Better Than "District 9"

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2013)

Basically, writer & director Neill Blomkamp's futuristic "Elysium" amounts to a 21st century version of the Fritz Lang sci-fi classic "Metropolis." Two kinds of people live in the dystopian future. The wealthy are the hopelessly wealthy, while the woebegone are the dirt-poor people. Everybody who is nobody, like poor Matt Damon's messianic protagonist who lives on Earth in Los Angeles in the year 2154, constitutes the woebegone. Max is a car thief on parole who toils in a factory where he gets zapped accidently by enough radiation to die in five days. Amazingly enough, the wealthy reside in outer space on an elite, gated community called Elysium which is strictly off-limits for everybody but the financially well-to-do. These affluent people live with everything at their disposable. They have a booth, not unlike a tanning bed, that they can crawl into that enables them to heal themselves no matter how desperate their condition. Indeed, a deceased villain is healed and restored to life in one of these miraculous pods. Blomkamp contends with serious contemporary social issues such as immigration, health care, and corruption in this quasi-escapism. The action scenes are undeniably exciting as well as suspenseful. Blomkamp has managed to make a thinking man science fiction movie where the commentary doesn't get in the way of our hero and his heroics. He strikes a deal with a Hispanic hacker on Earth, Spider (Wagner Moura of "Narcos"), to commit the ultimate crime. Spider promises him that he will send him up to Elysium where Max can heal himself. First, they give him fake citizenship. Second, Max needs to download everything in an elite factory so Spider can destabilize the economy. Max must commit a form of rear lobotomy on a high-ranking factory officer, so Spider can acquire the codes. Meantime, treacherous Secretary Delacourt (a gruff Jodie Foster of "The Beaver") is in cahoots with John Carlyle (William Fichtner of "The Lone Ranger") who has designed safeguard system that prevents the thugs on Earth from breaching Elysium. Earlier, she had ordered the destruction of multiple shuttles that penetrated Elysium's air-space, which President Patel (Faran Tahir of "Iron Man"), had reprimanded her about. As it turns out, Patel is Delacourt's sworn enemy and opponent in the government. Delacourt legitimized her orders that the shuttles be destroyed because she was protected the asylum of Elysium from outsiders. Sharlto Copley, who starred in "District 9," plays a sadomasochistic troubleshooter named Kruger who works for Dealcourt behind the scenes and revels in his bloodthirsty work. After Max and his minions ambush a shuttle heading for Elysium with Carlyle aboard, things get out of control. Copley really chews the scenery as the obnoxious antagonist. Earlier, Delacourt had been forced by a higher authority to deactivate Kruger, but now she requires his murderous talents. The information that resided in Carlyle's noggin has been downloaded into Max's skull. This ambitious sci-fi saga surpasses "District 9." The use of Spanish subtitles, since L.A. has degenerated into a place like the slums of Rio, helps audiences share in the third world atmosphere that Blomkamp wanted to generate. Critics have noted that "Elysium" resembles not only the plot of an original "Star Trek" episode "The Cloud Minders," and later they would compare it with "Alita: Battle Angel." The unfortunate part of this action-packed adventure is that our hero must die to save others. Ultimately, the ending seems too far-sighted.