[Review: IN THEATRES] ELYSIUM (7/10)

Special effects guru turned writer-director Neill Blomkamp returns with Elysium, a stunning and effective social-sci-fi thriller staring Matt Damon as Max. Max is born, or perhaps banished on Planet Earth. Those born into wealth and power reside on Elysium, protected by Delacourt, the feisty and defiant minister of defense (played by Jodie Foster). The film is a smart, if not perhaps too obvious allegory for the US-Mexico relationship – a relationship we barely see living on our border (unless your at the Galleria on a Canadian holiday – then you see boxes and boxes of products our nei


ghbors to the north are hiding from their government upon return).

Max has been in love with Frey (Alice Braga as an adult) for his whole life – she’s a beautiful nurse on Planet Earth whose daughter is chronically ill. On Elysium there’s a cure for everything via one of those med beds we saw in that the abortion scene in last summer’s Prometheus.

Max is exposed to radiation at this job (he works on a drone assembly line) and is pretty much living on borrowed time, allowing him to take a risk – working for a cartel who traffics in undocumented transport to Elysium. Hardliner Delacourt launches strikes on the undocumented (the film’s choice of words, not mine) much to the objections of Elysium president Patel (Faran Tahir).

The film’s visuals are brilliant – Blomkamp is a master of mixing realism (including handheld camera work) and special effects – here working with more money than he had on District 9. Elysium is a beautiful luxury paradise – the kind of place us working class stiffs can maybe only get away to once in a life time. Interestingly they all speak French and English on Elysium while back on earth (in LA) the language is English and Spanish.

Yes, the commentary is laid on a bit thick – but thankfully a smart summer action movie with brains and balls – it’s about something! Pacific Rim was as exhilarating as a game of Rock-Em-Sock-Em robots: here is an action movie that’s not subtle but it brings the issue of economic inequality into focus. Blomkamp’s District 9’s allegory was based in South African history, while this time around he’s exploring US-Mexico relations and underground economies (often on earth using a handheld style that recalls the visceral visuals of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s classic Mexican thriller Amores Perros).

Fresh and inspired, Elysium is a smart summer movie – perhaps its not a smart, nuanced movie that will inspire scholars to explore, but for the average movie goer its deeper than many films currently screening at your neighborhood Regal Entertainment Group cinema.





Screening: Dipson Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Walden Galleria, AMC Maple Ridge, Dipson Flix, Regal Transit Center, Regal Hollywood 12, Transit Drive In, Regal Quaker Crossing.