With a story that started out with such promise, the last two thirds of Neill Blomkamp's Elysium just get lost, unable to surface in time to rescue the sci-fi flick.
Elysium is the story of two classes of people"“the obscenely wealthy who live on Elysium, a man-made space station, and the rest, who live on the overpopulated, depleted Earth. The Earth dwellers are clearly desperate to escape from their impoverished circumstances to the obviously pristine paradise that is Elysium, particularly for the amazing medical care that can heal any illness or injury. The citizens of Elysium prefer to remain in seclusion, and many, particularly the Secretary of Defense (Foster), will go to extremes to protect their Eden from outsiders. One man's (Damon) attempt to bring equality to all proves the ultimate challenge, even as his own life hangs in the balance.
Elysium practically oozes social empathy and has the ingredients to be a story of sacrifice, injustice and triumps of the human spirit, and it does succeeds in acting as a launchpad into discussions about immigration and socioeconomic class. But it's also got issues. As excited as I was during the first act, the middle gets bogged down in the sterotypical chichés of an action film, so much so that you expect the chase scenes and gun battles. The ending is also highly generic, which is extremely annoying. Instead of letting the man save the day, let a woman do it for once. Is that so hard, Blomkamp? Had the writing been a little less forumlaic and trite, maybe it could have taken what is fairly decent idea and keep it from going completely pear-shaped.
In terms of performances, Matt Damon is solid as Max, the reformed delinquint unintentionally reforming equality for Earth's citizens. Sadly, just his performance isn't enough to carry Elysium on its own. Jodie Foster's Delacourt, the conniving Defense Secretary, is convincing enough, but her accent seems to travel through every Eurasian possibility, and it sort of ruins the movie experience.
All in all, Elysium isn't the worst movie I've seen all summer. It's also not the greatest. It has such great potential to be so much better, especially with such an interesting beginning. But once the story is introduced it turns into every other sci-fi action movie you've ever seen. No thanks, Blomkamp.
