Review of Elysium

Given my love for science fiction, I was looking forward to Neil Blomkamp's Elysium more than most movies in 2013. The South African filmmaker, who burst onto the scene with his thoughtful, allegorical, and enormously entertaining District 9 in 2009, has shown once again with his sophomore feature that he knows how to deliver an action-adventure story with a little more meaning and subtext than most. But expectations can be a bitch. Don't get me wrong, Elysium is a perfectly entertaining blockbuster and asks some fascinating questions, but it's not as full a meal as District 9. The greatest reason for this is the length. In an era where many movies run far too long, Elysium is actually too short. Its unique world deserves a 2.5-hour running length or perhaps even a HBO series treatment for it to fully sate us.

Elysium starts off spectacularly, introducing us to life in the mid-22nd Century where Earth is overpopulated and drastically polluted. The wealthiest citizens have fled the planet and made their way to Elysium, a massive space station "world" where settings are pristine, crime is absent, and any injury or illness can be healed instantly. Most of Earth's citizens are struggling to make a living, and that includes Max DeCosta (Matt Damon), a former car thief who has gone straight and taken a job at an assembly line. His friend, Julio (Diego Luna) is always hanging around looking for Max to get back into the game, and he runs into a childhood friend named Frey (Alice Braga), who is now a nurse and struggling to find treatment for her sick daughter. When a work accident exposes Max to massive levels of radiation, his only hope is to find a way to Elysium for treatment. He takes on a dangerous mission: kidnap his company's CEO, John Carlyle (William Fichtner) and download valuable information from his brain. But this mission becomes complicated when Carlyle and Elysium's Secretary of Defense, Delacourt (Jodie Foster) attempt to organize a coup of the station's government. And things grow even more dire when Delacourt calls in help from a deranged, psychotic "sleeper agent" named Kruger (Sharlto Copley).

The film's commentary on border patrol and health care are front and center for every viewer to note, but most of this happens during the setup. The way droid-based police and parole officers interact with Max and others as they mercilessly profile anyone deemed "suspicious" is not only allegorical but effectively gets us in the main character's corner. Delacourt and the Elysium council have an interesting back-and-forth that feels all-too-much (and appropriately) like real-world politics. And the state of both worlds sends a singular message loud and clear: in this film's world, there is literally no middle class. Everyone is either struggling or luxuriating. Unfortunately, the film drops most of these points when the action-adventure elements take over.

While Elysium is only sporadically successful as social commentary (imagine what Christopher Nolan, who is obsessed with such things, would've done with this budget and a 2.5 hour running time instead of the 1:49 we get here), it's consistently involving as an action-adventure. The protagonists are easy to relate to, the villains, especially Sharlto Copley's Kruger, are suitably nasty, and there's a healthy dose of suspense. Parts of the movie admittedly feel like a superhero tale, but since this is an original story, there's no guarantee whether Max will be alive before the end credits roll. He's enhanced by an exoskeleton, but he's not a Superman. The film's two extended action sequences, one on Earth and one on Elysium, are well-shot and pulse-pounding, whether they involve gun-play or hand-to-hand combat. Plus, with this being an R-rated movie (thank God), expect blood to flow and bodies to explode in Mortal Kombat fashion.

It should come as no surprise that Elysium looks fantastic. Blomkamp was once attached to direct an adaptation of the video game series Halo, and visual influences are everywhere here, from the ring-like space station to the suits, droids, and weaponry. But Elysium never feels like watching someone else play a video game. The movie has a story worth telling and ultimately sends a positive message, although it does run into a few narrative holes along the way. For example, without spoiling anything, the movie's ultimate "solution" for the Earth/Elysium dynamic is far too simplistic and appears too easy for just anyone to implement.. This is a forgivable flaw, however, as Elysium is a consistently involving film. It doesn't rise to the must-see level of District 9, but it displays an interesting vision and represents a respectable way to close out the summer blockbuster season of 2013.

Rating: *** (out of ****)