Henry and Kristl had hopes for Elysium (2013)

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2014)

"Seems a lot of movies revolve around our suffering and demise," Kristl whispered.
Henry observed that Kristl seemed to be particular morose this day. More than usual. He had glanced at her several times during the movie. She looked worse for wear in the flickering light that the movie threw upon her face, accenting the wrinkles in her face, the dark eye bags, the unkempt hair - not black, but almost nut brown and with grey strands.
"You okay?" Henry said.
"Why?"
"You look like you worse for wear. Like you partied all night."
Kristl ruffled her hair, which did not improve her looks at all.
"Yeah.." Kristl said after a pause.
"Let me make you some coffee." Henry went over to the kitchen in the back of their garage turned movie theater and returned with two steaming cups of coffee.
"Coffee is one of those little pleasures you should have once in a while. Not too often or you get hyperactive." Henry handed Kristl a cup. Kristl drank it in silence.More nipping than drinking.
"It is also an adventure. The kind that comes with a reward. The reward being..."
"Longevity: no more suffering, pain and illness. Perhaps no more death."
"Exact."
"Heaven, so to speak. Almost literal. Elysium is up there and the earth, down here, is a place that sucks. The contrast is clear."
"And the people on earth want to obtain Heaven. And there you have engine of story in a nutshell."
"It is not a very worked out story. Like, the do not dwell much on the consequences or what it means. In a nutshell: it is another action movie with some bad people, who want to keep Elysium for themselves, against the rest, who want to obtain that heaven called Elysium too."
"Yeah.. but that is why we have movies: entertainment. Lot of shooting, blowing up things and overcoming obstacles, defeating enemies and stopping evil. That is the fun in live."
"And then you die," Kristl said.
"Geez Kristl."
"A lot of people die in the movie. Killing seems to be essential."
"Without danger "
".. there would be no challenge.."
"Right."
"It's a by the numbers movie. You can swap it out for any other action related movie that pits good guys against bad ones. And by definition the others are always bad guys. Because they are the enemy."
"That is the thing. Us and them. That is what movies are about. Simple decisions. Them being bad.. Us being good. An escape from life."
"That is true. Pity that having Jodie Foster and Matt Damon -two good actors- in this movie does not make much difference. They have no interesting characters to play so most of their acting is lost on two stereotypical roles: the bad guy and the reluctant hero. Jodie plays the obligatory hardliner bad 'guy' lacking any conscience and eventually planning a coup against the more pliable government of Elysium. Matt Damon plays an anti hero who goes up against Jodie and her crew of killers because he is forced to."
"Yeah. So.. Tell me.. Miss-know-it-all : what would you like to see changed?"
"Why are there always such obvious bad people?" Kristl said.
"Simplicity."
" But Jodie could have been more human like, more struggling with having to make hard decisions that are inhumane. They might have presented a dilemma. There is heaven, but it is limited. So some people can live in heaven, the rest has to live on earth. Maybe they could have shown why extending Elysium to everyone does not work? But now it seems that Elysium consists of people who could help the whole world, but don't for reasons that are never given. We just have to accept this and assume they are rich people who don't want to share."
"The rich man's burden," Henry laughed.
"Sounds very...Ayn Rand to me.."
"Huh?"
"That book Atlas Shrugged has something similar in it. The 'rich' withdrawing from the world to show the world that it can't do without them. Because Miss Rand lived under the delusion that rich people further progress, while the rest of the world sucks."
"Maybe it inspired the story?"
"Maybe it did. It is as nonsensical as the movie is. Just some light entertainment."
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