Five years have passed from 2009, when the young director Neill Blomkamp realized his first film with the help of the famous director Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Lovely Bones). This film was District 9, and is yet remembered by the audience as one of the most interesting sci-fi movies of this last decade. This smart way to talk about the real problem in the world (immigration, war, racism) created a real modern cult, so much that it received a nominee to the Academy Award for the “Best movie” and “Best original screenplay” categories. Some people started to wonder if Neill Blomkamp was a new master of the seventh art.
It’s 2013 and here he comes with a new movie, which for some people is supposed to be the final proof to decree if he is really a master or if District 9 was just a lucky try.
Elysium is set in the future. In the year 2154 a restricted elite lives on the orbiting station of Elysium, the rest of the population is confined to Earth. One day, the punk Max Da Costa gets hit by a burst of radiation, which let only five days before he died. Thus begins his fight against time to go to Elysium in an attempt to be healed. But on the way there is a lot of trouble…
Many viewers got angry with Blomkamp, accusing the director to sale his poetry for the money of the big cinematographic industries. And here the important things nominated few paragraphs ago are present. District 9 was an independent film, with a cost estimated around thirty million dollars, and that had left to the author a modus operandi more free and able to play and experiment with genres. The result was the brilliant film that we can all remember. The film I’m reviewing today instead had a budget of more than hundred and fifty million dollars, coming in its own right as one of the most talked-about summer blockbusters.
A cost so significant must therefore have warned the producers, who preferred to play it safe with a story that could please the general public. The result is that many interesting topics are introduced (this time it’s the turn of the difference between social classes, with some finger pointing towards the condition of Mexico) but unfortunately not developed as they should have been, in favor of a more light-hearted story and disengaged fun.
Therefore, obviously those who were expecting a second masterpiece can’t but be disappointed.
Let me answer that lingering question you must have at this point. Despite everything, can Elysium be considered a bad film? No. Simply, District 9 was too good in comparison. There are a few problems with this one; the plot is not innovative, and both leading and supporting actors turned out to be very stereotypical, dialogues are trivial and the development of events follows the classical way, with a final heroic idealization of the main character and a decidedly feel-good happy ending. But all in all, it’s a decent movie.
The issues highlighted by the trailers are not exposed enough, instead kept as mere pretext to progress the events. What could have been the backbone of the whole is expertly kept at bay, in place for the most ignorant and old-fashioned science fiction entertainment. The script is not particularly naive, and it looks to have been developed in a natural way, without strains.
There are some good actors here, especially the protagonist Matt Damon, while Sharlto Copey is forced into a caricature but functional villain. Jodie Foster seems a little wasted in an inconsistent, one-sided role, though.
