Elysium
When you start out by releasing a movie as acclaimed and popular, to say nothing of unique, as “District 9,” it’s hard to manage expectations for what you have up next. Such is the case with Neill Blomkamp’s “Elysium,” which adds major stars (Matt Damon and Jodie Foster) into the mix. “District 9” showed that Blomkamp had a canny ability to bring social relevance to a genre setting without seeming preachy; would he continue that earlier success with his new film?
Yes and no. Though the South African filmmaker’s commentary on his country’s painful past of apartheid was hardly subtle, “District 9” nonetheless presented its parallels in a way that didn’t feel too obvious to most viewers. In “Elysium,” Blomkamp is telling a story of class warfare, with the 1% in their own, government-protected bubble on the space station Elysium, while the rest of the world is left to suffer on an over-populated, over-polluted Earth in the 22nd Century. On top of all that, only the citizens of Elysium have access to health care technology that can eradicate even the most terminal illness. Needless to say, the social commentary is a little more obvious this time around. And yet, by the end I was fully engaged emotionally with this thriller’s story of revolution and resetting the deck.
A lot of that comes from the character of Max, played by Matt Damon in full Jason Bourne action mode. Max has been in trouble ever since he was very young, but even one of the caretakers at the orphanage he was raised at could see that he was going to do something important with his life. Now in his 30s, he’s moved away from a life of crime, he’s trying to make enough money so that possibly, someday, he’ll be able to fly up to Elysium, which has been his dream since he was young. That dream needs to come sooner than expected for Max, however, when a factory accident leaves him with radiation poisoning that will kill him in five days. That is the ticking clock for him to return to a criminal’s life, in hopes of hijacking a trip to Elysium so he can rid himself of his illness. That being said, such activity is dangerous, especially when Elysium’s head of security (Jodie Foster, wonderfully chilly, despite a faux-European accent that doesn’t help her performance any) has a ruthless enforcer on Earth named Kruger (Sharlto Copley, from “District 9,” in a genuinely unnerving personification of evil and greed) she dispatches when Max is in the middle of a memory heist that includes, unbeknownst to him, a program that would be a game-changer for the world he lives in.
That idea of changing the system from the inside, and using an outsider to do so, seems to be Blomkamp’s primary focus as a filmmaker, and it’s a big reason his two features have found a fan in myself. This is the sort of genre filmmaking that has always gotten me the most excited over the years, whether it’s a cult hit such as “Dark City”; a failed blockbuster like “Speed Racer”; a genuine phenomenon like “Star Wars”; or even something that touches on multiple genres like “Cloud Atlas.” Such films are exciting to watch from a visual sense, to be sure, but it’s the simple narrative, and emotional, focus that speaks to me in a more profound manner, and I’m thinking I’ll be able to expect more such efforts from Blomkamp in the future. You know what? Bring them on.
