Elysium critical review- by Chris Stuckmann

Full text transcript of Elysium critical  review

A bald Matt Damon kicks ass in the future while wearing a metallic suit drilled into the bones of his body. I don’t even have to know the plot of this movie. I’m already interested. Elysium is directed by Neill Blomkamp, now he’s coming off of the very successful District Nine, that was the movie that not only did people enjoy, but critics really hailed as an intelligent piece of science fiction. And that was a really impressive movie with great special effects and a really interesting story that actually had a lot to say about society, went into that movie expecting a certain thing, and it really sidestepped you in a good way. So a lot of people were really looking forward to Elysium, myself included, in the future. Earth is populated with the poorest of society, people who don’t have anything. Everyone works in factory jobs. There are robotic police officers that treat everyone horribly. People are beaten sometimes for not doing anything because of some sort of law that these robots have into their heads. They think people are breaking laws. Sometimes they’re not. People are sick and dying and they’re not getting the help they need. The rich and wealthy now live in space at this place called Elysium. It’s this circular space station like thing that allows them to preserve their privileged lifestyle.

They have made beds there where you can be instantly healed from any ailment that you have, no matter what it is. So a lot of people on Earth want to escape to Elysium. Matt Damon included, for reasons I’m not going to get into because none of the trailers really gave it away. And I liked that about the trailers for this movie. So how do I feel about Elysium? For one, Matt Damon is terrific in this movie. He did a really great job with his role. I thought he was really sympathetic. I really cared about his character. He was great in the action scenes. You really could tell that he was doing a lot of stunt work on his own. You really felt sympathy for him. You really felt behind him as a person. He had a good past life that really added to the depth of his character. And he was just a really bad ass character, too. He was the kind of guy you could really get behind and say, yes, this is the kind of guy that I want to see stand up against this corrupt system that’s now been created, because you really started to feel that in this movie as well, that you really just wanted to see someone stand up against the corruption that is on Earth now.

Everything is dirty and barren and things that are futuristic don’t look clean and polished. It was a very dirty and realistic look at the future. And I love that about this movie. They really set up a really cool location that really felt like it had some gritty realism to it, at least seemed to me was a terrific sci fi movie. I really got behind every scene in this movie. I felt that the characters were interesting. I felt these with special effects was terrific. I love the third act of this movie. I mean, I really enjoyed the first two acts. I thought that it was building up cool characters. There were some really fun scenes. But as soon as Damon got that suit molded to his body, I thought the movie just propelled to this really awesome fun movie. And I really enjoyed the fact that the director didn’t try to repeat himself again, even though there were certain elements of District nine. There are definitely here. For one, it’s definitely a science fiction movie that has social commentary in it, but it’s not quite as brainy or thought provoking as District nine was. But it’s definitely not trying to be either. And I think if you discredit the film for that or say that it’s not as good as District nine, this isn’t a sequel to District nine, it’s not the same storyline.

This is a completely different movie. I can understand someone comparing the two films, but it’s not trying to do a District nine is trying to do this is trying to be a fun summer film with a likable character, with a good dramatic story. And it’s also trying to say some interesting things about society. And I really thought they succeeded. Jodie Foster plays this sort of corrupt politician of sorts that’s up on the list. I’m trying to get things her way. And unfortunately to me, she was the weakest link of this movie. I really like her as an actress, but her character eventually was kind of just there to set certain things in motion that had to propel the script along, propelled the story along. And I really didn’t buy a lot of her performance. A lot of her lines felt like they were audio dubbed and she had this sort of accent that just didn’t feel like it was on the same level of realism that the rest of the actors were on. I didn’t really feel that she brought something to the movie that really helped at that much. Unfortunately, definitely not true of Sharlto Copley.

He was great in this movie. He’s one of the best villains of the year so far. Terrific, terrific performance. He was dark and gritty and grimy and nasty and really, really good in this movie. He just had a great physicality to him as an actor. Even when he wasn’t doing anything. He really emote it through the screen, this this evil guy, and you could just, like, smell it through the screen. He did such a good job.

I really enjoyed Elysium. The special effects were fantastic. It had some terrific fight scenes and some really innovative camerawork. I had a story I could really get behind to. I really wanted to root for the underdog in the movie and it just did it for me. I really enjoyed this film. I thought it was a really good and needed last little injection of summer fun. I’m going to give a Leshem and a minus. I’m definitely going pick it up on Blu ray when it comes out. And these are the kind of sci fi movies I really dig these realistic, kind of dirty, grimy visions of the future, like the original Star Wars. It wasn’t all clean and pristine and perfect. Things were messed up. And I really dug that about Elysium. So, guys, last night, my buddies from one of my favorite movie review channels on YouTube, pretty much it invaded my house. We had a lot of fun. We actually saw at least them together and they were kind enough to let me guest star in their review of it, which is on their channel right now. If you want to go over there and check us out, we’re all here sitting on my floor talking about Elysium. So check them out, subscribe to them. And guys, thanks very much for watching as always. And if you like this, you can click right here and get stuck magnetised.