Elysium came out this weekend. I just figured it was another dystopian shoot-em up, solve some problems, create others movie; the kind of movie that Blade Runner was back in 1982. Unfortunately Elysium was nothing of the sort, it was just another vehicle for the political delittante of Hollywood to push their wrong-headed thinking on to the average American, who doesn’t want anything besides entertainment out of Hollywood. That is why we pay them after all, to shut the hell up and entertain us. They are the 21st century gladiators, the difference is that after each movie they will live to fight more lions. But seriously, what was I thinking with Neil Blomkamp. I mean you saw his first movie, District 9. It was a concept that could have been phenomenal, but oh my god it was hard to watch through all the leftist political rhetoric. I should have known that Elysium would be the same.
First, you have the name…Elysium. Do you recognize it? You would if you remember your Greek history. Elysium was the Greek opposite of Hades. It was the home of the deceased heroes, righteous, and those chosen by the gods to live happy and blessed afterlives. Sounds great, oh wait, in the concept of the movie it is a place where the haves, the 1 percent, the rich, etc. go to live off the fat of the land. Other people are left on a depleted earth, devoid of resources, crowded; a crap hole, which by the way was filmed in Mexico of all places, while the happy parts were filmed in Vancouver I believe. Yup. So the have-nots, exploited somehow by the haves, want what the haves do have. Apparently the 99% live in a shit hole in the future. Guess what, I am part of the 99% right now and I live a great life. My wife and I work hard, own our home, have two cars, etc, etc. and both us started out with nothing more than high school diplomas. We both worked full-time while seeking undergraduate degrees, and still do. But apparently we should feel bitter and put upon by the super-rich who won’t share with us. But then again, I forget that the rich owe us something.
The film may have been more striking if the actors had filmed the Elysium scenes where they lived and then traveled to where the average Los Angelan lives and filmed there. At least then I couldn’t proudly point to the hypocrisy of Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Neil Blomkamp. The preach it, but the don’t live it. Hell, Damon, a guy who pushes for public school enrolls his kids Elysium, I mean private school. I guess the dumps of the Los Angeles school system are for the 99% after all. That’s what Matt Damon says, then in his movie he says if we don’t like it we can feel free to run an armed invasion into their school and force the nurse to take care of them, the cafeteria to feed them foie gras and arugula, and the teachers to endow the children with learning.
That’s the premise of this movie. Even if I could forgive the political plot I can’t forgive the actual movie. As a movie, it was harder to sit through with more plot band-aids and non sequitur segway than Battlefield Earth. All, right comparing it to Battlefield Earth is low, but really you get my point, the movie was shite. But don’t tell that to the political left, like the Huffpo movie reviewers, just lapping it up and crying how wonderful it was and politically astute too. They might as well get their knee pads out.
As for the rest of you, save your dollars for something else more worthy.