MrDreknowsbest Movie Gallery: August 2013

"At what will you go to get to Elysium"

PLOT:

In the year 2154, The very wealthy lives on a space station, while the rest of the population remains on a ruined earth, a man takes a mission that could bring equality polarized worlds.

MY THOUGHTS

Elysium is one of those movies that comes along every so often that gets people talking weather good or bad, regardless they are talking because of the social commentary thats on display here. where the rich live on a man made station that can be seen from earth, while the reason of the human race lives in a almost destroyed earth but still working for those same rich people who have ascended so to speak.

Max(Matt Damon) is a ex con, who lives in mexico and threw a series of flashback find out that he was raised in an orphanage in Los Angeles which has become more Latino over the years, In 2154 he is a lowly paid worker for a company that could careless about him as long as their labor demands are met in large because of the company owner John Carlyle(William Fichtner) who only comes down to earth from Elysium to over see his company.

One day while Max is on his way to work, he is beating by two droid police officers and gets his arm broken which forces him to go to the hospital where he runs into an old friend Frey(Alice Braga) who is a nurse, there is a history between them but she tells Max that her life is complicated.

Max gets to work late and is met by his Supervisor who sees his arm broken that he can work but he'll lose a half days pay because of it, which Max has no problem with, later doing the day while Max is exposed to an high amount of radiation which should've killed him right there but he is told that he only has five days to live and sent on his way with some pills that will keep him living for those five days.

Max somehow makes his way home but passes out in the street where his friend Julio (Diego Luna) who takes him to see Spider (Wagner Moura) who is a smuggler, that everyone goes to when they get enough money to buy a ticket to Elysium, which every mission is stopped by Elysium's Secretary of Defense Delacourt(Jodie Foster) who at any cost wants to protect Elysium from any outsiders and she uses a sociopath South African Mercenary named Kruger(Sharlto Copley) to kill anybody on earth that tries to breach Elysium without her say so.

Max tells Spider that he wants to go to Elysium and that he will do anything to do so, whatever it takes, In which Spider agrees to get Max to Elysium if he does one small thing for him, he has to hijack a rich person and get information that will lead them onto Elysium with no problem, Max agrees and chooses his former Employer John Carlyle who is already in turn working with Delacourt in trying to take over Elysium for her own gain to become President.

Since Max isn't able to fully function thanks to his failing health, Spider uses Max as a test dummy for an outdated exoskeleton suit that well make him twice as strong so that he can complete his mission, which goes completely wrong In which Julio and Carlyle are both killed thanks to Kruger and his team showing up but all is not loss as Max gets the information that he needs to get to Elysium.

Elysium is one of those rare movies that gives a outlook and possible future to our own with the class issues, health care issues, Top 1% who feel that they deserve all the best thing and the rest of the world should just be left to fend for themselves. I enjoyed the movie in large part because it felt like a real story that everybody can relate too weather you agree with the message in the movie or not you still relate to one side or the other.

Matt Damon does a fine job as Max you will feel for his journey of a better life and will do anything that he can to achieve that goal and wants to help everyone get a fair shake at things, Damon gives the character a good balance since he is a very good actor and pulls off being a Latino good also.

Jodie Foster here wasn't the greatest but wasn't the worse either, she does what is necessary with the role and plays a cold hearted bitch really well, some of her character motives later in the movie kinda question some of her earlier actions but maybe on repeat viewings my thoughts on that will become more clear.

The real star in my opinion of this movie is Sharlto Copley as the crazy half man/machine Kruger who reminds me of Gary Oldman playing a bad guy that you enjoy to watch even though you know what he is doing is wrong, Copley welds a sword has some crazy body armor and even comes back from the dead after a grenade blows off his face and is even more so crazier then before.

Neill Blompkamp after District 9 and now Elysium has some what become this era's Paul Verhoeven with his social commentary on how things are going today in the world and where we might end up if we continue down the road we're going.

The visuals are top notch, if your a fan of District 9 then there should be no reason not to like this film, If you haven't seen District 9 see that after seeing Elysium or even before.

All in All Elysium isn't a perfect film by any stretch, and it really doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with Elysium "Liberal agenda" its still an entertaining movie with some great visuals, solid acting for the most part, and a cool badass villian so go and check it and judge it for yourself, don't listen to what anybody have to say(including myself) on the matter.