2013-08-09, 20:24 | Link #24 |
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: USA
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Just saw it. The visuals and acting are alright (though the bad guy with the NZ accent was a bit hard to understand at times). The story is pretty stupid though, just full of plot holes.
Overall 7/10.
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2013-08-09, 21:46 | Link #25 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Where the Sky Touches the Sea
Age: 30
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Overall 5/10
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2013-08-17, 21:04 | Link #28 |
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
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No wonder the movie got mixed reception. It basically throw in all American political debate and pan it out into the movie..... It almost feel like a semi- documentary movie set up in sci-fi setting, so you will be disappointed if total action is what you were looking for. can't quite explain it to be honest.
I actually like it a fair bit. It's main weakness is how many themes it was trying to push on. Should really focus on just one
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2013-08-28, 20:20 | Link #29 |
Dave's not here, man
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: The Canyons of your Mind
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I disliked this for pretty much the same reason I disliked Avatar (the James Cameron movie from a few years back; not the cartoon about airbenders). It has a good premise, and in terms of visuals it's quite nice (much like Avatar, they did a really good job making the technology look like machines that might actually exist in 100 years, instead of just sci-fi gadgets). Unfortunately, the story is a just a completely heavy-handed piece of social commentary that is too cartoonishly polarized to deserve being taken seriously. If the Earth was really as messed up and overpopulated as its supposed to be in this movie, it would be an all-out war for survival, and people would be fighting for basic necessities. Luxury probably wouldn't even exist at all anymore. A situation where there's only enough food and medicine for maybe 1/3 of the Earth's population to barely keep themselves alive, and the morally ambiguous world this would create could make an interesting movie; this, however, was just silly. If missing your own point were an Olympic event, Neil Blomkamp would not only take home the gold, he would flaunt that very gold in the faces of the starving masses populating his dystopian world. It's a shame, because I loved District 9.
Also, the ending had me and my friend cracking up: Spoiler for ending:
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2013-08-29, 05:01 | Link #30 |
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Join Date: Jan 2009
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Saw Elysium last weekend. I think it was rather refreshing to see a true sci-fi movie that explores social issues in a future setting rather than the all to common summer block buster action types.
Basic premiss is simple: third world individual tries to make it to the first world to receive medical care while his injuries are caused by poor working conditions in a factory of a first world multinational. The setting seems exaggerated but to illustrate the income disparity between the world's poorest and richest people it's closer than comfortable. The Med-pod being a symbol for western medication and treatments. |
2013-08-29, 11:02 | Link #31 |
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: East Cupcake
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I'm not sure what to say about this film.
I did like Matt Damon. While his character was never as complex or interesting as it should have been (and his end was so cliche and boring as to have been written by a 13 year old), still Damon did as much as he could with the character. The same is also true of Sharlto Copely and Jodie Foster, who at least seemed to have fun with their characters. Sadly, everyone else is ridiculously ill-defined (or just plain boring) as to be nothing more than cardboard cutouts of ideas the writer never attempted to flesh out. (William Fichtner was an unexpected surprise, but then again he often is.) I did like the very lived in world that Blomkamp created. Sadly we never see enough of it to warrant the insane budget for such a simplistic film (how this move cost 90-110 million is beyond me, especially since Blomkamp made a similar scale film in 'District 9' with a budget only 1/4 the size of 'Elysiums'. The action sequences were sub-par to non-existent (with none of the spontaneity or freshness of 'District 9'), making the whole premise of the super suit fundamentally meaningless (though the scene in which the suit is strapped to Matt Damon was quite horrifyingly beautiful). The dialogue was quite terrible at times. The overarching themes were so in my face as to cause my eyes to cross. Overall, the visual quality of this picture is one of its only real redeeming qualities. I know sophomore efforts are often a great struggle, especially for such a visual director, but Elysium was a complete misstep. 60/100. |
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