Elysium (2013) Movie Review

ELYSIUM (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

So many sci-fi films being released in 2013, but is Elysium good enough to be considered the best? Well, let's see! 

Elysium is set in the year 2154 where the law is replaced with robots, Earth's citizens are left on a wasteland of a planet and the wealthy live on a space station named Elysium. On this station is where the rich live and because of this, the health is perfection as machines have been made to rid any signs of diseases, no matter how big or small they may be. Because of this, many of the people left on Earth want to travel to Elysium to become patched up, though the owner of Elysium, Delacore (Jodie Foster), will not allow this. Now the film centres around Max (Matt Damon) whom is a factory worker who just wants to live a peaceful life, though this rapidly changes when he has a horrifying accident at work, causing a lethal dose of radiation to enter his body. With a mere five days to live, Max goes to the aid of an old acquaintance to make a deal, which inevitably involves Max becoming a cyborg. Now half-man half-machine, Max must now find out a way to infiltrate Elysium, all the while having one of Delacore's assassins, Kruger (Sharlto Copley), following his every step. Going into this movie, I was expecting a film with a deep story and that's exactly what I got. Since this is a film by those that made the fantastic District 9, the story would undeniably be intriguing and exciting, which it is. 

Still of Elysium (Space Station) 

As for the many, many effects used in the film, I felt they were amazing. Just looking at the environments that the battles took place on were a pleasure to watch. Max's exo-suit looked better than I initially thought as I thought it would look it it was just tangling of him like loose clothing. However, the suit appeared to be insanely secure as since it was drilled into his bones, that would make it very durable and long-lasting. As for Elysium it self, I felt it look very really considering that it is a space station that is apparently easy to access as people just sneak in there everyday, anyway, I'm losing track. Overall, Elysium surprised me in the visuals that it pulled off. As for the acting, I thought it was very good as this movie was advertised to be Matt Damon's comeback, which it more or less is. Damon's a really good actor and it more than shows here as he plays a man who's got very little to live for, trying to regain his strength and courage to get his life back on track. Sharlto Copley was by far my favourite character as he plays the smart mouthed assassin that doesn't care what anyone else thinks and just does things. Copley is a phenomenal actor also as he proved that in District 9 and The A-Team, which ironically, he plays a crazy guy in at least one of those films so it's understandable why he plays a lunatic so well in Elysium. As for Jodie Foster, I didn't really click with her character as although Jodie's a fine actress, I didn't connect with her character and did not care about her fate. Overall, the acting is one of Elysium's greatest strengths and particularly shines when looking at the two main men of the film.

Still of Sharlto Copley and Alice Braga 

Everyone movie has them and with Elysium, the negatives are definitely evident. One of the problems I had with the movie is that I feel that it takes a little too long to get going, which is fine if it leads to something amazing though here, it leads to a little dialogue, a fight and more dialogue. Don't get me wrong, the action was spectacular but it's just not quite enough to make it worth it. Another thing is that I felt there were characters that could have been used in a better way is Max's best friend  Julio (Diego Luna). He is in the film for about almost half of it and I would have liked to see him in it more because he was a relate-able character in my eyes, along with Max. One last thing must be mentioned and while it is not a negative, it is defiantly worth mentioning. The blood in this movie, it's just....great. Every time someone dies, they are either drenched in blood or they explode in a celebration of guts and blood. Anyhow, these negatives while very small, did slightly affect my final judgement on the film as a whole. 

Still of Matt Damon fighting

Even with it's clear down falls, Elysium is a fantastic movie with great special effects, terrific acting an intriguing and surprisingly good story for a sci-fi film. Without question my favourite sci-fi of the year so far, Elysium could very much be considered the return of Matt Damon's acting career after for whatever reason it stopped for about 5 years. 

OVERALL: 8.2/10