Elysium - Review

                                           
                                                                                                                           Rating: B-

I'm having a hard time rating this film. On one hand, it's a stupendous technological effort but on the other hand it's a hammy eye-twitching melodrama. Every line is paper thin, peppered with unnecessary exposition.

Premise:
It's a story set in the future, 2154 to be exact, where rich people have left the earth for the poverty ridden masses to live. On earth, there seems to be no proper governments or laws except the drones and robots sent from the sky(elysium) to control the masses. One guy, with a luck which can only be of a multi-million dollar film protagonist, has the key to lessen the class division and give the people on earth a proper health care and other basic facilities. Thus begins the journey of the hero to accomplish his goal as besides the moral duty of whole world, he also faces lethal radiation exposure which only Elysium can cure.
                               

Review:
Spoilers ahead, be warned!

Before I delve deeper into the review, I'd like to say that the degree to which you'd like the film depends on what you're looking for in the movie. If you are looking for big action extravaganza with some sci-fi sprinkled on top a la "Oblivion" and "Aliens" then this does the deed. If you're looking for thought-provoking sci-fi with action sprinkled on top a la District 9 then look away. Speaking of District 9, how amazingly Neill Blomkamp popped onto the mainstream feature foyer with D9, making everyone notice this immensely talented director. The CGI was mind-mindbogglingly terrific on a very modest budget compared to its peers in the same category including Elysium. What he accomplished in D9 was a spectacular sci-fi film with great engaging narrative, life-like CGI and some message to share, which was wrapped up nicely in a shiny bundle. With Elysium however, the engaging narrative was gone, the message was literally on the nose and sci-fi took a side step for the sake of guns and bullets. What was left was CGI and in that department he delivered in spades. The elysium ring which floats dreamily on top of the Earth is both massive and believable. It has spectacular level of detail and beauty. I got goosebumps when the supersonic jets flew vertically from the Earth and to the Elysium. It all looked so real and majestic. But more time was spent on Earth during the film which must have helped in keeping the budget in check as the main action was taking place in slum-like congested and poorly maintained streets. But the magic and spectacle of sci-fi was gone the more time we spent on Earth. As a result we were not in awe anymore and started noticing the story. That's where the main problem lied. It was cheese laden with too much exposition and too many convenient plot points, all happening in the lives of uni-dimensional characters.
Why do the characters have to say every single thing which comes to their mind, even when it's so obvious through their actions? Its story is incredibly lazy and over-the-top, with information not spoon fed but forced fed to us. You can argue that if it's meant to be an action blockbuster then I shouldn't over-emphasize the lackluster script, but it's from the creator of District 9 not Michael Bay. He proved that he can create dazzling action sequences, jaw-dropping VFX and engaging story at the same time as well.
A cold and calculated security official played by Jodie Foster, who calls all the shots behind the curtains. She basically runs Elysium and of course she's evil. She's planning coup with the help of a CEO also while trying to capture Max (Matt Demon) with the help of a rough and tough sleeper agent Kruger (Sharlto Copley). Fighting these forces is the hero, Matt Demon, who must do the impossible task of bringing equality to the people of the Earth.
                              

Mid way through the film, while Matt's character is planning to go to elyisum, it is conveniently stated that he has the brain which can hack the elysium system and reboot it with the chance to give equality to everyone. How did that even happen or is possible is left out of the picture. The control elysium has on Earth is immense yet no one has taken or plan to take action ever before the hero emerged? Are all the people living in elysium that cruel? If so, why? Are they just too filthy rich to care or just downright evil-plotting elites and hate the humanity in general? Why are all poor people depicted as good and rich as bad? The world created in elysium is too black and white and the characters are like cardboard caricatures. On top of that, the acting is bad! Sharlto was great in D9 but extremely annoying in this film. His lines were downright cringe-worthy on the paper and more so when spoken by him. At one particular scene, he was shouting to himself while chasing the protagonist and blurting out lines like " I'm gonna eviscerate the little one/boykie." Jodie is a great actress without a doubt and can handle a lead in a sci-fi as she showed in "Contact" but even she struggles with the goofy dialogues and confused expressions as the camera lingers on her face for the reactions after every dialogue the other character speaks. Many of her choreographed hand gestures were very contrived and unnecessary. Matt was good for what he was provided with and seemed to be having a lot of fun. I suppose that's so because much of the time he was playing the action hero where the focus is not on the character but the spectacle.

Conclusion:

I loved the fact the Neill had something to say in D9 and he did so while giving us a good narrative driven story of the protagonist on a personal level. Here Neill told the same message which he already did but without the personal engaging story of the main character to boost. I still think Neill is a great director but I also strongly believe that he isn't a good writer. At the end of the day, the film will not hold long if the story isn't good. All the classics which are still studied to this day are great examples of how a great script lives forever. The CGI and other visual effects look dated but their stories are fresh and powerful to this day and will continue to be for long. It feels like Neil came up with an idea and then spending much time in script, he spent the whole time creating amazing armour, robots and VFX. They were of course great but in all that, story got left behind a little. Elysium was a good spectacle but hollow underneath however despite saying that I'm really looking forward to "Chappie".