MOVIE REVIEW - Elysium

Matt Damon is back and different than you have ever seen him in the new sci-fi flick, Elysium.

Elysium takes place in the year 2154.  Life on Earth has become so horribly unbearable due to overpopulation, terrible environment, and worse government.  But, the very rich can live a disease free, war free, care free life on this habitat called Elysium, that is a gigantic, man made satelight of Earth.  The rest of us, live on a terrible wasteland that is Earth that has every problem you can imagine.  Everyone in Earth longs to live on Elysium.

But Elysium is a fiercely protected place that allows no one in, mostly by force.   But as the resistance on Earth trying to figure out a way to get to Elysium, the politics there are such that too much is not enough.   And the middle powers that be, are thinking of a coup there to have even more, and rule even more diligently. 

Max (Damon) is a young man on Earth who has a long list of felonies in his past.  He suddenly finds himself in a battle for his life.  He is horribly exposed to huge amount of radiation and has only 5 days to live.  He seeks out help from the resistance to get to Elysium so he can be cured.  All can be cured on Elysium.   Along the way, he is implanted with the knowledge too, to re-boot Elysium, and change everything, so all on Earth can enjoy the magnificent things the habitat has to offer.  Can he get there, and can he be the change that an entire planet has been waiting for?

When you peel back all the big special effects, and all the computer generation in this movie, you are left with a pretty original story, and very loud social commentary.  Among the statements made, there is no one in the middle, only the very rich and the very poor.  Toss in the closing off of borders, and to be rich is to be bad.  And that certain things like health care are only offered to those who can afford it.   These are not subtle messages and they are not meant to be.  

Damon is an action hero, who becomes sort of half-droid, and does posses come super strength.  He is quite good and looks comfortable in this new action hero role. Jodie Foster is the evil politician on Elysium, and I generally really like her. But for some reason someone thought it would be a good idea to have some kind of silly accent.  And that's what it is - silly.  The dialogue is also horribly written and sadly, it's a waste of a really good actress and no fault ot her own.

Elysium does a number of things right.  It's not too long, it has nice effects, a fabulous and intense musical soundtrack and a bunch of originality.   It pulls you in and holds on to you nicely.  And in a time where a lot of these sci-fi flicks all run together, somehow this cuts through and looks and feels a bit different.  This is not going to rewrite cinematic history but for what it is, it's OK.

Elysium.  Better than you might think.