Guy flic alert: Elysium – this dystopian, sci-fi action film takes place 140 years in the future (they’re still using laptops?) where the world is divided into the super-rich exemplified by Jodie Foster who phones in her acting and the over-populated billions of desperately poor (much like today) exemplified by out-of-control, smart-ass Matt Damon. The solution is simple: just break into the rich world and share the wealth and the medical technology to save millions of lives for ever more over-population, but we’re not supposed to think about that nor the fact that communism has already taught us that equal sharing results in equal sharing of misery and poverty. Producer/director Blomkamp fails to live up to his previous District 9. If you ignore the Pollyanna political overtones and put your mind on hold, the brutal sci-fi action, directing, pacing, human interest and gritty misery are brilliant and entertaining. That this is another in a long line of recent anti-capitalist dystopian films reveals how Hollywood intends to dramatize and have us accept the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots during this never-ending recession. In short: this is great entertainment but brainless politics. August 2013.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 23:37:24 +0000