Elysium Review: The Movie is the Message

Memorable science fiction stories make us think in new ways about real life issues. Movies in that genre have the power to elude censorship and engage a big audience. The Planet of the Apes is a great example, featuring white people being treated like animals in a time when African Americans were still victimized in some parts of the United States.

District 9 did something similar in 2009 with stranded alien creatures confined in Apartheid style ghettos. Neil Blomkamp’s directorial debut was very effective in terms of awe-inspiring special effects, action and Shartlo Copley character’s journey of empathy and redemption. For his next project he decided to keep exploring similar themes of inequality and discrimination.

Elysium’s protagonist is Max (Matt Damon), an exploited worked in a powerful corporation that challenges the system that keeps rich people on an idyllic space station while the rest struggles to survive in an overcrowded and devastated planet Earth.

This premise alone is a clear social critique of the current Capitalistic model and its growing disparity between the opulent 1% and the have-not. But for the South African director and writer, the well-intentioned message wasn’t evident enough so he populated this world with extremely caricaturesque characters and terms like “undocumented ships”.

How heavy handed Elysium feels? It makes Avatar , with its pro-green, anti-colonialism agenda, look subtle. A talented actor like Jodie Foster is reduced to a one note, fascist iron lady. William Fitchner is the equally evil CEO that partners with Foster’s ‘Delacourt’ to replace the democratically elected government in exchange of monopolistic contracts.

Instead of advancing a positive discussion, this didactic, on your face approach provokes the opposite reaction in those that feel treated as stupid. As Hispanic and someone who cares deeply about Immigration Reform and social justice, I say thank you but no thank you. Portraying these complex issues in black and white terms doesn’t help to bring change.

I am tired of a trend that reinforces the “Liberal Hollywood” stereotype an diminishes the influence of the genre: In Time (poor people die young), The Purge (poor people is killed once a year), Upside Down (poor people lives literally at the bottom), Repo Men (poor people is dismembered), the upcoming Snowpiercer (poor people lives at the back of a huge train), etc.

The movie also feels manipulative when trying to convey emotional moments, leaving you surprisingly cold. In part because of the cheesy execution, but also because the plot developments get more convenient and less believable. The story moves thanks to a parade of coincidences and unexplained decisions. There are some cool sequences here and there, but the road stays predictable.

The best thing in Elysium is it’s world building and technology. The gadgets, robots and structures showcase a level of detail and creativity sadly missed in the narrative.

Blomkamp gained a lot of trust and control after District 9’s smashing success. Ironically, loosing some power may be what he needs to reach similar heights in his future work.

Elysium is in theaters now (USA).