Neill Blomkamp's previous film "District 9"
surprised me with its focus on transformation. Humphrey Bogart perfected the hard-case to nice-guy film persona in
films like "To Have and Have Not", "Key Largo" and of
course "Casablanca". Neill
Blomkamp took the concept to extreme in "District 9"; his main
character, played by Sharlto Copley, goes through a drastic metamorphosis, in
more ways than one. While "District
9" was an exceptional science fiction movie, with groundbreaking special
effect integration, ultimately what set the film apart is its focus on
character. "Elysium"
represents a step forward in the effects category, yet unfortunately centers
around a weak story and one-dimensional characters. The premise is simple; Earth of the future
is overpopulated and trashed, so the rich elite have built themselves a space
station (called Elysium) within view of Earth, to live luxuriously and
carefree. I think Blomkamp must have
been striving for allegory with many details in this film, but the execution
falls short resulting in laughable excess.
For example, building Elysium so close to Earth might make sense from an
economic point of view; during construction this would have been handy. But upon viewing the film, it seems more or
less that the rich are just trying to stick-it to the rest of us by building
something so shiny and wonderful just out of reach. Rich people are so mean.
While the film never rises to the level of
greatness seen in "District 9", its special effects and action
sequences distract us enough that we may not even notice. This time Copley plays the villain, and it's
been a while since a villain has deserved death more. Where movies like "Iron Man" fail,
is the moment the mask comes on, and the real is replaced by cartoon. Here, man fights man (albeit supped-up bionic
men), so even though special effects are everywhere, there is an ever looming
sense of danger. Ultimately, I find
myself comparing this movie to the recent Tom Cruise movie
"Oblivion". While both were basically
"Fern Gully" for grown-ups, "Oblivion" did a better job of
hiding it.
