When did we stop making movies set in the future that made it look like a better place than the present? I used to love movies with such a grim outlook back when that was the less popular view, such as how poorly Blade Runner was regarded in its initial release. Now, every film sci-fi set in the future is a dystopia, and it is a tiring and a cliché.
2013’s Elysium is so undistinguishable from similar contemporary fare that I don’t think I was even aware of it when it was released, let alone remember it now. This, despite its leads being Matt Damon and Jodie Foster.
Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, this fits in to the gestalt of his District 9 and Chappie, where the world is a slum ruled by a totalitarian regime. The wealthy have abandoned the Earth for the ultimate gated community, a giant wheel in space ala with space station in 2001, though probably without a monolith or a giant space baby, but with a ton more HOA regulations. The timing of this film’s release has me suspect it may have planted some bad ideas about space exploration into the heads of some of the world’s wealthiest, such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
The space station is Elysium, and it has machines that can cure almost any type illness and do any kind of surgery. These devices are so remarkably advanced that we will later see one bring a character back from the dead and even reconstruct a great deal of their head. What is all the more startling is how quickly it does all this. I wonder if there’s a certain time frame it has to be completed by, or your resurrection is free.
The people left behind on the planet’s surface apparently work for a company, or one of several large companies, that use them as little better than slave labor. Matt Damon is exposed to intense radiation in an industrial accident, and it is estimated he only has five days left to live. He becomes hellbent on doing whatever he can to get to Elysium long enough to use one of those miraculous medical machines.
Pretty much everybody else who is earthbound is trying to do the same. Given the poor workers are apparently essential labor for everything needed on the space station, one would think those machines would be in great abundance for use by them. They’re likely getting injured all the time in workplaces where productivity is valued over regulations. Funny, but I am once again thinking of such men as Bezos and Musk. Huh.
Foster, in a rare villainous turn, is the head of security for Elysium. She is very no-nonsense, having no qualms with blowing up ships that attempt illegal landings. Some in government are concerned about her approach, and she is planning a coup, so that she can have absolute power.
The MacGuffin in this scheme is information that flows, through a series of preposterous plot machinations, from the head of CEO William Fichtner to that of Damon. You see, in the future, our brains are apparently USB drives. I wonder what it would be like if they used cloud technology, instead. The cranial information storage leads to a scene I couldn’t decide was intentionally humorous or not, where Damon holds himself hostage, threatening to blow his own head off.
Another technological development in the mix is a mechanical exoskeleton that is surgically installed onto Damon’s body. It’s like they’re turning him into Tetsuo, The Iron Man, and I hope that metal is all rustproof. The point of this machinery eludes me, as it seems Damon still sustains a great deal of damage over the course of the film even with this technological assist. After all, he still has a great deal of exposed skin, and it isn’t like his underlying muscles and bones are improved in way. Really, I would be questioning any surgery where some of those operating are passing a joint, even if they are holding it using forceps.
Foster has an ace in the hole on Earth: an extremely repellent Sharlto Copley as a mercenary she uses for dirty work on the surface. When we first see him, he’s shooting an unauthorized shuttle out of the sky, courtesy of a giant gun with huuuge lettering on the side warning to stand back four metres. I wondered if that should also apply to the person firing such a weapon.
One of the few surprising aspects of this film, if not a pleasant one, is it is rather gory. While I don’t need the gore to be more visually realistic, that it is largely obvious CGI diminishes the impact. Still, If there’s anything I can give the movie credit for, is it opted for the R rating.
Elysium has its heart in the right place, even if its messages are delivered with the subtlety of a gun so large you should only fire it from four meters away. That is wrapped in the trappings of dystopia already done to death in other films further diminishes the impact. Like so many of these films, there is a blatantly obvious solution that, if this had actually been done, would have completely negated the film: just put some of those Lazarus machines on Earth and you wouldn’t have everybody dying to invade a gated community in space.
Dir: Neill Blomkamp
Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley
Watched on blu-ray