Shaky in more ways than one

Rating: 4/10 (18 October 2015)

To tell you the truth, I'm still unsure as to why Neill Blomkamp's 2009 film District 9 still haunts me to this day. Perhaps it is the tear-jerking ending, where an emotion so pure, so moving, so poignantly hopeful is expressed to the audience. Perhaps it is its far-reaching and deeply compelling thematic ambition. Or perhaps it is its gratuitous, borderline horrific violence that pounds mercilessly at the senses until the film becomes almost impossible to watch, melting from a thought-provoking premise into an unmitigated, gleeful gorefest. Whichever it is, District 9 is a film that will confuse me forever.
Elysium, Blomkamp's second film, is a significant regression from District 9. It is loud, messy, and disorienting, wasting its promising concept and compelling cast on little more than a vehicle for visual splendor and forgettable action scenes. Its characters are poorly created, unexplored, and impossible to sympathize with. Even Matt Damon, who is usually quite good at playing the hero, is given a role that he can't really pull off.
This isn't to say that Elysium is entirely horrible, however. The visual imagination that went into this film (while reminiscent of District 9) is often wonderful to behold. There are numerous shots that are stirring (although there are just as many that are repulsive) in their depictions of a strange apocalyptic world that is fraught with injustice, crime, and social division. The concept is interesting enough to entertain, and a few nice touches by the director save the film from being an abysmal mess. But despite this, Elysium is a very poor film.
Elysium conjures up a vision of Earth, about 150 years in the future, where the rich have left the planet on a space station called Elysium and party it up while the poor rot on the Earth below. Matt Damon, an ex-criminal, has a job at a factory on Earth where he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, and informed that he has five days to live. In desperation, he joins a group to pull of an elaborate "brain-heist", and steals a bit more than he bargains for. Battles ensue, mercenaries arrive, and Blomkamp's awful shaky-cam direction makes about half of the film impossible to watch.
My main issue with this film was cinematography. The action scenes were shot in an unneeded frantic manner that them entirely incoherent and dizzying. Much of the film feels like it was shot with a hand-held camera. I suppose that shaky-cam may appeal to some people, but I hate it. I prefer to actually be able to see the action than bodies flying in and out of the screen, occasionally locked in combat, occasionally bloody as hell. It is rather tiresome to be subjected to such a level of movement without coherence, and for such an extended period of time.
I don't understand, Mr. Blomkamp. You have all this money. Why the heck can't you make an action scene that doesn't rely on shaky cam?
Another huge issue with this film is its characters, who are either unsatisfying, repulsive, or boring. Matt Damon plays a selfish guy who wants to live at all costs (but is still in love with a childhood friend), who is willing to put all those he cares about at risk just to save his own skin. It's very hard to sympathize with him. The main villain, the sociopathic security chief of Elysium, lacks motivation (as well as the ability to act). Her hatred and wish to preserve the social division is never explored in a satisfying manner. The main mercenary, Kruger, undergoes a random character change for no reason whatsoever, which is very cloying. It's also impossible to understand what he's saying half the time. The other characters are either cannon fodder or there to open doors, making them all rather boring.
The story is poorly paced, with the action beginning about an hour into the film's duration (the film is less than two hours long), and stalling at promising points to show some "very emotional" slo-mo, which never serves any purpose.
Elysium is a nauseating disappointment, too serious to fall into the "so bad its good" territory, and too shaky to even be considered as a solid action film. The CGI is solid, though, and that's all I can really say.