After District 9 I thought that Neill Blomkamp’s next film would be even better with a bigger budget and major star power. But it seems like money was a bit of distraction where he piled on more special affects, enough money to get big stars and exotic locales. On paper this should be a great movie that touches on major issues today from healthcare, to a lack of a living wage, global warming (or cooling if you ask me), to the gulf between the haves and the have nots. I think that Neill bit off more that he could chew with too many characters pulling away from the basic story as well as the fact I just couldn’t make a connection to anyone. Really the characters didn’t really have enough screen time to give a logical reason for WHY they would sacrifice so much. It was especially jarring for Spider to change in mid film …I literally was like ‘hunh’ when watching the movie and seeing the personality changes characters made on a dime.
It’s not the WORSE movie I’ve seen this year and if Neill hadn’t been the direction I’d probably say it was OK (say if it was a Michael Bay movie I’d say it was a vast improvement from his usual heavy on flash bang craziness) but I just expect a lot more from the director of District 9.
Like I said on my youtube video … it’s a bit of a yawn and just OK so it gets a D+/C
Elysium
Director: Neill Blomkamp – Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna
In the year 2154, 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. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the planet’s crime and poverty, and they critically need the state-of-the-art medical care available on Elysium – but some in Elysium will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve their citizens’ luxurious lifestyle. The only man with the chance bring equality to these worlds is Max, an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission – one that pits him against Elysium’s Secretary Delacourt and her hard-line forces – but if he succeeds, he could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well. « less
About Author
