Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

Elysium
2013

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner

Neill Blomkamp's second feature is another self-penned science fiction story set in a deeply segregated world. Where District 9 was a brilliantly funny, clever and fresh genre piece, the follow-up is a complete stinker. In 2154, the rich and powerful live on Elysium, a man-made habitat in space, and the poor remain on the polluted and overcrowded Earth. In order to get urgent medical help on Elysium, a lethally injured ex-con agrees to steal confidential data which has the power to change the course of the world. This scenario is grim and thought-provoking, even if it retreads the steps laid down by Wall-E, Oblivion, After Earth and other recent movies, but Blomkamp's awful script doesn't provide proper backstories to any of the characters. The hero and his childhood friend have a special relationship because the very first scene tells us so. Her young daughter is the emotional center of the story, not because we get to care about her but because she is terminally ill. The sketchy main villain, who has a plan that doesn't make any sense, disappears from the picture just when the plot thickens, and her right-hand man is a thoroughly uninteresting one-note baddie whose dialogue is barely intelligible. In the first third, this seems like a film with bold ideas. By the last third, it's become a boring and predictable action blockbuster where nothing of importance is at stake. Matt Damon comes through it with his dignity intact, but Jodie Foster gives a career-worst performance.