Directed by: Neill Blomkamp
Screenplay By: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alica Braga, Diefo Luna, Wagner Moura & William Fichtner
Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, brings to light more sociological issues with action and science fiction once again. Elysium explores the themes of immigration, health care ad class issues, where in the year 2154 the wealthy live on a luxurious space station called Elysium while the poor live on an overpopulated, devastated Earth. Matt Damon seeks the medical attention he needs to survive after the wealthy have left him to die, but in order to get to Elysium he has to do a bank job that will create a series of actions that will change the world, literally.
A powerful and amazing movie. Matt Damon was the second choice for the movie, as the first one was Eminem. Now although I would have personally wanted to see Eminem do this part because I’m sure he would have been amazing. But that’s beside the point. Matt Damon plays a man living in a futuristic Los Angeles (where the Mexican’s have totally taken it back) as an assembly line man who used to steal cars for a living. Then after an accident at work and exposure to high levels of radiation leaving him with only 5 days to live. So in an attempt to get to Elysium, the space haven for the rich and powerful, he makes a deal with a man who can get him up there to steal information that can buy him his ticket to health. But he stumbles onto much more and soon goes from being a selfish man with a selfish goal to a hero who risks it all for every being living on Earth. That was what made the storyso powerful: the fact that he goes from being one thing and growing so much in such a short matter of time as he fights his way for survival.
Jodie Foster joins the cast as women in charge of defense who will shoot down any illegals who even try to make it to Elysium to protect her family and the people living there. She was truly brilliant as the ruthless woman who is willing to do anything she wishes for what she believes to be the better good. Now although she was evil, at least her intentionswere honest and she did not hide behind some political façade that made her seem like she gave a crap about those beneath her. Her death sentence was at least clear whereas the president and all those in power were hiding behind the banners of politics thinking they were much better than everyone else because they deported them back to Earth. Given the conditions, that Earth was in and given the illnesses that were inflicted the people who were there; they were just issuing more death sentences.
A truly brilliant and tragic story that really makes you think about where society is now. This is a remarkable movie that is able to tell a very real story and spread it to the masses with the use of non-stop action, brilliant science fiction and political upheaval. The cast, the characters and the story were all simply amazing. ★★★★ (A+)