I saw it last night. Over all, it was okay; not great, but still worth a look. (I thought District 9 was similarly okay, so take that how you will)
I liked that everyone in the film had clear motivations for their actions and that they changed believably during the course of the film. (I didn't think the shifting goals of the cast was too complicated as Moviebob indicated) I would have liked to see more of what the people of Elysium think of the people down on Earth, or at least seen some better indication of what their policy is toward them. Near the beginning, Delacourt is being reprimanded for shooting down ships that tried to land on Elysium, so it makes me wonder what do they normally do? Surely, people from Earth are trying to land on Elysium all the time, right? If they don't shoot them down, what do they do with them? What do the population of Elysium think of these people? The movie doesn't even touch these questions. I didn't feel that the allegory was as heavy-handed as Moviebob made it out to be, but there were enough unanswered questions about the setting to leave me unsatisfied.
Action scenes and visuals were excellent, but they were heavily marred by overuse of shaky-cams. Normally, I'm not really bothered by that effect, since it can increase the perceived intensity of the scene, but I felt it was overdone in this movie.
The thing that really bothered me about the movie, though, was that old plot device of the good guys winning because the bad guys are stupid, or the good guys otherwise just don't meet nearly as much resistance as they should. The most egregious part was when...
So yeah, it was a very promising premise to start, and had its fair share of good points, but stuff like the above and more just kill my enjoyment of the movie.
And on an unrelated note, this is going to sound terrible, but I find the scene where Max gets irradiated kind of morbidly funny because the computer terminal displays the message, "Organic material detected in chamber," but it still doesn't shut down. I mean I get that the people on Earth are working with old, shitty, dangerous equipment, but you'd think that a system sophisticated enough to scan for organic material in the chamber would use that information to decide when to shut down. Instead, the machine tells them, "Hey guys, I'm killing someone right now. I'm not gonna *stop* killing him, but I just thought ya'd like to know!"
I liked that everyone in the film had clear motivations for their actions and that they changed believably during the course of the film. (I didn't think the shifting goals of the cast was too complicated as Moviebob indicated) I would have liked to see more of what the people of Elysium think of the people down on Earth, or at least seen some better indication of what their policy is toward them. Near the beginning, Delacourt is being reprimanded for shooting down ships that tried to land on Elysium, so it makes me wonder what do they normally do? Surely, people from Earth are trying to land on Elysium all the time, right? If they don't shoot them down, what do they do with them? What do the population of Elysium think of these people? The movie doesn't even touch these questions. I didn't feel that the allegory was as heavy-handed as Moviebob made it out to be, but there were enough unanswered questions about the setting to leave me unsatisfied.
Action scenes and visuals were excellent, but they were heavily marred by overuse of shaky-cams. Normally, I'm not really bothered by that effect, since it can increase the perceived intensity of the scene, but I felt it was overdone in this movie.
The thing that really bothered me about the movie, though, was that old plot device of the good guys winning because the bad guys are stupid, or the good guys otherwise just don't meet nearly as much resistance as they should. The most egregious part was when...
...they capture Max. (Matt Damon's character) This is the man they've been pursuing for the whole movie, the man who is carrying information that can shut down Elysium, essentially giving anyone power to rule the world. They know how incredibly important he is and they have him completely at their mercy and... they freakin' leave him unguarded! They've gotta have hundreds, if not thousands, of guards, both human and robotic on the station! They could at least have had Kruger's men watch him who were right freakin' there moments earlier, or at the very least had him sedated! At this point, he's already shown how dangerous he is with that exo-suit, having torn up one of the robots with his bare hands, but no, they leave him conscious with nothing but a couple of straps holding him down which he breaks easily.
It gets worse when he goes to rescue Frey, who is being kept in the armoury because... Wait... Why? Why would they keep a prisoner in the armoury, surrounded by weapons? That doesn't make any sense! And why is Max able to just stroll in there without any trouble? Aren't all these weapons guarded at all? Shouldn't there at least be a lock on the door? Or password protection or something? And Max picks up one of the weapons and it's some kind of weird energy weapon that turns the wall and the person he's shooting at into Swiss cheese... So, these incredibly dangerous weapons are kept fully loaded and ready to use at any time, available to any Tom, Dick, or Harry who feels like walking in there with nothing to stop them. How the hell does that make any sense?!? Why hasn't Elysium turned into its own little dystopia with high-powered-gun-toting rebels all over the place ages ago?
So yeah, it was a very promising premise to start, and had its fair share of good points, but stuff like the above and more just kill my enjoyment of the movie.
And on an unrelated note, this is going to sound terrible, but I find the scene where Max gets irradiated kind of morbidly funny because the computer terminal displays the message, "Organic material detected in chamber," but it still doesn't shut down. I mean I get that the people on Earth are working with old, shitty, dangerous equipment, but you'd think that a system sophisticated enough to scan for organic material in the chamber would use that information to decide when to shut down. Instead, the machine tells them, "Hey guys, I'm killing someone right now. I'm not gonna *stop* killing him, but I just thought ya'd like to know!"
