No heart in this film

Rating: 2/10 (12 August 2013)

I thoroughly enjoyed Neill Blomkamp's previous film, "District Nine". That film succeeded because of its well-written, interesting characters, uniquely lived-in futuristic setting, and, most importantly, its emotional core. Unfortunately, Blomkamp's newest project has fallen far short of my expectations. "Elysium" is utterly dull. In spite of an aesthetic that almost exactly mirrors that of "District Nine", "Elysium" lacks the characters or attention to plot details that would have made the movie work. Instead, it falls flat in almost every way.
Most notable in failure is Jody Foster, whose character is insufficiently developed to explain away her perpetual foul mood and all-encompassing anger - this is as two-dimensional a character as any I've seen. However, almost no facet of the movie IS well-developed: there are several 'emotional' moments in the movie that lack impact simply because the audience is given no time to get to know the characters involved before these important events occur. There's simply no reason for an audience member to care about a character who's only had ten or fifteen lines of generic dialogue in well less than five minutes of screen time.
I was irritated that Blomkamp was unable to recapture the emotional connection that made "District Nine" special to me. While there was clearly a moral message to this movie, it was ham-fisted in execution and ultimately meaningless. A montage at the very end of the movie's lengthy action finale emphasizes the weight of the choice that our hero made, but what's the point of making that choice if the audience must be inundated with recycled footage and clichés to make the connections that are vital to making the moment emotionally meaningful? Blomkamp doesn't seem to have trusted his audience to make these connections, and that's the final insult. "Elysium" is not a smart movie, and it doesn't expect its audience to be any smarter. As I walked out of the theater, I could remember only one or two names from the whole feature - that alone speaks volumes for how forgettable a film this really is. "Elysium" tries to hide its lack of heart by battering the audience into thinking it should care... But, as in all of the other important areas, it falls far short of its goal.