Finally, a film by Neill Blomkamp that I can approve of!
I really didn't understand how District 9 was so popular. While it was an effective allegory on the dehumanization of apartheid and institutionalized racism, it just felt a little too novice for its own good. Neill's style, while codified by that time, didn't really match the high-concept mixture of social commentary and action-thriller-body horror-black comedy that the script demanded. The aliens weren't necessarily the most imaginative - just typical ones with H.R. Giger bodies and an abstract language. And to top it off, the massive amount of praise that the film got - going as far as getting nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture - drew me away from the film. To me, it was just a guy's first feature film - nobody's going to get it right on their first try. Rarely do they ever get it right (i.e. Easy Rider was Dennis Hopper's first film as director), but most of the time, first films are usually misfires or general Hollywood shlock.
This is why Elysium gets it right. By managing to mix his social commentary/comedy/body horror amalgamation correctly to blend in with his visual aesthetic and by making the film a little more down to Earth, the film comes across as District 9 done right. This is how I wanted 2009's favorite non-James Cameron-related film to feel like - a gritty action thriller with much-needed humanist messages, all done by a man who obviously cares about the craft. Of course there's going to be hype aversion for this - "it's not District 9. How can it match with District 9?" - but as its own product, it stands leagues above the rest of what Hollywood's putting out right now. And to be fair, it's a massively unique film - a rarity in this day and age where even indie films are substandard remakes. Not to say that it has its faults - again, Neill is still new to this Hollywood thing - but its positives outweigh its negatives this time.
Max DeCosta (Matt "Elliott Smith-obsessed Math Genius" Damon) is, or was, a thief working for Armadyne, a robotics company that makes robot cops for the wealthy satellite Elysium. Since he's a con, he can't go into Elysium - and besides, it's not like he can anyway if he were clean. Because the wealthy are so obsessed with keeping their life as pure as it can be, they don't allow anyone residing on Earth to even visit the place or use their popular medical pods. This, in turn, spawns a highly illegal smuggling service for anybody who has enough money to go to the space station. As made very clear, it's very risky - most people die during these missions while others (including children) end up in jail. The reason why this is all happening: Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) wants to preserve the beauty of Elysium by any means necessary, including using a psychotic sleeper agent by the name of Kruger (Sharlto Copley). This in turn makes the government of Elysium hate her. A lot.
One day, Max gets into an industrial accident where he gets a lethal dose of radiation that gives him only five days to live. After witnessing the CEO of Armadyne indiscriminately fire him, Max gets pissed. Sick, he goes to the leader of the smuggling service, Spider (Wagner Moura), who gives him a highly risky job: extract an Elysium citizen's brain data ala Johnny Mnemonic and sell it to him. Seeing this as a good time for revenge, he offers to take down the Armadyne CEO, but what he gets has the potential to change the lives of everybody on Earth and Elysium forever.
While not exactly "Wilkus-becomes-a-prawn-and-fights-humans" material, Elysium does have, in many ways, an original plot. A given since Neill Blomkamp tends to make sure that his films don't feel extremely derivative, but this plot works to the film's advantage and helps enhance its moral even further. The film, in many ways, reads like a critique of objectivism, particularly the Ayn Rand brand, where selfishness is considered a virtue and charity is considered bad. Kind of like BioShock in space, really, only that the "man chooses/slave obeys" theme is played down. A lot. Then again, seeing Max fight over whether or not he should follow Delacourt's orders and respect Elysium as the off-limits area or follow Spider's orders and potentially put Elysium's non-political masses at risk wouldn't really work in the context of the film - he's not a carefully manufactured organism like Jack, but rather a human being with real experiences trying to uphold a duty he aligned himself to when he was young. He wants Earth to get some charity, not turn Earth into the new elite and create more slums.
As for the individual components of the film, they all mesh together to enhance Elysium's message. The acting, in particular the performances by Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley, is one of the strongest suits of the film. Matt brings what could've been a one-dimensional action hero into full bloom as he becomes a living being with motivations, emotions, and individuality - much like how Wilkus ended up becoming in District 9. As for Sharlto's character, he reeks of pure evil. While obviously not a generic "born-bad" like most blockbuster villains, he does have very maniacal traits. Kruger, as shown throughout the film, possesses a certain duality - a charitable side that wants others to live and a malicious side that wants others to die. The man is a walking contradiction and yet he feels more real than, say, Butch Cavendish from The Lone Ranger a.k.a. Tonto's Billion-Dollar Movie. Kruger has life within him. He isn't just evil for the plot's sake, but rather because he's forced into it by his own misfortunes and fractured mind.
However, as with any film, Elysium does have its share of faults. For starters, it's way too short. While a trivial complaint, its truncated length doesn't give the story enough room to develop its characters sufficiently and to put Max through his full quest. Everything's sped up just to fit the film within an approx. 1 hr 50 min length. A story like Elysium needs all the room it can get in order to communicate its ideas - not to the point where fight sequences between Kruger and Max take up 2 hours of screen time ala Heaven's Gate, but a film that feels fully fleshed out without feeling like something's slightly empty. Another fault with the film is how the citizens of Elysium seem to be presented as solely selfish human beings with Gatsby-esque lives. Is there any variation pertaining to how these rich denizens thing? Are there people who want Earth residents to have the same rights as the Elysian elite? Do any of the politicians have political beliefs opposite of President Patel and Senator Delacourt? And another complaint: sometimes, Kruger feels too evil-for-evil's-sake. Another one: it doesn't have the potential depth of District 9. And another one, and another one, et cetera.
However, the positives outweigh the faults. You can ignore the lack of focus on Elysian citizens - the film, after all, is about the struggles of Earth as it's neglected by politicians raised in wealth. You can ignore Kruger's occasional foray into useless antagonism - he works so well as a dualistic character. You can ignore the slight lack of story development - at almost two hours, the film feels perfectly paced despite being slightly truncated for wide release. What matters is that Elysium works. Elysium works dangerously well. You feel for these characters on a visceral level unseen in mainstream cinema ever since all that Oscar bait came out in the 1990s. Neill's style fits perfectly well to communicate his message of change and charity in an entertaining package. And hell, it's getting better reviews than The Smurfs 2. That's saying something. In the end, what can I say? Elysium is a good film - and quite frankly, it feels like the film District 9 should've been.
A-
oh god I hope I'm not committing a Horrible Bosses scenario again where I like a movie and then I realize it's not that good