind of accent or should I ask accents is she speaking with? Her movements are stiff and robotic like. Foster is a bad actress by any means, but holy sh*t, she's unwatchable in this. Matt Damon is decent in the film. He does what he's hired to do and shows some emotion, which is nice, but nothing special. I don't have anything to say about Alice Braga besides, bland. Now, Sharlto Copley has by far the best performance out of everyone, but I still don't like him in the film. Copley disappears into his one dimensional character. His performance is very much a caricature, but that voice, that voice! My best, yet poorly way to describe his voice in the film is like a high pitched Australian Grouch from Sesame Street. I was annoyed from beginning to end. I almost forgot, Diego Luna is my favorite part of the whole film and he only has like 15 minutes of screen time. I think he has the best performance and most likable character. He connection emotionally with me without any character development, weird. Maybe I'm in love with the actor.
I saw Elysium with three other people and we all left the theater joking about how bad it is. At least we got $10 worth of laughs out Elysium, right?