Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Review Tuesday: ELYSIUM


I have a NO MATT DAMON rule. He's typical Hollywood phony. He's anti-gun, but does these shoot-em-up movies all the time. I suppose guns are okay, if he can make money from them. With that in mind I refuse to support his movies, but when I was able to view it without spending my money, why not?
In the future the poor masses toil in the rubble of Earth while the wealthy live on a utopian satellite in orbit called Elysium where they have no fears, woes, or disease. When a factory worker on Earth gets a lethal dose of radiation at work, he tries to even things up.
ELYSIUM is directed by Neill Blomkamp, the man behind DISTRICT 9, which I loved. He seems to be enamored with dystopian science fiction. Once again we have a privileged class completely forgetting about the less fortunate. This time humans are pushing around humans instead of prawns. 

Max (Matt Damon) is a factory worker who appears to have a criminal past. After taking a lethal dose of radiation in a work accident He's sent home with pain killers and an estimate of five days to live. He uses his underworld connections to formulate a plan to get to Elysium and access to a medical chamber so he may continue living.  

The cast is top notch. Damon is good in his stereotypical Jason Bourne role. Jodie Foster plays the perfect cold as ice back-stabbing bureaucrat. William Fichtner is, as always, a perfect soul-less villain, but he stepped it up acting somewhat robotic making his character seem even LESS human. However, by far, the best character is the sociopath Kruger played by Sharlto Copley, the lead in District 9. He's plain rude and ruthless. 

The special effects were pretty good. It's gotten to the point that space travel can be depicted in any movie without looking like crude models were used or that a first year student in computer animation was taking a stab at the job.

The story is pretty simple, it's just getting from point A to point B has a ton of obstacles and it fills up nearly two hours very well. It's gritty. It's science fiction. It's a fun movie. It's worth watching. Too bad it stars Matt Damon. I suppose it could be worse. Tom Cruise maybe? Spare me!

More on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/?ref_=sr_1

1 comments:

Lil' Nigglet said...

Sheut, anytimes a whyte mans gits heself in dat sorta pordickamunt, I jus has to laf, its da whyte mans dat fuct evathang up for all us low down muh fukers.