In the year 2154, the human race has divided into two extreme classes of people.
The very wealthy of the world have built a pristine, utopian space station called Elysium, equal only to the Garden of Eden. There, the leaders of the world reside, throwing daily dinner parties, listening to classical music and instantly curing any possible illness in seconds.
On the ruined, overpopulated, dystopian Earth, the rest of humanity slaves along, living meaningless lives with microscopic hopes of one day setting foot on the space station.
From the writer and director of “District 9,” Neill Blomkamp, “Elysium” displays a horrifying look into a future where class division has grown so far apart, different people cannot even live on the same planet. Although the political leaders of earth all live on Elysium, they rarely, if ever, leave to visit Earth, and strict anti-immigration laws prevent anyone migrating from Earth.
Max (played by Matt Damon) lives in a crumbling Los Angeles, attempting to walk the straight-and-narrow after going to jail for numerous criminal offenses in his youth. When Max accidentally exposes himself to radiation, the 36-year-old android-factory worker has five days to live. His only hope is to reach Elysium and heal himself with their advanced medical technology.
Damon gives a wonderful performance in this film. He’s no stranger to action-adventure movies, nor dramatic stories of the human condition. With the two genres mixed, Damon is solid throughout.
Although the space station is governed by President Patel, everything behind the scenes is run by the Secretary of Defense, Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster), who will stop at nothing to secure the peace and isolation of Elysium and her citizens. Foster usually gives good performances, and although this role had nothing negative in it, I could not find anything special that made her performance stand out.
Don’t get me wrong, Delacourt is a menacing villain, and Foster does a good job. But it’s the secretary’s violent on-earth secret police force and the force’s leader, Agent Kruger (Sharlto Copley) that does most of the dirty work.
Kruger is by far the true antagonist of the film and Copley gives one of the best performances of the year. Copley starred in Neill Bloomkamp’s first film, “District 9,” and it was interesting to see him in such a polar opposite role. In “District 9,” Copley’s character was relatable, approachable, redeemable and he was overall a very good person. But in “Elysium” Copley’s Kruger has nothing good in him at all. He will kill anyone opposed to his or Delacourt’s opinions and he doesn’t grow as a person once throughout the film. This does not take away from the character or the actor’s performance; on the contrary, it was the best part of the film and elevated it immensely.
But as good as the characters and actors may be, a good story must support them or the whole film will fall flat. For the most part, “Elysium” did have a pretty good story. I went into the theater thinking most of the film would be about Elysium and taking place on the space station. I quickly found out this would not be the case. Although some scenes with Foster do take place on Elysium, nearly all of the first 80 minutes of the movie are on Earth.
The production design and cinematography pulled me into this world extremely quickly. To give you an idea, a few shots of the movie are of Earth from space. The entire surface is brown and blue. No green. In the shots of Elysium from space, besides the white and silver of the space station, it is mostly green. Just those visuals alone get across everything the view needs to know about what has happened to humanity.
People looking for a high-flying action adventure or sci-fi spectacle, you will find a bit of it in “Elysium.” But this movie is so much more than the several action scenes and futuristic gadgets. A very forward message of “Class Division Bad” is thrown at the audience at every turn, but is surprisingly not overbearing. I like seeing issues of our world today used to show what could happen if things take a turn for the worst.
As with most futuristic dystopian movies in recent years, the ideas and concepts in “Elysium” plays on the audience’s curiosity and draws the viewers in. With good acting, phenomenal effects and technical wizardry, this movie was as enjoyable as though provoking. Definitely worth seeing sometime this summer.
~Kellen M. Quigley
(This story appeared in the Aug. 15, 2013 edition of The Salamanca Press.)
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