Elysium (2013) - Review Thread

I didn't care for this movie. It was fun in an action-porn kind of way, but the script and characters were quite flawed. As already said by some people here, the characters are bland and forgettable, but this could have been forgiven with good writing (though I suppose those aren't mutually exclusive).



Every time a plot point was introduced, I had a small-to-large problem with it. He gets a fatal dose of radiation, fine, but on what planet would being on the wrong side of the door jamb allowed him to escape with his life? Then Carlyle is shot in the chest, fine, but did he have to sit there like an idiot while not taking cover? What about Elysium not having a ceiling. That allows for unauthorized landings with great ease, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you also say the rockets fired from Earth reached those shuttles pretty damn quick?



But none of this compares to the main problem, and that's the main conflict and the proposed solution. Elysium is getting rebooted so everyone is a citizen. How does this make sense? You can't solve the poverty problems of a planet with let's say 20-30 billion people by changing the word "illegal" to "legal." Rich people are not evil. If there were millions of magic cure boxes sitting in a warehouse, then they would share them. And how the hell can power be shifted so easily? Why are these robots turned into inconsolable socialists because of one word change in programming?



This movie is contrived, naïve, uninspired, and the flashbacks with the nun were pointless and pretentious. This movie only spires to be a decent action movie, and even that is marred a bit by excessive use of shaky-cam. Also, was Kruger his name? He was great as the creepy villain. It's fun for a single viewing, but that's about it.