Title: Elysium (2013)
Director: Neil Blomkamp
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice
Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura
Elysium comes to us from director Neil Blomkamp, the guy
behind the critically acclaimed box office hit District 9 (2009), a fantastic
film in my book because it speaks about racial differences and the need for different
races to show empathy towards one another. In that film, aliens arrive on earth
and are initially welcomed by humanity, but after a few years, that welcome wears
off and transforms to xenophobia. It isn’t long before the aliens are segregated
and end up living in these refugee camps that have turned into ghettos. The
main character of the film is a human immigration officer named Wikus, a man
who has been appointed the task of giving the aliens eviction notices that let
them know they are now being relocated. One thing leads to another and Wikus
ends up turning into an alien. He quickly learns what it means to be
persecuted, he feels the unfair treatment; he gets to understand what being on
the other side is all about. Blomkamp figures that the best way to know what
racism feels like is by experiencing it yourself, which is what is so brilliant
about District 9, you feel racism first hand, you feel it’s happening to you. Racism
is something humanity has yet to outgrow; Blomkamp knows it and wants you to
experience it. On Disctrict 9 the main character is part of an oppressing force in society, but
then he becomes the oppressed, he becomes the one that’s persecuted, he
suddenly knows what it means to be on the other side of the equation. And that
was just Blomkamp’s first film! District 9 made such an impact that the film
was nominated for four academy awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted
Screenplay, something of a rarity for science fiction films. So of course he
was going to move up in the film world, of course we were going to see another
film by him. So here comes Elysium, Blomkamp’s sophomore effort, his second
film. How was it?
On Elysium the world as we know it has gone to shit,
essentially, earth is one giant dumpster, the poor live down here on earth,
while the rich and privileged live on a gigantic spaceship hovering close to
earth called ‘Elysium’. The story revolves around Max, a blue collar worker who
ends up having a horrible work related accident and is suddenly faced with the
fact that he only has five days to live! What can he do in order to survive?
Well, if you were rich and lived on Elysium you’d simply get inside something
called a ‘Med-Pod’ and cure yourself, but that’s only if you live in Elysium,
if not, then you die because you are not one of the privileged, you my friend
are scum. But what if there was a way to make these machines available to
everyone? What if someone could infiltrate Elysium, reboot the whole system so
that everyone can benefit from these Med-pod’s? This becomes Max’s mission, for
he is not about to die any time soon!
First thing I noticed right away was how similar Elysium is
to District 9 in terms of themes. This film is also about one group of people
being neglected and oppressed by others. The whole thing with the rebels trying
to get into Elysium felt a heck of a lot like Mexicans trying to cross the
American border, so in that sense, it is also felt like it was addressing
racial issues. The difference between both films is that while District 9
presented us with themes of xenophobia and racism, Elysium focuses more on themes
of classism. But then again, class issues and racial issues function in the
same ways, so yeah, the films are very similar in this way. We’re basically
talking about one group of humans thinking they are superior to another which
is kind of disgusting because we’re all humans on this spaceship called earth,
so what’s the point? Why do some humans feel the need to bring others down? I
personally find the idea repulsive and nauseating, as should every one of you
out there my friends. We should aim to help each other, not exploit each other.
So I immediately found the themes in Elysium fascinating because they speak of
the world we live in today. After the success of Elysium, Blomkamp said that he’s
been asked about how he sees the future, how he thinks the world will be and
his answer was that the film isn’t so much about the future, that it’s about
the world as it is NOW, which is a fantastic reply. This lets us know that
Elysium is the best kind of sci-fi, it’s the kind that reflects society, it
holds a mirror to it.
I mean, wouldn’t it be better if those that achieved success
and wealth in the world used that power for the good of all humanity as opposed
to propelling a society that is built on the idea of exploiting those less
fortunate? This is what happens in the world today, and it’s just another form
of slavery if you ask me. We don’t have people putting literal chains on
others, but there’s symbolic chains, you know what I mean? The way society is
constructed benefits the wealthy and ignores the poor. One of example of this
are the roads in my country of Puerto Rico. You go into a rich neighborhood and
you see the streets paved, the street lights illuminating every street corner,
the garbage picked up, but if you go into a poor neighborhood you see streets
filled with gigantic holes (because the government doesn’t pave them) you see
dark streets because light posts are shut off and the streets filled with
garbage because the government doesn’t bother picking up the garbage on a
regular basis. So yeah, there’s a difference in the way classes are treated. Wouldn’t
it be better if everyone was treated fairly? I’m talking about my country here,
but I’m sure this is the same in many countries; the poor side is ignored and
treated unfairly, this is why ghetto’s exist. It’s a place to dump the poor so
they don’t have to live next to you. Sad
part is all those poor people pay taxes as well; their money should pay for the
cleaning up of their town as well. It should be enough to light all the streets
and avoid dark areas that breed criminal activity. But alas, this is the world
we live in and these are the lives were living.
And so, the same can be said of medical attention, which is
a major issue in Elysium. On the film the Med-Pods are these miracle machines
that can cure any decease, hell, they can even bring you back to life! According
to the film, you can live forever if you are a citizen of Elysium! This part of
the film talks about expensive medical plans that many people cannot afford to
pay and the ridiculously high priced medicines. Ever had to take a pill that
costs more than 70 dollars? I know people who have. Many can’t even afford
paying a medical plan; they live life frightened of getting sick or needing
major medical attention. Shouldn’t medical plans be more affordable? So the
situations depicted in Elysium aren’t farfetched at all, only the wealthy get
the best medical attention, the poor get the worst or none at all. The poor get
sick and die faster. Why are things this way? Maybe this is the kind of
situation that the powerful want? For poor people to die faster? Things to
think about, and so, this is the main theme of Elysium, making quality medical
attention affordable to everyone! How hard can it be? The same can be applied
to education which is also kept expensive so only a certain group of people can
get quality higher education, this is a vicious circle from which only the
wealthy can benefit from .
Visually speaking the film is impressive, I mean, Elysium
itself is a wonderful creation. It’s this gigantic spaceship/city hovering in
space. By the way, this idea of a giant spaceship that harbors livable space
inside of it reminded me a lot of Arthur C. Clarke’s amazing novel Rendezvous
with Rama. Anybody read that one? It’s
one of my favorites of Clarke’s and basically, it’s about this gigantic
spaceship that one day parks itself next to earth. The government then organizes
a search party to enter it. They discover that inside of the ship there is a
habitat, including a city, an ocean, artificial sunlight and plants…basically
the same idea we see in Elysium. I’m thinking Blomkamp maybe read Randezvouz
with Rama and was a bit inspired by it. Though the idea of spaceships with
habitats inside of them is nothing new, I mean, this premise was also explored
in Disney’s The Black Hole (1979), only in a far cheesier fashion. These
similarities with Clarke’s novel got me thinking that Blomkamp would be the
perfect director for a Rendezvous with Rama adaptation. By the way, Elysium
also has elements from George Orwell’s 1984, and George Lucas’s THX-1138 (1971),
especially when it comes to the whole thing with Max working in a robot factory,
and the whole thing with the robotic police force. It also shares similarities
with Johnny Mnemonic (1995).
An amazing cast brings this one to life, Matt Damon is great
as Max, he pumped up for the part and looks like a tank for it. Jodie Foster is
effectively icy as Delacourt, the person in charge of running Elysium. She's a nice lady to her rich costumers, the people of Elysium, but an icy cold bitch to those who want to try and enter into her special private little kingdom, kind of like the governments of the world who only cater to the wealthy. Sharlto
Copley, the actor who played Wikus on District 9 reunites with Blomkamp once
again. He plays Kruger, a killer/mercenary that the government hires to execute Max,
interesting how the film alludes to the idea that governments sometimes rely on
the help of criminals to achieve their goals. Copley really gives it his all
here, dare I say he actually kind of outshines every other actor in the film. I was also glad to see Diego Luna on this
show, though he has a small part. So anyways, I’ve gone on long enough about Elysium,
it’s a fantastic sci-fi film, the best kind, the kind that talks about the
world we live in through its fiction. The success of the film has probably
assured Blomkamp’s next film which will be called Chappie, looking forward to
it. I’m happy that Blomkamp has rejected working on established science fiction
properties like Star Trek or Star Wars (yup he’s gone down saying that) in
order to stick to his more original stuff. What a fantastic concept, a director
aiming to do something new and original, how about that?
Rating: 5 out of 5