Distributor / studio: Sony Pictures / Media Rights Capital, Alpha Core
Rated: 18
Genre: Science Fiction, sci-fi action
Running Time: 109 minutes
Director & writer: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, William Fichtner, Wagner Moura
Synopsis: In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) will stop at nothing to preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium – but that doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in by any means they can. Max (Matt Damon) agrees to take on a life-threatening mission, one that could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
Verdict: Neill Blomkamp was either lazy, or has shown that he's a one-trick pony. Shamelessly, he reused his brilliant premise of District 9 to film this formulaic, cheesy, poorly written, flaw-filled, rushed and yet largely boring, sci-fi action flick. However, compared to the other post-apocalyptic dystopian-themed movies released earlier this year such as Oblivion and After Earth, Elysium's perhaps the better film in terms of visuals and purpose (the premise portrays the cruelty of social class divide but that sorta sounds familiar, no?). But if you're looking for something as groundbreakingly fresh as Blomkamp's successful directorial debut, or a movie with plenty of great futuristic action sequences at least, it probably won't satisfy you. You'd be very surprised just how poorly Oscar award winner Jodie Foster acted here. Well actually, none of the characters were well written anyway, leaving the cast no choice but to put on a cliched performance.
Second opinion: "Quite entertaining and touching; the acting's good and story's okay as well" (girlfriend).
Malaysian censorship: Don't recall if there's anything cut, even if there was, it probably wasn't important. This film isn't as gory or violent as District 9 anyway.
Rating: 2.5 / 5
Movie stills & images: View 'em here.
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The exoskeleton suit... is a total marketing gimmick for the film. It doesn't really do anything special in the movie. It's supposed to provide the protagonist Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) superhuman strength while supporting his weak body after getting exposed to critical radiation but it's not that significant. It's practically not required in the plot at all. Blomkamp could've just written the character to deal with the pain with pills. That would've made the character more engaging to me. But too bad the producers wanted big stars and mainstream success so in come the suits to make the move poster look more cool to intrigue target audience to catch the movie.
Plot holes & illogicality: Elysium kicks off with Max mocking the robot authorities for fun and in result, gets his arm injured his parole extended as though he has anywhere else to go. The character must be pretty dumb to do that 'cause having lived his whole life in this current dystopian autocratic world, he should've known better. Then we have these two corrupt characters Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who's the Secretary of Defense for Elysium, and John Carlyle (William Fitchner), a CEO of the organisation that manufactures the android for the authorities on Earth and the defense on Elysium. Delacourt bribes Carlyle to write a computer program that could reset the system of Elysium and make her the President. YES, a computer program, it's apparently that easy! The idiot transferred the program to his mind and then gets it robbed by Max. Can somebody tell me why couldn't they just use a pendrive or a hard disk and encrypt a password? Isn't that way safer? Now let's talk about our hero's love interest, Frey Santiago (Alice Braga). She begs Max to her dying daughter with him to Elysium to be cured even though she knows the danger that's after him. He refuses but she gets caught by Kruger anyway, supposedly to lure Max in. She gives Max a pissy stare for getting her and the daughter involved in his mess. Hey, didn't the bitch say she didn't mind this to get to Elysium? Then during the cliched climax at the end, Elysium's defense seems a bit thin, making it pretty easy for Max and the illegal immigrants from Earth to cause a stir. Where are all the androids? The few that appear to defend Elysium, why do they suck so badly? It's not like these people are Jedis.
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