# Elysium (2013)



## Dave (Aug 22, 2013)

This don't impress me much.

Set in the year 2154 (a little too soon, I think.) The rich live on a man-made space station while the poor live on a ruined and polluted Earth (think _Wall-E_.) The rich on Elysium are protected by a security force, and they care little what they do as long as they don't know about it. All Mat Damon has to do is reboot the Elysium computer and then everyone can enjoy free health care...

Same interesting vehicles and weapons as _District 9_ and great special effects, but the plot must have been written by President Obama. Too much of a fortress North America allegory. 

It seems that despite being able to hardwire your brain to computers, computer security in the future still sucks, but why can't they just reboot the computer again and reverse the changes?

I'm not impressed with the other scifi film offerings this year either. _Worlds End_ doesn't look too good. I was looking forward to _Ender's Game_ but the trailer actually puts me off.


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## quantumtheif (Aug 22, 2013)

Sort of the same here, I thought it was decent. What didn't make sense was the fact that they could of been providing health care the whole time if it was that simple. The evil woman seemed a bit too evil knowing that any illegal would be deported anyway. Why would she want to kill anyone?

2154 seemed a bit late for me, but I guess everyone has a different timeline.


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## Ursa major (Aug 22, 2013)

Dave said:


> ...but why can't they just reboot the computer again and reverse the changes?


The Human-Machine Organisms (HMOs) won't let them...? 





(If this is a spoiler, it's entirely by coincidence: I haven't seen the film.)


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## Lady of Winterfell (Aug 22, 2013)

I enjoyed it, and thought it was entertaining, but I had some of the same problems. I thought the plot was a little too simple, and it really looked very similar to District 9.


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## Dave (Aug 23, 2013)

quantumtheif said:


> What didn't make sense was the fact that they could of been providing health care the whole time if it was that simple.


I hadn't thought of that, but it is a huge plot-hole. I expected that the medical bays were prohibitively expensive, but if every single house on Elysium has one, you would think that at the very least the factory would buy one, just so that it didn't keep losing key skilled workers to radiation. Though I think the point being tried to be made so heavy-handedly, was that the workers were indispensable and worthless, and they didn't deserve such treatment.


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## Darkchild130 (Aug 23, 2013)

I enjoyed it, didn't like the editing though and thought it could be about 20 minutes longer.

Shalto Copley carried the film for me.


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## alchemist (Aug 23, 2013)

Darkchild130 said:


> I enjoyed it, didn't like the editing though and thought it could be about 20 minutes longer.
> 
> Shalto Copley carried the film for me.


 
Hadn't realised Copley was in it. He was great in District 9; had me cursing in a South African accent for days afterwards.


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## Darkchild130 (Aug 23, 2013)

Elysium would be at least 50% more dull without Copley in it. His accent is even stronger here, I loved it.


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## quantumtheif (Aug 23, 2013)

Dave said:


> I hadn't thought of that, but it is a huge plot-hole. I expected that the medical bays were prohibitively expensive, but if every single house on Elysium has one, you would think that at the very least the factory would buy one, just so that it didn't keep losing key skilled workers to radiation. Though I think the point being tried to be made so heavy-handedly, was that the workers were indispensable and worthless, and they didn't deserve such treatment.



Yeah I could see that. The CEO of that robot company wouldn't even breathe the same air as the others. 


The visuals were sick though. Every fight scene was well animated and not choppy like many fight scenes today.


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## B Bat (Aug 27, 2013)

Agreed.  Big production and its political agenda is too obvious.  I hate when Holywood attempts to make something they think will be meaningful.  I hate political "message" movies.


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## PTeppic (Aug 27, 2013)

I definitely enjoyed it but agree with most of what was said, good and bad. For me, biggest hole was the second shuttle heading on Elysium: where was security?


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## Nesacat (Aug 27, 2013)

It was alright. I didn't get why everyone could not have healthcare since all the homes have it and surely the factory would have invested in at least one. Also it's hard to feel anything good or bad for Elysium since it's not really fleshed out and you don't really get introduced to the people living there.


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## Darkchild130 (Aug 27, 2013)

PTeppic said:


> I definitely enjoyed it but agree with most of what was said, good and bad. For me, biggest hole was the second shuttle heading on Elysium: where was security?



Apart from the terrible editing, this was my biggest issue with the movie.
It seems that Elysium's entire strategy to stop invasion relies on illegally employing unreliable psychotic operatives to use hidden weapon caches in order to shoot down offending shuttles.

I mean, really? Super space future people didn't have the foresight to install a basic anti air system.

Even the most basic military airfield has missile defences, but on Elysium, the dream utopia of the future, nothing.


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## DarkFiBiro (Aug 29, 2013)

I quite liked Elysium, but I agree that there were some strange plot holes.

As has been said, the advanced technology of the habitat couldnt even stretch to a few pew pew lasers or some kind of automated drone defense fleet?

Loved the effects though, the on-earth shots of Elysium rising over the horizon looked very nice indeed.


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## vanwolf (Sep 1, 2013)

saw this film last week. like others i thought the plot was a bit of a mess though i guess it's difficult to build complexity into a 2 hr film and still deliver what hollywood expects


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## Rodders (Sep 11, 2013)

I watched this last night and really enjoyed it, although i do agree with what's been said. 

Jodie Foster is a fine actress and i thought that he character was a little wasted in this movie. Sharlto Copley was superb and ran away with this one.


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## Aloreth (Sep 29, 2013)

I thought the film was really good, not as many plot holes as some science fiction films and fairly original


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## finbaa (Oct 12, 2013)

I thought it was terrible. I actually wrote a short story inspired by it after I saw it which I think communicates how I felt about it:

SPACE-HIPPO

3127AD. The future. The eyes of Jack Jacksons daughter quiver at him over a cold bowl of space-gruel that is breakfast. She's dying of reverse-leg: her legs are growing up inside her, pushing their way past her organs on the way to her brain.... He curses himself for buying her new shoes.

"Look kid... you're slowly kicking yourself to death and noone cares, not even me."
"But Daddy, why don't you ask the space-hippo?"

Jack looks up at the sky at the smug, fat hippopotamus floating way above earth. "Space-hippo don't care about you or me sweety.. you'd better get used to it" he sighs.

Jack goes to work, shovelling grits into the huge cannon that fires 99% of earths wealth into the greedy jaws of the space-hippo. Another day, another dollar. Suddenly he snaps, throws down his shovel and dives head-first into the load about to be fired. "Thats suicide Jack!" his buddy Enrico cries... but its too late: the cannon is fired. He flies up towards the hippo, covered in grits, and remembers what the robo-nun told him at the orphanage when he was a kid...

"One man could kill the space-hippo if he punched it hard enough" she said with a twinkle in her eye. "Why don't they?" he had said, naively. "Because they would have to punch it so hard that their guts would explode."

Jack punched the space-hippo and immediately exploded: but the space-hippo exploded as well! Hippo meat rained down on the citizens of earth, and his daughters legs grew so tall she could poke her head into space and kiss her Daddy one last time.

"I love you Daddy!"
"I love you too sweety"

And the space-hippo's crown fell on her head, making her the president of space.

The End.


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## biodroid (Dec 29, 2013)

I enjoyed the movie, good story and cool action. The sfx was brilliant. I just thought Copleys overacted South African accent kinda ruined his performance for me. Not sure why the director let him really over emphasise the accent. Was a bit disappointed with the end but overall I give it a 7/10.


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## Glisterspeck (Dec 29, 2013)

Darkchild130 said:


> Apart from the terrible editing, this was my biggest issue with the movie.
> It seems that Elysium's entire strategy to stop invasion relies on illegally employing unreliable psychotic operatives to use hidden weapon caches in order to shoot down offending shuttles.
> 
> I mean, really? Super space future people didn't have the foresight to install a basic anti air system.
> ...



For the agents on earth bit, I thought it might be a case of plausible deniability. The president (or whatever he was) didn't seem as if he wanted to be shooting down the shuttles at all due to political fallout, so maybe if the missiles came from earth, it could be blamed on the folks on earth.

The lack of defense with the second shuttle was even more confusing. I believe she emptied the monitoring room just before it came up, so maybe no one was there to see it? Doesn't really compute that they wouldn't have an automated defense in place.

I had to make up reasons for both issues while watching, which is never a good sign. Worse yet, I bought it on iTunes because it wasn't yet available to rent, and I was convinced, given District 9, that I'd love it.

On a side note, for the folks bemoaning the sociological/political message in the movie: this, to me, has always been the primary purpose of dystopian scifi -- it's just not very well done in this case.


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## Rafellin (Dec 29, 2013)

Heh. I loved it. It played to my vision of the direction that mankind is taking, so I arrived with bias. It sketched the basics and delivered the beauty. It managed the necessary suspensions of disbelief by thoroughly entertaining me. I'm easy fodder, don't demand much from my films apart from that.


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## Starbeast (Dec 29, 2013)

Hmm, I'm hearing fifty-fifty on the comments about the film. I'll see it as a rental when it's available. I did see a trailer for the movie, and it looked, just ok. I guess I've seen too many movies, but, that's not a bad thing.


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## highlad (Mar 5, 2014)

finbaa said:


> i thought it was terrible. I actually wrote a short story inspired by it after i saw it which i think communicates how i felt about it:
> 
> Space-hippo
> 
> ...



best story ever


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 6, 2014)

Watched this at the weekend and mostly enjoyed it - for the most part thought it was a story well told.

There were a couple of major criticisms though:

Spoilers:



Spoiler



1. Firing shoulder missiles from earth that rush into space and blow up the shuttles nearing Elysium. I can't imagine any physics supporting this. And did Elysium really have no defence systems? Especially when shoulder-launched missiles from earth could easily target it? 

2. The medical shuttles at the end. Where did they come? They certainly didn't look like they saw any normal use on Elysium so why weren't they already on earth? If there was a clear reason for this, would have been nice to see it mentioned early on to foreshadow them.


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## biodroid (Mar 6, 2014)

Weren't the medical shuttles parked while dropping of sick people or maybe smuggling them in?


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## Anthony G Williams (Mar 10, 2014)

I admired director Neill Blomkamp's 2009 SF film *District 9 *(reviewed on this blog in September of that year) so was naturally keen to see *Elysium*. Most of it is set on a dystopian Earth a century hence in which population growth has caused the ruin of the planet's environment, with people living in sordid poverty in shanty-towns. The exception is the very rich, who have created a utopia for themselves on a vast orbital space habitat called Elysium. Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) is one of the poor down on Earth, trying to make ends meet, when he is involved in an accident at work which leaves him with only days to live. He accepts what is virtually a suicide mission so that he can qualify for a trip to Elysium where his life can be saved. Meanwhile, he is hunted by mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Copley) and his crew, who are controlled by Delacourt (Jodi Foster) the Secretary of Elysium, leading to a final showdown on the space habitat.

The style of the film is very reminiscent of *District 9*, being tough and gritty with a lot of violence and moments of wince-inducing gruesomeness. Matt Damon does his usual expressionless hero stuff, while Sharlto Copley is unrecognisable as the psychopathic mercenary. I usually admire Jodi Foster's acting ability but in this instance I didn't find her particularly convincing. Alice Braga as Da Costa's love interest provides a contrast in mood but otherwise the action is relentless. Having said that, the film is well-constructed and gripping throughout (although I was totally unconvinced by a space habitat with no roof over the atmosphere).  It isn't such a ground-breaking film as Blomkamp's first offering and the basic plot reminded me very much of the 2011 film *In Time *(also reviewed here). Apart from the obvious differences that *In Time* is set entirely on Earth and includes the extra factor of people's lives being time-limited, the concept of a hero from the poverty-stricken massses breaking into the secure enclaves where the wealthy live lives of pampered luxury is the same. On reflection, *In Time* has a more complex and interesting plot and is definitely the one I would choose to watch again. Despite this, *Elysium* is still worth viewing.

(An extract from my SFF blog: Science Fiction & Fantasy)


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