Between District 9 and now Elysium, Neill Blomkamp is the undisputed master of Future Grunge. That’s the only way I can describe the way he contrasts dynamic futurism with sheer dilapidation. And in Elysium, that contrast is even more pronounced between the ‘haves’ of Elysium, where well-heeled residents can cure their diseased bodies or change hair and eye color with the touch of a button; and the ‘have-nots’ stuck on Earth that been sucked dry by overpopulation. Elysium is a difficult movie to watch in places, but that’s because it’s so well done. Blomkamp and his production team have created an often-ugly world, but it’s a world from which you can’t remove your eye. The amount of detail is just staggering, whether it’s the droids that come in all sorts of styles and colors, or the elaborate tattoos on Max (Matt Damon) and his friends in the criminal underground. You want things to slow down for a moment so you can let things sink in, but Blomkamp never stops moving that camera. All you can do is hold on. If I have one complaint, and I suppose it’s a minor one, it pertains to accents. I’m not quite sure what sort of dialect Jodie uses for her character, but I found it a bit distracting. And Sharlto Copley’s thick South African dialect is almost impenetrable in places. I suppose most of his dialogue is self-explanatory, but it would be nice to understand all of it and not just sometimes. I’ve tried not to give too much away, because I think everybody should get the chance to discover Elysium on their own, but in a summer crammed with overblown ‘tent pole’ films, it’s nice to finally find something a bit original.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 02:23:34 +0000
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