Elysium (2013)

Genres

Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

Director

Neill Blomkamp

Country

USA

Cast

Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner, Brandon Auret, Josh Blacker, Maxwell Perry Cotton, Valentina Giros, Faran Tahir, Emma Tremblay, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Adrian Holmes, Michael Mando, Carly Pope, Ona Grauer, Michael Shanks

Storyline

In 2154, the population is divided into two social classes: the wealthy and powerful living in Elysium, a space station; the poor people living on the polluted Earth. People of Earth continuously try to get in Elysium, failing, but Max (Matt Damon) is more determined than anyone, and he takes on a mission to bring equality to the worlds. 

Opinion

I haven't read a lot of good things about Elysium. To be honest, I've only read bad things about it and now that I've seen it, I totally get that. Other than having gorgeous visuals, this film doesn't have anything to offer.

I have a soft spot for dystopian stories, but this one, although is a too much real vision of the future, isn't good. At all. It is rushed and paper-thin, it is filled with clichés of the genre and there are so many plot holes it's impossible to keep count.

In addition, it's made completely uninteresting, unappealing and unengaging by characters. Just like the story, they are paper-thin, they have no development and it's impossible to care for them. The main villain is just as bad. He is a joke and he's so annoying, I ended up hating him. And usually I don't hate villans, I love them. He doesn't have neither a motive nor a background. The cast, as "big" as it is, just can't do anything to fix that. The performances as well are pretty lazy, especially Sharlto Copley's villain who overdid his accent and was incomprehensible most of the time.

Add some pretty terrible directorial choices and a final fight, the predictable good vs. evil, that is arguably the most disappointing part of the film and you get Elysium, a film where nobody bothered spending time writing an exciting story filled with interesting characters to care for but instead focused all their energies on special effects.

4 comments :

  1. I didn't hate this, but I barely remember anything that happened in it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's a reason for that, it's called bad movie.

      Delete
  2. I didn't dislike it as much as you since I have a soft spot for Matt Damon but it's not great. I can watch it again, chat and so this and that while it's on. What was the worst for me was Jodie Foster who truly sucked.

    ReplyDelete