Elysium. (15.)
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Maura Wagner and William Fichtner. Partly subtitled. 109 mins
It could just be me or the effects of a long and uninspired summer, but now even the original films seem samey. Like Blomkamp’s breakthrough, District 9, Elysium strikes out in new and bold directions only to then circle back to familiar ground.
Having previous made a Sci-fi action film about apartheid in which he cunningly reimagined and relocated it to, er, South Africa, I think it is fair to say Blomkamp is a little tentative with his allegories. Nobody walks out of one of films pondering what it was really about. That his futuristic fantasies are grounded in current day realities is seen by many as a strength but it may be just as much the case that he appeals to audiences who want to be politically and socially engaged but only if there are guns and robots involved.
150 years in the future the third world is the whole world and all the rich people are circling the earth, living in luxury on the circular space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here their safety is presided over by Jodie Foster, who puts on a cut glass English accent for her villain role. (Presumably Helen Mirren wasn’t available.) We don’t see much of life on Elysium but it appears to be a sumptuous nightmare of braying posh folk. Down among the riff raff Damon is an ex criminal desperate to make it off planet whose attempt at one last heist ends up with him being chased down by psychotic mercenary Kruger (Copley, initially unrecognisable in a Chuck Norris beard.)
The vision of a future Los Angeles as a giant rubble strewn favela is a striking counterpart to the opening shots of the same city in Blade Runner. This dystopia isn’t dark and rainy, it is dry and arid. Blomkamp has some striking visual ideas and some of the action sequences are distinctive and rousing but once it’s made its basic points about global inequality and exploitation and co-opted some wikileaks imagery into his vision the story has nothing much to offer beyond a po-faced reworking of elements of Escape From New York. At least John Carpenter always knew that to pull off this kind of thing you need to do it with a cheeky grin and a bit of sly irreverence.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Maura Wagner and William Fichtner. Partly subtitled. 109 mins
It could just be me or the effects of a long and uninspired summer, but now even the original films seem samey. Like Blomkamp’s breakthrough, District 9, Elysium strikes out in new and bold directions only to then circle back to familiar ground.
Having previous made a Sci-fi action film about apartheid in which he cunningly reimagined and relocated it to, er, South Africa, I think it is fair to say Blomkamp is a little tentative with his allegories. Nobody walks out of one of films pondering what it was really about. That his futuristic fantasies are grounded in current day realities is seen by many as a strength but it may be just as much the case that he appeals to audiences who want to be politically and socially engaged but only if there are guns and robots involved.
150 years in the future the third world is the whole world and all the rich people are circling the earth, living in luxury on the circular space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here their safety is presided over by Jodie Foster, who puts on a cut glass English accent for her villain role. (Presumably Helen Mirren wasn’t available.) We don’t see much of life on Elysium but it appears to be a sumptuous nightmare of braying posh folk. Down among the riff raff Damon is an ex criminal desperate to make it off planet whose attempt at one last heist ends up with him being chased down by psychotic mercenary Kruger (Copley, initially unrecognisable in a Chuck Norris beard.)
The vision of a future Los Angeles as a giant rubble strewn favela is a striking counterpart to the opening shots of the same city in Blade Runner. This dystopia isn’t dark and rainy, it is dry and arid. Blomkamp has some striking visual ideas and some of the action sequences are distinctive and rousing but once it’s made its basic points about global inequality and exploitation and co-opted some wikileaks imagery into his vision the story has nothing much to offer beyond a po-faced reworking of elements of Escape From New York. At least John Carpenter always knew that to pull off this kind of thing you need to do it with a cheeky grin and a bit of sly irreverence.
