Elysium is a sci-fi action movie written and directed by Neill  Blomkamp, and set in 2154 where the divide between the rich and the poor has become so vast, those who have no longer live on Earth and instead live on an opulent space station in orbit above it. It stars Matt Damon playing the role of Max De Costa, an ex-convict trying to turn his life around and who currently works on an assembly line for a military contractor. His day-to-day life isn’t so great as he has to deal with the hassle and abuse from police robots while living in poverty with a job where the management believes his only right as a worker is to be able to breathe the air in the facility where he works. But he’s in no worse shape than others who live on Earth as it’s overpopulated, poverty ridden and disease-stricken. Meanwhile those on Elysium have made unbelievable strides in technology, namely medical care, as not only can any ailment be cured but the human body completely restructured making it possible to recover from any injury, even fatal ones. However none of this is shared with those on Earth and any attempt from those on the planet to reach Elysium is met with hostile action and shot down. So when Max gets into an accident on the job and is diagnosed with only 5 days left to live he knows that his only chance of survival is to reach Elysium and receive medical treatment there. But in order to actually receive treatment from one of the automated Med-Bays one has to be a citizen of Elysium. Can Max gain access to Elysium and receive treatment before his body succumbs to the lethal dose or radiation or is it nothing more than a childhood dream that’s now fueled by radiation poison?

Seeing as how I’m a sci-fi junkie, I was very intrigued by Elysium’s premise as I felt it had the potential to explore socio-economic issues through the remarkable technological advances in the world it was set in. And I usually enjoy Matt Damon’s movies, and I really enjoyed District 9, which was directed and co-written by Neill Blomkamp. And add Jodie Foster to the mix and Elysium would appear to have all the ingredients for a really enjoyable movie. Yet for some reason I had misgivings about it and it wasn’t a must-see movie for me a week or two after it was released. I don’t know if it was just the suit that Matt Damon was shown to be wearing but I couldn’t quite put figure out what could ultimately draw me in. Unfortunately, it seemed like this sentiment was shared by those behind this movie. With every sci-fi movie there’s a slight suspension of disbelief as the sci-fi elements create a world in and of itself where the rules are established for the movie and those in the movie to abide by. So a movie like Elysium pisses me off not because it requires a suspension of disbelief but because it constantly changes what it has established from one scene to the next just so a series of events could occur.

It started off ok as Max’s character was established as one trying to turn over a new leaf despite the troubles he encounters and the temptation to do otherwise. We’re also shown how he had a dream as a child to go to Elysium while in the orphanage and that there was a love interest a promise was made to. And we’re shown the cruelty and apathy of those on Elysium through the disdain exhibited towards those trying to reach Elysium in unauthorized shuttles and how they’re just shot down by the command of Delacourt (Jodie Foster). This established the relationship between the citizens of Elysium and those on Earth, especially considering no one on Elysium even thought about overcharging for use of the Med-bay or anything, and just wanted complete separation. But Delacourt gets in trouble with the President for this act and apparently it wasn’t the official policy of Elysium to shoot down shuttles, and she used a sleeper agent from Earth to do so, which was also frowned on. The official policy was never truly clear and the reprimand didn’t seem in line with the existence and callousness of Elysium. It just caused confusion about the Elysium government and the structure of it.

And then things go from bad to worse as Max makes one of the all-time dumbest moves, especially for one who was treated as a somewhat brilliant rebel, by squeezing into a room and removing the only door stop to the room, which results in the machine being activated and releasing a deadly dose of radiation poisoning. I overlooked that slightly because I really wanted to enjoy this. Actually I didn’t overlook it but I wasn’t going to stop watching it at that point. So he plans on finding a way to reach Elysium with the help of the one who regularly tries to smuggle people to Elysium and he’s willing to do anything. At the same time Delacourt is sick of being reprimanded and decides to enlist the help of the one who designed the system that controls all the automated functions of Elysium to overthrow the President through a computer program. The President was never shown to have any power so this aspect of it was slightly confusing. And when the events start to unfold it was just one “wait a minute” moment after another as this ultimate program ends up falling into the hands of Max and his crew. This just opens the floodgates for all the inconsistencies that would occur and my frustration reached such a level that I didn’t want to see anyone succeed in anything they were doing.

Elysium hinted that it would address some of the socio-economic injustices it established in the beginning but like a neutered dog on viagra it didn’t know what the hell it wanted to do. NONE of that was addressed as the crazy sleeper agent on Earth became the focus of the story and none of inhabitants of Elysium or even a glimpse into their mindset was shown. It became a full-blown action movie however the big action movie was  a slow motion jump that would’ve been impressive before 1999 but was just laughable when it occurred. Accents were all over the place, and I assumed in the beginning that the blatant imagery and accents were part of some message to establish class distinctions, but when the super soldier’s accents kept changing it was just another unnecessarily bad addition. And I don’t usually give away spoilers so the closest I’ll come to that is by asking how in the world did those who stepped foot on Elysium for the first time navigate the area and know exactly where to go better than those who lived there for decades? And what happened to the automated robots serving as soldiers and police on Elysium? The security forces of Elysium had the capability to track individuals on Earth but couldn’t find those unauthorized to be on Elysium or blowing things up, and I couldn’t find any reason to justify the amount of time spent watching it.

SUMMARY

Elysium was a movie that either didn’t know what it wanted to be, became too afraid to address any of the socio-economic issues inherently raised through its premise, or half the script was lost as it descended into one lackluster action sequence after another. The characters became very one-dimensional and despite attempts by the actors to give them some life, that couldn’t overcome the events in the story. Elysium fails in answering any of the questions it raises but my answer to whether or not you should watch this is no. I recommend you avoid this one.