Elysium Movie Review

Elysium (2013)

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Written by: Neill Blomkamp
Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
In 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

Verdict
This takes a rich versus poor premise and sets it in a dystopian, doing a great job of combing a number of ideas into a sci-fi story. The wealthy consider themselves too good to even live on Earth. With cybernetically enhanced humans and exo-suits, it's  not just fan service. The visuals are never less than impressive. Many movies try to rely on cool scenes to a detriment, but this provides a plausible story that ties it all together. It manages to be impressive, fun, and even touching.
Watch It.

Review
I've seen this before, not long after it came out. After District 9, there was no doubt I was going to watch Blomkamp's next movie.

This takes the wealth and class disparity up a notch where the wealthy leave Earth completely and live on a giant space station. If you were curious about how deep the divide between rich and poor is, the space station blows up an approaching hijacked Earth ship via missile attack. They attack anyone unauthorized with extreme force. The Earth left behind looks like a demilitarized zone. This is sci-fi with a hint of cyber punk.

Matt Damon plays Max Da Costa

Max (Matt Damon) works in a robot factory. With a criminal past his options are limited, but with so many seemingly smart robots why do they even need people for the factory? Are humans cheaper to replace? A work accident leaves Max unable to work but also the perfect candidate for a job from a colleague in the criminal underworld. Max has nothing to lose and just wants to see the elite space station. His associates install some serious hardware to help him on the mission.

This is well plotted, giving Max justifiable reasons for all of his actions. The small details also help build the world. Everyone is multi-lingual and one of the wealthy drives a Bugatti hover car.

Sharlto Copley plays Kruger

The rich and poor don't even live on the same planet. Any Earthlings that even breach the walls of elite space station are killed. The rich don't want to just live well, they want to see the poor suffer. The rich could easily provide medical treatment to the poor, but they instead complain about sharing space with them.

The exo-suits and the fact the main villain, Kruger (Sharlto Copley), carries a samurai sword feels like fan service, but the visuals and story are so good that it works because the movie doesn't rely on these aspects alone. The suits do make for wild high-powered fights. Many movies would rely on production design alone, but this never feels like the characters are acting to serve the plot.

Max's dream was to go to space, but circumstance prevented that. This is his last ditch effort to make it a reality. It also gets motivation in the form of a childhood friend, but he must overcome all the barriers the ruling elite have put in place. Making this sci-fi helps to make this unique.