Review - Elysium

Elysium is a sci-fi film that seemed to bear some resemblance to another film that came out earlier this year, namely, Oblivion. The trailer for this film suggested that it was going to be a "guy from the slums will take on the elite force of the rich and overthrow the system" type story. And, for the most part, it was.

Overall, this was a decent movie. From very early on in the film you can tell that the director had a clear vision of what he wanted this world to look like. The characters were strong and memorable characters, the design of Elysium was fairly unique and distinctive (well, for the modern audience anyway), and despite the presence of shaky cam, most of the action was fairly fun. This film will hold your gaze for the 2 hour as long as you like action or big idea films.

However, I did not find it a very satisfying experience as a sci-fi/action film. It flirted with powerful themes and had the potential to be social commentary, but it mostly gives you a backdrop to draw your own conclusions and speculate. They successfully build up a lot of tension, anticipation and curiosity, but nothing is revealed, and even less is resolved. A lot happens, but it feels like a lot more should have. Despite the intended message, this film leaves you in disbelief that Elysium is at all real. It feels more like a rich person's dream being interrupted by a poor person's dream, and that the natural forces of the real world would have prevented the scenario in the film from ever taking place. A rude awakening.

Nonetheless, I can't say the film is bad. It does try, and there were a few moments that were genuinely shocking and horrifying. I stayed engaged till the end, hoping that they would have tied up some loose ends. And even though they didn't, at least I wasn't bored by the direction they took the film. Elysium is not great even by other films from this year, but it's nowhere near the bottom. It is one of those films that tries to join the Elysium of the film world, but is stopped en route in the vast vacuum of space by a weapon of their own making.

Overall Rating: 6 out of 10.


The Spoiler-containing discussion

Lets start off by saying what I appreciated about this film. I really liked the themes in this film. There is some time spent observing how the rich people live on Elysium, and in particular the cure-for-everything "Med-Pod", which is an important plot device, and represents how health care is exclusive to the wealthy by means of class-based citizenship. The whole concept of having a hospital in your home is very similar to the public and private health systems in many countries.

The ending contains a scene where, after the class barrier has been 'broken' by hacking the Elysium mainframe, an army of autonomous ambulances docked on Elysium immediately rushes back to Earth to cure the poor who are viewed as citizens as well. While the 'equal right to life' bit is clear, they didn't take it to the next step and suggest whether those services are sustainable on the global scale. There is almost a communistic tone with that health care delivery, but at least this bit of the film did get me thinking a lot. We never see those ambulances at work until that ending so I suspect the implication is that there is "more than enough medicine to go around", figuratively speaking, but that the rich was just hoarding it all for themselves in reservation for the possibility of their own ailments.

Another strong theme in this film was desperation. Matt Damon's character faces three levels of desperation: physical (after being exposed to fatal dose of radiation), emotional (after failing to be able to reach Elysium after dreaming of being there for so long) and social (the system doesn't let him get to Elysium in a fair, legal way, but he both wants and needs to).

The physical desperation shatters his ethics, and switches on his survival instinct. He was on parole for theft in the past, but he has been trying to change his ways. But once he knows he was destined to die in 5 days he no longer cares and focuses on any and all means necessary to make it to Elysium to use the Med-Pods.

The emotional desperation almost destroys his relationship with Frey, his kind-of sort-of childhood sweetheart. His inability to keep the promise to bring Frey to Elysium makes him abandon her at a point, and if it weren't for the bad guys kidnapping them onto the space shuttle, they may never be able to reconcile.

The social desperation is expressed more universally, through the other poor people on Earth. How they use illegal vessels to enter Elysium in hopes to use their Med-Pods (I think) is a very real effect of desperation. They do not care that they aren't welcome; they just really want or need to be there. This is almost analogous to the asylum seeker boats entering Australia, except we have 'processing centers' in between so we don't simply deport them back to their home countries. So I guess we're at least a little bit better than Elysium! Just a little though.

I also kind of love how Matt Damon's character is dumb. He is not a brilliant scientist, and he isn't a role model. He wasn't trying to save the world, even at the end of the film. He did seek redemption before dying, but only for Frey. Up until he realized the harm he's caused Frey and her daughter, he really was just trying to save himself, and he never cared about the data heist itself or got involved with the politics on Elysium. He is almost like the Forrest Gump of Sci-Fi, minus the monologues.

Now all the good stuff about it aside, there is one thing that did leave me wanting more.


The subplots

There are many things at stake in this film, and few of them gets resolved in a satisfactory manner. At least half a dozen subplots are introduced, mostly to do with Elysium itself, but all of them are glossed over to keep the focus on Matt Damon's character. The biggest of these underdeveloped subplots, I would argue is the attempted coup by Jodie Foster's character Secretary of Defence Jessica Delacourt...which I'll just refer to as Foster anyway.

During a meeting between Foster and the president of Elysium, she establishes herself as a hardened commander who is not afraid to kill intruders to protect the sovereignty and peace of the habitat, and she hints that she has a past that involved intrusion by people from Earth harming her family's well-being when she questions whether the president has what it takes to preserve the way of life for Elysians. Ironically we know nothing about the president except he has more conservative views on how to govern, most of his character is dictated through Foster's description of his inefficacy in office.

Foster was so convinced that the current government is too timid and 'politically correct' that she plans a coup. With the support of their main Defence contractor, she plans to hack and reset the system to recognize her as the new president, overthrowing the current administration. While her plans are being thwarted indirectly by Matt Damon, she is suddenly killed off by her own agent, and when she is locked in the storage room with Frey, she refuses to be treated by her, and ends up dying.

I interpreted her ending to be one where she has a serious history with people from Earth that caused her to be so wary of them and even ready to instigate a war to be rid of them once and for all. This means that she died stubbornly believing she is part of the superior class, not willing to be in debt to an Earthling. Unfortunately we never really know her back-story so it's hard to appreciate her malice and stubbornness. Perhaps they did explore her character a bit more in an extended cut, though I guess she won't be as villainy then.

But outside of nitpicks, that's the only real issue I had with the film. It is a big one, but doesn't completely destroy the film. It's worth a view even if it's just to experience another vision of a futuristic present.


Finally, the nitpicks

• Elysium's Defence system is so unbalanced. I mean, they have the ability to lock down an entire region of Earth preventing anyone from flying in and out, but at the same time they've had illegal boats, I mean refugee shuttles, as well as another shuttle carrying armed 'resistance' people, who can casually make their ways into the rich people's homes as well as the government headquarters while it was on Code Red Alert? Also that force field that Agent Kruger (the slightly crazy secret agent) is so powerful, but why isn't that a standard feature on those bodyguard robots? I tried not to think too much about this because it was clear from quite early on their focus was never to create a plausible Elysium, merely a symbolic one.
  
• How exactly do they keep the atmosphere inside Elysium human-habitable? It seems like there isn't any shielding or glass walls fully enclosing the 'ceiling', as shuttles can just fly in and start landing without going through any gates, force fields or atmosphere.
  
• That exoskeleton Matt was equipped with. Now I think it's a cool idea, but I was wondering: suppose he did manage to get to Elysium, does the Med-Pod somehow cure him while that thing is drilled into his spine and connected to all of his nerves? I mean I had a picture of him trying to lie down in the pod and it starting to complain because he didn't remove all metal objects before entering what is essentially an MRI that also shoots miracles into your body.
  
• Shaky Cams. Please stop including this effect in movies. It just makes me dizzy and doesn't add to the film in most cases.
  
• Who was the father of Frey's daughter? I was just curious, because from the start of the film they establish quite a bit of romance between Max and Frey. Is Max the father? If not then who is he, why don't they ever mention it?
  
• The radiation chamber. This comes in one of the robot factory scenes where the door to a robot radiation chamber gets jammed and Matt was ordered to fix it, ends up getting trapped in the radiation chamber when it activates, and therefore receiving the fatal dose of radiation which is the catalyst for the rest of the film. But WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU EVER NEED TO RADIATE YOUR ROBOTS? Wouldn't that make them dangerous to be around you? Anyone who works with radiation please let me know if there is a single situation (other than for research purposes) would you need to radiate your equipment.
  

Reel Thoughts - Where did magic realism go?

For movie goers, you would be more familiar with the typical genres of films that come out with more regularity. Firstly you have your superhero movies like The Avengers, Iron Man, Superman, Batman. Then your Kid’s or Family films from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks. Then there’s also Romance, Drama, Historical Fiction, Comedy, War, Science Fiction, Horror, Mystery, and in recent times, your Fantasy franchises based on young adult novels like Hunger Games, Twilight and the upcoming Mortal Instruments.  

As far as I can tell at least one big budget movie is made under each of these genres, but there is one other type of film that doesn’t seem to get a clear label. This is the genre of Magic Realism. 

For people who read lots of books, magic realism should be a familiar concept. For others the very name of the genre might illustrate some kind of New Age religion or subgenre of Fantasy, but in fact it was a very popular form of film that originated as a flavour of comedy drama in the 80s and 90s. 

The premise of a Magic Realism film is that the story is set in a realistic modern world which looks completely normal, but one magical element also exists naturally within the film. It is almost like one of your superstitions becoming part of your reality, which only the main characters notice, but to everyone else nothing strange is happening. It is science fantasy without the science, romantic comedy with a more edgy scenario, supernatural thriller without the horror or suspense.

Perhaps a couple of examples would help. One of the most definitive examples of Magic Realism in Hollywood is Tom Hank’s Big, where a boy makes a wish in a creepy coin booth to be bigger so he can enjoy adulthood, only to wake up the next day to find that his wish has come true and he is now in his early 20s! The mechanics of how that transformation occurred is not really explored in the story, but rather the consequences of his wish coming true. 

Another movie that might be more familiar to a modern audience is Mel Gibson’s What Women Want, where after being electrocuted in his bathtub he suddenly gains the ability to hear women’s minds. Of course he would exploit the hell out of it but after a while he realises being able to hear their thoughts can be troublesome too, and also changes him when he learns to sees women as human (sort of). Other films that incorporate Magic Realism include Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar, Jennifer Garner in Suddenly 30 (or 13 going on 30), Eddie Murphy’s A Thousand Words, and quite a few more (oh and Meg Ryan’s Just Like Heaven). 

The premise and structure of magic realism films tend to be very similar. Magical phenomenon occurs to main character, main character learns and understands his new gift/curse, main character exploits his gift, then main character learns something about himself through the gift and fixes his life, and magic phenomenon leaves him when he no longer needs it.

The key to recognising a Magic Realism film is the transience of the magic. The gift or curse doesn’t stay with our character(s) beyond the film. The magical element is simply a vehicle that aids character development, creates interesting conflict (often to comedic or dramatic effect) and encourages introspection. It is never meant to be questioned or studied as a permanent feature of the character. This differentiates Magic Realism from other subgenres like Superhero, Science Fantasy and Supernatural.

I’m guessing when I listed these movies, very few people would have actually seen them, let alone heard of them, and it’s not surprising since they only get limited domestic screening in the US nowadays. But once upon a time, magic realism films were international box office successes, largely enjoyed by the critics, but the more recent ones tends to slip under our radar, or not even get a screening opportunity in our cinema. And perhaps because we demand it less they also produce less, causing a negative feedback loop. But why did it go away in the first place?

Firstly, Magic Realism films tend to be mixed with Romantic Comedy Drama, which in itself is a gradually dying genre due to TV serials doing so much better in that respect. They aren’t epic like Lord of the Rings or Batman to draw in large audiences, they don’t win Oscars, and the premise often sounds like amateur fiction that anyone can randomly come up with in their blog. When it comes to big screen comedies, directors and studios are now favouring another subgenre: Frat. 

Frat comedy are where we have characters who are man-children, typically have some sort of bromance fraternity that goes on a roadtrip littering many “unintentionally” offensive, crude or physical jokes that disgust as well as intrigue along the way. 

I dread watching these but I can see why they are gaining ground. We live in a world saturated with political correctness, oversensitive and defensive to even the mention of racisim, sexism, homophobia and classism issues. Film has traditionally been an escape from reality, and so the popularity of films like The Hangover is a reflection on the kind of world we wish we could mess around in for a break from the sterile reality we have imposed on ourselves.

Also, Magic Realism became popular in the past for a very similar reason as Frat comedies are popular today. The 90s was arguably the most ‘boring’ decade, given that we had war in the 1910s, the roaring 20s, depression in the 30s, more wars in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, economic boom in the 80s, terrorism in 2000s, then civil unrest this decade. 

For most of the 90s, things were going relatively well; multiculturalism spread like wildfire, more countries were developing well, and utopia seemed to be within our grasps. However the family unit itself was starting to break down due to evolving societal values. Industry was growing, entrepreneurship and innovation accelerated, but the personal life suffered due to the lifestyles and career commitments. 

This is why magic realism films emerged and were popular at the time, as almost a self-reminder by busy career-driven professionals to restore some fabrics that holds their family together. They needed to be told by a third party, Hollywood of all people, that family is important; that a miracle may be needed to stop it from falling to pieces.

So after saying all this, am I saying I want more Magic Realism films? 

No.