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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD ELYSIUM
EDITOR'S PICK
`Elysium`
- trouble in paradise
Rating: **
Set in a futuristic sci-fi environment, `Elysium` is a tale of a hero's journey.
It`'s the story of his motive to survive and how he liberates his brethren.
Cut to year 2159. The world is divided into two sets of people, the haves and
the have-nots. The rich and the extremely wealthy live on a pristine man-made
space station called Elysium while the rest reside in the overtly congested,
chaotic, crime-ridden and polluted Earth.
The stories relating to the luxurious lifestyle and state-of-the-art medical
facility on Elysium are interesting. It's this paradise where every earthling
vies to escape to.
Young Max (Matt Damon), living in an orphanage is once told by a nun,
"Everyone has a destiny, a purpose to live". So he promises his
girlfriend Frey (Alice Braga) that he would take her to Elysium one day.
But years later, Max, an ex-con, single and separated from Frey is a worker in a
factory. Due to an accident, he is exposed to high radiation and now he has only
five days to live. The only way he can survive is if he can access Elysium's
medical facilities.
With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous
mission. The only way out is by taking the illegal route which is controlled by
local crime lord Spider (Wagner Moura).
The deal between the two is that Max kidnaps a leading industrialist and arms
supplier John Carlyle (William Fichtner) so that Spider and his buddies can have
control over Elysium, and in return Spider would transport Max to Elysium.
However, things don't work out as planned. Max soon finds himself on the wrong
side of Elysium's ambitious Secretary of Defense (Jodie Foster) and her local
agent on Earth, Krugger (Sharlto Copley) and events go from bad to worse to
absurd.
Director Neill Blompkamp's plot is too convoluted, fragmented and unbelievable.
The premise and characters all feel like boring recycled archetypes. Even worse,
we get a series of silly and convenient circumstances that manufacture a narrow
and equally silly plot of one hero who does what every generic hero does. Also,
the key antagonist turns out to be some moronic hack and slash mercenary.
The performances of every character range from engaging, over-the-top to
confusing. They deliver whatever is expected of them. While Matt Damon is
steadfast and consistent, Jodie Foster's accent wanders but she makes up for her
icy screen presence. Wagner Moura as Spider seems to have promise.
Elysium's greatest strength is its aesthetic vision of future space-crunched
Earth. The opening shot is reminiscent of the cityscape opening of "Blade
Runner". But unlike "Blade Runner", here it is much more rough
and gritty, set primarily in harsh daylight and with most of the conflict taking
place outdoors.
Also, another irritant is the constant shaky camera work.
Overall, "Elysium" is a well packaged under-developed film.
In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) will stop at nothing to preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium – but that doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in by any means they can. Max (Matt Damon) agrees to take on a life-threatening mission, one that could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
