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Elysium (Here There Be Spoilers)
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<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6177270" data-attributes="member: 17106"><p>Finally saw it (seemed like an appropriate activity for Labor Day). I enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as District 9. It seemed to me more trite and predictable; for all the hullabaloo going on the story and its conclusion were fairly basic. I think it was a nice way to make a movie about inequalities in rights and opportunities. I also saw a lot of logic gaps that I agree with some other people on. However, two meta-level things bothered me.</p><p></p><p>It seems incredibly ironic that in this movie about haves and have-nots, the have-not antihero was played by an A-list Hollywood actor. I was interested to learn that they tried a South African rapper first for the part. And don't get me wrong, Matt Damon is a great actor and did everything well, but it's hard to forget that he's Matt Damon, and as down-to-earth as he can be, his status kind of undercuts the point. Some unknown guy would have worked better in that level. On that note, Sharlto Copley is an amazing actor; he was a lot of what made District 9 work and he's done some very different roles since.</p><p></p><p>Also, I was disappointed with the glibness with which the medical aspect was approached. The movie ends up conflating "everyone being equal" with "everyone having everything". In the real world, healthcare disparities are an enormous problem, but there are some illnesses that money can't cure. Look at Steve Jobs; he was definitely in the "have" category but he couldn't beat cancer. There are innumerable other examples of rich, powerful people who died of incurable illnesses. Any South African knows the story about how a superstar disabled person living in a gated community shot another rich and famous person, so life is not all great in there. Even in Star Trek, where technology is magic and medicine can cure just about anything, terminal illness and incurable disability are recurring themes (Pike in a wheelchair, Bendii Syndrome, Irumodic Syndrome, etc.). To suggest that the rich people had beds in their houses that could cure cancer and undo radiation sickness and rebuild faces and were routinely leaving them unused feels intellectually dishonest to me. The robots dispatched at a moment's notice to heal all the world's ills are too easy of an ending. There are innumerable real examples of care behind withheld or denied and many people die from preventable things, but not everything is preventable. Life isn't quite that easy.</p><p></p><p>***</p><p></p><p>On the logic level, it seemed absurd that Elysium had such poor defenses. After all, real gated communities are kind of defined by their gates. Shooting the ships down from the ground was a bit ridiculous. The radiation danger seemed a bit absurd (though even in the twenty-first century there are some amazing occupational hazards in the third world).</p><p></p><p>I did, however, actually think the main objective made some sense. It didn't make any sense that downloading the program was lethal (for one character and not another, one assumes), but it did make sense that it worked. Elysium sold its soul to a military industrial complex. They were largely dependent on robots and computers for security. The original maker of the robots tried to reprogram them for a coup, and then someone else reprogrammed them for another coup. It seems perfectly logical to me that President Patel and co. were unable to reverse this robot uprising because they had become so subservient to this technology that was made by the surface-dwellers.</p><p></p><p>I'm inclined to agree that their motivations weren't well-explored and the characters on that side of things were trite. It seems to be just assumed that none of them care about what happens on the surface and that they refuse to share their magical technology out of spite, which again rings true to some extent but is exaggerated to the extreme.</p><p></p><p>I don't know. I guess that overall, I am bothered most by the lost opportunity of this film. I think that Blomkamp is a freaking GENIUS director; I'd just love to see him paired up with a story he didn't write.</p></blockquote><p>I kind of feel the same way. The sheer visual storytelling of this movie was amazing. The effects in this movie (and in D9 before it) felt much more real than in most movies. The huge CGI battles in Man of Steel and Avengers bored me. The action in this movie kept me riveted. Blomkamp makes an engaging, kinetic, entertaining film.</p><p></p><p>I really wish he was taking over the Batman franchise after Nolan, or something of similar import. "Hey Neil Blompkamp, would you like to direct a movie based on Dungeons and Dragons?" <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Elysium does read to me like many movies that are written and directed by the same guy: that there are parts where a second voice was needed to say "hey, this doesn't make sense, and we can change it and still get the point across". But man, this guy can direct.</p><p>[/QUOTE]</p>
[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 6177270, member: 17106"] Finally saw it (seemed like an appropriate activity for Labor Day). I enjoyed it. It wasn't as good as District 9. It seemed to me more trite and predictable; for all the hullabaloo going on the story and its conclusion were fairly basic. I think it was a nice way to make a movie about inequalities in rights and opportunities. I also saw a lot of logic gaps that I agree with some other people on. However, two meta-level things bothered me. It seems incredibly ironic that in this movie about haves and have-nots, the have-not antihero was played by an A-list Hollywood actor. I was interested to learn that they tried a South African rapper first for the part. And don't get me wrong, Matt Damon is a great actor and did everything well, but it's hard to forget that he's Matt Damon, and as down-to-earth as he can be, his status kind of undercuts the point. Some unknown guy would have worked better in that level. On that note, Sharlto Copley is an amazing actor; he was a lot of what made District 9 work and he's done some very different roles since. Also, I was disappointed with the glibness with which the medical aspect was approached. The movie ends up conflating "everyone being equal" with "everyone having everything". In the real world, healthcare disparities are an enormous problem, but there are some illnesses that money can't cure. Look at Steve Jobs; he was definitely in the "have" category but he couldn't beat cancer. There are innumerable other examples of rich, powerful people who died of incurable illnesses. Any South African knows the story about how a superstar disabled person living in a gated community shot another rich and famous person, so life is not all great in there. Even in Star Trek, where technology is magic and medicine can cure just about anything, terminal illness and incurable disability are recurring themes (Pike in a wheelchair, Bendii Syndrome, Irumodic Syndrome, etc.). To suggest that the rich people had beds in their houses that could cure cancer and undo radiation sickness and rebuild faces and were routinely leaving them unused feels intellectually dishonest to me. The robots dispatched at a moment's notice to heal all the world's ills are too easy of an ending. There are innumerable real examples of care behind withheld or denied and many people die from preventable things, but not everything is preventable. Life isn't quite that easy. *** On the logic level, it seemed absurd that Elysium had such poor defenses. After all, real gated communities are kind of defined by their gates. Shooting the ships down from the ground was a bit ridiculous. The radiation danger seemed a bit absurd (though even in the twenty-first century there are some amazing occupational hazards in the third world). I did, however, actually think the main objective made some sense. It didn't make any sense that downloading the program was lethal (for one character and not another, one assumes), but it did make sense that it worked. Elysium sold its soul to a military industrial complex. They were largely dependent on robots and computers for security. The original maker of the robots tried to reprogram them for a coup, and then someone else reprogrammed them for another coup. It seems perfectly logical to me that President Patel and co. were unable to reverse this robot uprising because they had become so subservient to this technology that was made by the surface-dwellers. I'm inclined to agree that their motivations weren't well-explored and the characters on that side of things were trite. It seems to be just assumed that none of them care about what happens on the surface and that they refuse to share their magical technology out of spite, which again rings true to some extent but is exaggerated to the extreme. I don't know. I guess that overall, I am bothered most by the lost opportunity of this film. I think that Blomkamp is a freaking GENIUS director; I'd just love to see him paired up with a story he didn't write.[/QUOTE]I kind of feel the same way. The sheer visual storytelling of this movie was amazing. The effects in this movie (and in D9 before it) felt much more real than in most movies. The huge CGI battles in Man of Steel and Avengers bored me. The action in this movie kept me riveted. Blomkamp makes an engaging, kinetic, entertaining film. I really wish he was taking over the Batman franchise after Nolan, or something of similar import. "Hey Neil Blompkamp, would you like to direct a movie based on Dungeons and Dragons?" ;) Elysium does read to me like many movies that are written and directed by the same guy: that there are parts where a second voice was needed to say "hey, this doesn't make sense, and we can change it and still get the point across". But man, this guy can direct. [/QUOTE]
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