The futuristic sci-fi “Elysium” may be the most modern and topical movie of the year. With tense action movie thrills and a jaw-dropping CGI backdrop, it not so subtly refers to the political hot spots of immigration, the poverty divide, the environment and universal healthcare in modern America. That it doesn’t forget to be a creative and compelling sci-fi in the process is part of the fun.
In the early 22nd Century, the wealthiest humans have fled the now deeply polluted and over populated Earth to an orbiting space station known as Elysium. In their space resort, the synthetic grass is green, the pools are shimmering blue and healing pods have effectively eliminated death, disease and aging.
Meanwhile on Earth, specifically in Los Angeles, everyone is poor and working class, “Soylent Green” levels of people roam the ghetto and abusive, snarky robots police the streets. This life is not the apocalypse; it’s simply the new normal.
That “Elysium” feels less like dystopia and more like an extension of contemporary ills will be the dividing line between those feeling Director Neill Blomkamp is beating a dead horse and those prepared to accuse it of a socialist agenda.
And yet similar themes were no less present in Blomkamp’s first film, 2009’s “District 9.” That film too had social parallels in its depiction of race and apartheid before evolving (or devolving from my view) into a CGI-juiced modern warfare spectacle. It also introduced us to an only partly moral male lead who is eventually thrust into action hero mode when faced with a mortal disease.
In “Elysium,” Matt Damon plays Max, who after being exposed to radiation poisoning at the job he’s lucky to have returns to a life of crime such that he can get up to Elysium and heal his body. Barring his way is Defense Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster sporting a perhaps intentionally inscrutable accent), who aims to overthrow Elysium’s government to ensure no immigrants will cross Elysium’s borders.
“Elysium” is not quite subtle about its politicking, but the miniature flourishes that paint a broader picture of this class divide go a long way. On Earth, everyone speaks Spanish as a second language, including Damon, while those above pepper in some fluent French. Then there’s the Bugatti styled space cruiser or William Fichtner’s wonderful reading of the line, “Don’t breathe on me.”
Blomkamp also makes use of the sci-fi possibilities as more than just analogies, with by far the coolest CGI effect of the year coming during the instantaneous facial reconstruction surgery of Sharlto Copley’s face.
And yet you wish “Elysium” found a better way to depict futuristic dystopia and mayhem than through a notoriously shaky cam and colorful rave lighting in Elysium’s corridors. We also miss out on much of Elysium’s day-to-day living beyond what’s happening in the war room or any added dimensionality to Copley or Delacourt’s villains, but then perhaps that’s a side of the upper crust that us peasants at the multiplex weren’t meant to see.
3 stars