Elysium film critique- by POPSUGAR on Youtube

Full text transcript of Elysium film critique

Elysium stars Matt Damon as Max, a man on a mission in the year twenty one fifty four, it takes place in a universe where the wealthy live on a cutting edge space station where hunger, disease and pain don’t exist while the rest of the population toils away in the slums of a ruined planet, Earth isn’t going to get gave away. Joining me now is entertainment editor Maggie Harnik, who is breaking down the futuristic struggle between the haves and have nots to let us know whether it’s a watch or watch not. And this week’s Watch Past Rent. Welcome, Maggie. Hello.

Ok, so let’s get right into the big hook of this film is star Matt Damon. I mean, everyone has been really anticipating his role in this film.

Definitely. You know, they’ve been promoting this for a long time. I remember seeing stuff come out of Comic-Con last year with Matt Damon’s face on it. He’s definitely the big story here. And he’s in the movie.

Ok, so that happens. I’ll give him that. He’s there. He’s got a shaved head. It’s fascinating. Is actually Matt Damon, how is he playing? Kind of like a sci fi Robin Hood.

I wouldn’t quite put it that way. It’s not really. I think they sort of painted the movie to be like he’s redistributing the wealth. You know, it’s a class warfare movie. But really, when you watch it, you see he’s a pretty selfish guy. He gets injured on the job and he really wants to go up to at least see him because he wants to kill himself. And there’s like actual dying children in the movie.

And he’s kind of like, yeah, whatever. Oh, that’s kind of a bummer. It’s a little bit of a bummer. Yeah.

Because you want to be invested in this character. And usually when Matt Damon is playing the hero, you are really into it.

Exactly. And I think this was kind of a strange role for him to take. And, you know, maybe he got something out of it. I don’t really see it.

Ok, now, what about all this, like space age action? Is it out of this world?

I well, most of it takes place on Earth, so technically I wouldn’t say Earth. That’s a real bummer right now. It is. Right. And there’s all these, like junk piles everywhere. It’s not especially pretty to look at. I would say some of the action sequences are tense. It’s a lot of like gunfire, not a lot of like wrestling or anything, but it’s a lot of like Matt Damon hiding behind cars and shooting people with these futuristic guns, some of which are interesting to look at. So I would say that got my heart racing just a little bit.

Now, the plot centers again on this intense struggle and disparity between wealth and worlds. Is that something that really grabs you?

I would say from the commercials and the trailers, at least it did. But then when I saw it, this is just nothing we haven’t seen before, you know, and especially in a year that has been so populated by these futuristic action movies we’ve had after Earth come out, which had beautiful landscapes, this one not so much. We also had oblivion come out and that had Tom Cruise, it had more of a hook. And, you know, it’s unfortunate for this movie to have come out in a landscape that’s already been done and also already been done by the director, Neill Blomkamp, who did the same type of thing in District nine, only did it better there. Right.

That film I really enjoyed and I was very anxious and excited to see what he did this time around, especially having the star power of Matt Damon behind a now senior, Matt Damon. Earlier, we saw this clip of him basically getting kind of Robocop. Yeah. What is that like in the film?

So I mentioned he gets injured on the job. He actually gets like his whole body gets radiation poisoning. So we sort of fading. It happens early on in the movie, too. So the whole time he’s not like Matt Damon.

Superstar is kind of like dying and then sort of an unfortunate thing that what’s right.

And he has ties to the criminal underworld because another redeeming qualities, he used to be a criminal. Shady. Yes, exactly. So he goes through his criminal buddy and his criminal buddy hooks them up with, like this whole operating robot skeleton. That’s exactly what it is. It’s an exoskeleton. Can’t even say it, but it’s drilled into his system. It’s connected to his nervous system and it’s like in his bones. So the whole first of all, they show it to you as it’s going into his body, like with the blood dripping out.

Sorry. And then it’s like every time he moves, every time he runs, you’re just like, oh, go slower.

That’s so gross because, you know, it’s moving around in his flesh.

So very graphic. Not altogether pleasant to watch for two hours. All right. Let’s let’s get into your verdict here, which I think I have a fair idea what you’re going to say.

I am sad to say I’m going to have to give this one a pass. All right. Well, you heard it from Maggie Hard at People of Earth. Save your cash and don’t spend it on Elysium.

But if you happen to be a resident of Elysium, maybe you can be reckless with your future budget. But, you know, we told you so. Yeah, you’ve been right. Thanks so much, Maggie.