REVIEW: ELYSIUM

Several weeks ago in early July, I claimed that this film would be the next big thing in science fiction. Was I right? Well not exactly.

Here's something I didn't take into account for: the budget. When your budget enters the nine digits you know sometimes that size and scale will come before the characters and storytelling. But wow, with "Elysium," what size and scale. Still retaining the gray and brown color palate for a ravaged Earth as he did in his directorial debut "District 9," which shocked everyone with four Oscar nods, Neill Blomkamp displays what he does best (well, with two movies anyway) a dystopian universe with an underdog hero who becomes strapped with some serious tech.

But that's where the similarities end. I have deep respect for any writer/director who can craft a movie solely out of their imagination, and not rely on any other sources. Blomkamp partly does this; he takes the decidedly American topics of  healthcare, the 1%, etc. and spreads those themes throughout "Elysium." While the concept is great, and the visuals, including innovative takes on police robots and the hilarious idea that machinery has taken away many of man's manual labor, which has already happened here in the states, are topnotch, the latter half of this film turns too much into a Hollywood blockbuster, nonstop action, with Sharlto Copley's villainous Kruger saying things like: "I'm just getting started!"

Catchphrase cliches aside, Blomkamp was certainly able to stretch out his imagination to the tune of $85 million dollars more than "District 9" with this movie. The lush, clean, immaculate world of Elysium that Matt Damon's Max has to arrive to save himself from the radiation accident he's endured on his job, looks like a Saturn-esque ring around Earth that promises Med-Pods, which instantly cure any disease.

Like any science fiction, you have to disbelieve a few things to keep the plot going, which juggles Secretary of Defense's Delacourt (an icy, passable Jodie Foster) attempting to become Elysium's leader, Max's childhood crush's intent to go unselfishly to Elysium for her daughter, and the aforementioned Kruger's firing and abrupt rehiring as a mercenary for Delacourt to kill Max and the people who attempt to aid him in his continually failing health. It's a daunting task to undergo for any filmmaker, but in Blomkamp's capable hands it certainly works, though characters like Max's love interest Frey and Delacourt herself are more than a little underwritten. Copley easily steals the show, and effortlessly brings charisma and an almost indecipherable accent that still provokes menace as he lets nothing get in his way to bring Max down.

If the ingredients to a Blomkamp movie are one-fourth Sharlto Copley, one-fourth political message and one-half science fiction ingenuity and creativeness, then count me in on his next ten projects. "Elysium" may not change the genre like I proclaimed, but it'll get the gears turning for up and comers.

Rating: 3/4 stars
P.S. As if I had to even say it, Matt Damon was superb in the movie as well.