Elysium

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Made me long for the freshness and ingenuity of District 9.

The story is pretty basic. On the one hand the poor live in squalor on Earth. The rich have made a break for the idyllic habit in Earth's orbit called Elysium. (You have to know iit's a Science Fiction movie because all of the letter 'E's' are just three horizontal lines) Yes, Elysium bears a striking resemblence to the Mercedes Benz logo. Naturally, the poor people on Earth need to get into Elysium to cure their ills, something the rich are keeping all to themselves.

All the characters are pretty much one note, especially Jodi Foster as the chairman of Defense for the Space Station. She's a rogue leader who knows might makes right and she doesn't want to be polluted by these earth people. Sharlto Copely plays the unintelligible merc in charge of tracking down the people trying to get into Elysium illegally. He is almost as angry as Jodie and twice as nutty.

The thing I liked best about the film is the blending of the effects and the world. The space ships look like they belong. Everybody interacts with the robots seamlessly. You do get the sense these actually exist. Especially the surgery to apply the exoskeleton to Matt Damon. I never want this man to be my doctor. It was horrific. You never want to find yourself in this situation. Best scene in the film.

There is a sword fight. It makes no sense. They did fall into the trap of really quick cuts and blurry camera work for all of the fights.

[Drunk Monk]

i thought i saw a sword in the trailer. i was thinking i'd try to review it based on that, but it seemed such a long shot that it was actually a sword that i saw, and then i got all bogged down with life so i bailed on the screener.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It was a Katana.

[Drunk Monk]

...and it's always a katana: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52919">http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/s ... hp?t=52919</a><!-- m -->

I was wanting to see this because I enjoyed District 9 so much. After experiencing so many shantytowns first hand in India,
China and Jamaica, I was impressed by Blomkamp's vision of it. Now that you say there is a swordfight, I'm even more inclined to see it. Do you think this is a big screen pic or should I just wait to stream it?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It was Sharlto's coup de grace weapon. It popped up a couple of times. He actually had a slot in his exoskeleton to sheathe it.

But it was kind of awkward in it's execution in the movie, like many things. During one of the big fight scenes towards the end there is the big fight to see who gets to control the katana, the good guy or the bad guy. But it doesn't make a big impact. It's there because someone probably said wouldn't it be cool if he had a sword to go along with all of Sharlto's knives. But then it doesn't come across as all that cool. And the loss of it doesn't seem all that dramatic.

District 9 was so much better than this film.

[Drunk Monk]

I rather enjoyed this. No, it wasn't as brilliant as his breakout film, D9, nor was it as music video weird as Chappie, but I'm ok with Matt Damon and he's had two misses with Great Wall and Bourne lately so perhaps I was more forgiving. I love Blomkampf's vision of poverty and slums - very kwaito/SA - and even though his robocops are all the same, the roboPO was hysterical. His heavy handed comments on Rich and poor are unwavering, but pale in comparison to reality. The sick little girl was way overdone, but this isn't meant to be a subtle film. I didn't like Jodie, which is odd because I'm a huge fan of hers. She was caught awkwardly between her fake French and fake Brit accent, and her villainess was weakened by the SCOTUS, who makes Jodie's act of villainy seem almost cute. The sword fight was amusing for what it was.