Elysium (9/10)

Neill Blomkamp has become my new director to follow after M. Night Shyamalan.

Ever since District 9, which was four years ago, I feel Blomkamp is on a path of stratospheric rise. He has taken me as an audience to another level. There were even more poetry in the visuals this time around.

District 9 was more of a small budget movie, and he made it looked like a summer blockbuster. Now with a bigger budget, he rose up to the challenge.

Dealing with yet another segregation issue, this time we get a more realistic, futuristic story with an end-of-the-world storyline. Robots have taken over the more menial work and provided brute strength; grand pieces of technology created but only available to the privileged; political issues dictate security and safe haven. Take those contexts only and they are already happening in this world. Blomkamp only amplified them.

Through his direction, Blomkamp was clear in his vision. Every scene had a good reason. Every line was in place. And he was clear enough to direct all his actors to give their best.

Jodie Foster had great lines to work with. William Fichtner never looked this good or this calculative. Sharlto Copley was night and day compared to his work in District 9. And Matt Damon, predictable in his role and acting, but it's all good.

The only fault I found was that this being a sci-fi had the sci-fi loopholes. Some things or events happened too quickly without much time spent on explanation and audience had to link the dots ourselves. But with the pace and the editing and direction, I almost overlooked them.

The end, too, fell a bit short as the gestures of Damon and Wagner Moura's characters were not properly spelled out or made clear. I would have liked the script to spell out clearer the fight for not just equality but survival of human kind on Earth. That as humans destroyed Earth, those in control literally left the planet to rot in chaos through neglect and greed and by eliciting fear.

There were a lot of messages to be found and learned, but the glitz and explosions somewhat trivialized them. Just like the purpose of Damon's fight which was initially for survival but later turned into saving mankind in an almost afterthought fashion.