Escape to the Movies: Elysium

[Tono Makt]

When I first heard about this movie, I'd considered going to see it. However, the more I hear about it, the less I want to, because it sounds like it's going to be Avatar levels of heavy-handed, left-wing preaching about illegal immigration and ecenomic disparity among social classes. God forbid they take it with an even hand and, I dunno, handle both sides fairly with a message like "some say the economic system is unfair and keeps people from making their lives better in order to benefit the privileged few...but others think that you can get ahead and the fact that some don't succeed is just an unfortunate, but unavoidable fact of life and trying to homogenize prosperity is going to be about taking away what some have rightfully earned and giving it to those that haven't earned it."

It's sad that I think I can say without fear of disagreement that we're not likely to see a movie with that kind of message anytime soon. Instead we're going to keep seeing movies where the message is where the only people who are successful and rich are the dishonest and those born into privilege and that successful, wealthy people have no virtues because they're all selfish and cruel.

I think you're hitting one of the anti-Elysium nails right on the head - it looks like it might have had a working title of "Occupy Elysium". Heck, even Bob alluded to that when he mentioned the 99% living on Earth. I'm hoping that someone who review movies will mention just how much and how heavy handed the message is and not simply try to avoid the issue, like Bob did in this review, because aspects of the movie look awesome. I just don't know if I want to get bashed over the head with a message I have some disagreements with just to see some kewl action and awesum effects.

 

[MatthewGeer]

Weirs rhymes like piers or beers; it's not pronounced "Where's Beach". Funspot, though, is awesome. Check thier website, or local gas stations, for a coupon for 25 free tokens when you spend $20. (125 total, thanks to thier sliding scale pricing.)

 

[bat32391]

Edit: Nevermind didn't see the posts above.

OT: I skipped through most of the spoiler stuff, but it sounds like its going to be a cool movie.

 

[Korsgaard]

About to go watch/review it myself. Interesting Bob says its more an analogue to relations between the first and third world as opposed to the beaten-to-death-horse that is 'capitalism is bad'. Even when they handle that well, it always hits me as greatly hypocritical for a film headlined by a handful of multi-millionaires and financed by one of five or six multibillion dollar corpertations to critique the way capitalism works.

Anyway, Elysium looks good, I'm excited.

 

[Stryc9]

Soooooooo will I be able to ignore the political bullshit and still enjoy the movie or should I just stay home and watch or do something else? I'm honestly getting really tired of having every single thing that happens ever anywhere be turned into a right vs. left political issue and would just as soon ignore as much of it as possible.

 

[Darth_Payn]

It has nothing to do with thinking about how you might "subscribe to their views" or be "brainwashed". It has to do with film-makers with very clear-cut beliefs making movies that take complicated ideas that are chock full of grey areas and reducing them to black-and-white fantasy, where everyone falls into convenient categories of "if you think this way you're smart and righteous and wonderful, and if you think this way you're a vile and disgusting human being". As you can imagine, people don't really like being insulted, and they especially don't like it when you insult them by presuming to understand their views when the film-maker clearly doesn't (or just ignores them).

But how does this make sense in a fictional movie? A documentary I can understand. But imagine debating these points while disusing Judge Dread, which has a lot of the same views. Hell, the remake of Total Recall even...

There is ONLY ONE Total Recall! We do not speak of failed remakes here!

 

[Alar]

I literally could not watch that review because I can't handle the Bawstin accent.

I know right? This is normally the kind of thing editors are supposed to catch and tell the person to rerecord.

OT: Glad to hear the movie is good, I shall go see it this weekend!

And kinda sad, the "Special announcement" is really just a "Special advertisement" I am still curious who a WRITTEN lets play is supposed to be targeting, and if there was actually a demand for such things..

I was hoping/expecting for something else, too. I mean, it's great that he's branching out and all, but I don't see the appeal. XD

If this movie is as good as he seems to feel it is, it'll be worth a rent or a watch on Netflix down the line.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Damn, another one for the "must see" list. I'm STILL trying to find time to see Pacific Rim.

Funny. Bob's cheering this movie on while other reviews I've read are canning it. Time gave it 2+1/2 stars out of 5 and it only gets a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Uh...is this another case where Bob's inner fanboy leaves him giddy and oblivious to problems? You may recall how he said the Captain America might be "the best movie ever". Bob has as much of a track record for going overboard liking certain directors or movies as he does for reflexively hating others (I never listen to Bob when he talks about JJ Abrahm's work, anymore).

Has anyone else seen this movie? If so I'd appreciate your opinion on it.

EDIT: The 47% at Rotten Tomatoes has changed to 67% as more reviewers weighed in their opinions.

Considering I value Bob's opinion above pretty much all other critics, I'm more than willing to disregard anyone who disagrees with him until I see the film myself. You talk about his "inner fanboy" but Bob doesn't have an "inner fanboy"- he's ALL fanboy and completely unashamed about it. Since I'm a fanboy as well, that's why his opinions gel with mine so well.

 

[faefrost]

We're never gonna get that Battle Angel Alita movie, are we? :'(

Nope This pretty much killed it, just as Promethius killed The Mountains of Madness one.

I wouldn't say never because James Camerson seems like the type to give zero fucks about what others think and/or want. That said it's probably pretty close to never as Avatar made too much money to not try to cash in on. Hell, Cameron's IMDB page has writing credits listed for Avatar's 2-4. -_- I, given the fact that I don't particularly like most of what he's done recently, am not super thrilled that James Cameron is the one holding the rights to Battle Angel.

/sigh! I actually don't mind the idea of Cameron making Battle Angel Alita. Yeah he seems like a bit if a jerk, but the man does have an incredible eye for and timing with these types of movies. And I love that Cameron is one of the last of the big genre filmakers that has not succumbed to washing everything out with blue and orange digital color correction. Love or hate Avatar for the acting dialog and story, but the filmmaking in it is spectacular.

I cry because it will at a minimum be years before we see such a movie. Can you imagine if it could be in production now using the girl from Pacific Rim? Or the chick that played Yukio in The Wolverine?

 

[Muspelheim]

A Hollywood triple-A production involving plot elements of class struggle?

Oh, this will get ugly...

 

[NeedsaBetterName22]

I think you're hitting one of the anti-Elysium nails right on the head - it looks like it might have had a working title of "Occupy Elysium". Heck, even Bob alluded to that when he mentioned the 99% living on Earth. I'm hoping that someone who review movies will mention just how much and how heavy handed the message is and not simply try to avoid the issue, like Bob did in this review, because aspects of the movie look awesome. I just don't know if I want to get bashed over the head with a message I have some disagreements with just to see some kewl action and awesum effects.

You've actually summed it up perfectly. If you can't stand fairly stupid preachiness, don't go see it. If you can tolerate Hollywood Economics then you'll be fine, I actually really like the technology designs. Whoever does their design work is outstanding and the special effects are pretty good. But yeah, it's filled with a lot of plot holes due to ham-fisted current political commentary. The rich have super cheap medicine stuff and are greedy, but don't sell the super medicine for profit and to keep their workforce productive. This is because the medicine is clearly a commentary on public healthcare, but the problem is that one is expensive and requires a fair bit of infrastructure while Elysium's just seems to be a box you need to power. Actually, it's kind of like the Dark Knight and its Occupy commentary.

I think the idea is that everything had already gone to hell down below and so the rich left.

In which case, it's not particularly.

Did you read Atlas Shrugged? At the end they leave New York as the last bit of power is fading and the whole place is about to go post-apocalyptic. You could argue it's an 'Atlas Shrugged 200 years later' scenario if you wanted to.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Uh, Bob? Have you completely lost your mind?

Elysium was meh at best. Matt Damon and the girl had literally no character, there were many scenes that made no damn sense and the whole "message" completely failed to materialize outside of what we saw in the trailers.

The tech was cool, the action was nice and Kruger was great, but that all failed to matter when the leads were so ungodly bland.

Also District 9 was far superior.

 

[Lionsfan]

Funny. Bob's cheering this movie on while other reviews I've read are canning it. Time gave it 2+1/2 stars out of 5 and it only gets a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Uh...is this another case where Bob's inner fanboy leaves him giddy and oblivious to problems? You may recall how he said the Captain America might be "the best movie ever". Bob has as much of a track record for going overboard liking certain directors or movies as he does for reflexively hating others (I never listen to Bob when he talks about JJ Abrahm's work, anymore).

Has anyone else seen this movie? If so I'd appreciate your opinion on it.

Where are you getting those numbers? I just checked rotten tomatos and is has a 67% like for the critics and a 77% like for the people.

OT: I skipped through most of the spoiler stuff, but it sounds like its going to be a cool movie.

Dude.....look literally 5 posts above yours.....

From Copper:

A lot more reviewers (147 now) have weighed in since I saw the Rotten Tomatoes' review when I posted earlier. When I checked RT the front page only had one or two "Fresh" ratings.

That's what really threw me about Bob's review--the votes at RT were overwhelmingly negative at the time.

OT: Just like Pacific Rim, this is not nearly as good as everyone on here is hyping it up to be. Just another 'meh' at best

 

[Machine Man 1992]

This movie was nowhere near as good as District 9.

In D9, the apartheid allegory made sense, because, you know, space aliens; we hardly knew anything about where they came from, most of them were dumber than dirt, their ship wasn't moving or doing anything. It was a holding pattern; this is what happens when you've got a barely manageable population that you can't do anything with, camping out in the middle of the city.

In Elysium, the immigration thing doesn't make a lick of sense; Who is running this place? What happened to the earth nations? Why isn't there a single decent person amongst the Elysium residents? The healthcare commentary implodes in on itself, because unlike today, where medical care requires infrastructure and is quite expensive, space whitey has access to magic Jesus boxes that instantly heal you of all known ailments. All they needed was a generator, a few portable units and some robots to make a queue and they could heal the entire eastern seaboard in a week. But instead, apparently the entire station is run by Captain Planet villains who don't want to share because reasons.

Plus the film was rushed, scenes were plagued by shaky cam, Krueger was woefully underutilized (and Sharlto Copley is the exact opposite of scary, I don't care how many exoskeletons and katana swords you give him) and the whole thing felt like it was edited to fit in a hour and a half time slot on TNT.

 

[Mike Fang]

I think you're hitting one of the anti-Elysium nails right on the head - it looks like it might have had a working title of "Occupy Elysium". Heck, even Bob alluded to that when he mentioned the 99% living on Earth. I'm hoping that someone who review movies will mention just how much and how heavy handed the message is and not simply try to avoid the issue, like Bob did in this review, because aspects of the movie look awesome. I just don't know if I want to get bashed over the head with a message I have some disagreements with just to see some kewl action and awesum effects.

Amen to that. I had the same issue with Avatar, hence why I never went to see it in theaters. I did rent it later to watch it with Rifftrax commentary. I think Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphey really did a good job skewering that one. I particularly remember the scene where the protagonist does that bonding thing with the tree that's supposed to hold all the memories and conscious minds of the Na'vi dead, and Mike (I think it was Mike) said. "Wow! Even dead your people are all preachy and self-righteous!" That one cracked me up.

 

[Tumedus]

Yeah sorry, this movie is not as good as Bob paints it. It's alright, its just nowhere near great. The allegory didn't bother me as I was expecting it, however, it lacked the charm that District 9 had so it kind of slogs when the action slows (fortunately that doesn't happen a lot). They overuse shaky cam in any of the melee fights, likely to keep the exo-suits from looking to fake, but it really ruins a couple of the combat scens.

And Jodie Foster is TERRIBLE. She really brings down the rest of the movie. I don't know what happened to her as an actress, but just plain awful and a terrible accent as well.

 

[schrodinger]

I'm glad Elysium turned out to be good; Neil Blomkamp is turning out to be my favorite sci-fi director because the characters, the world, the sci-fi elements all blend well together in a believable way that translate well on screen. Still holding my breath for that district 10 movie; it'll happen someday....

We're never gonna get that Battle Angel Alita movie, are we? :'(

i second that thought shinji
since the movie rights are being held hostage by that s.o.b. james cameron, who by the way wants to make 3 more avatar movies(overkill there cameron?) there probably won't be an battle angel movie until 2018-2020. There's also the conflicting reports of him retiring after completing avatar or saying he'll start battle angel in 2017, which is after the avatar sequels. i wished he'd left go of the rights and become the producer instead.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Holy cow, Bob being mesmerized by a liberal wankfest propaganda movie. Let me go get my socks that just blew off.
And as for the aesthetics goes, the movie looks like someone smashed Battle Angel Alita and Vanquish together and then hired someone from MSNBC to write the script.

True.

Escape To The Movies has become an elaborate exercise of one man's pursuit of the elusive art of self-deception and the repeated dissembling of information.

 

[Yojoo]

I just got back from it. The action absolutely rocked, and Sharlto Copley put on one of the most memorable and powerful performances of a crazy-ass villain since Heath Ledger. The aesthetic was brilliant, and the movie was full of plenty of small touches to make it feel more real. For example, attention is never explicitly drawn to it, but Kruger's arsenal is extremely divergent from the standard equipment of his cohorts and nicely reflects his mental state.

My friend who I saw it with is a lifelong Republican, and he had no issue with it. There's a difference between propaganda and simply trying to make a point. If your political views are so fragile that you can't handle a movie that expresses different views, well, you're in for a rough time. Be more selective with your theater trips. Or just stay at home and watch Red Dawn again.

I will say this, though: Jodie Foster was terrible. I'm surprised Bob didn't say anything. The probation-bot at the start of the film acted better than her.

 

[Araksardet]

My worry with Elysium, which I know nothing about, is that the movie will have the super healthcare machine be destroyed or otherwise ruined, and Elysium brought to the ground, restoring the early 21st century status quo of everybody living on Earth for around 60-80 years. Because shitting on technological development in order to suggest that the audience's status quo is wonderful seems like the kind of thing the movie would do.

If it's not that - if the movie doesn't cast technological/medical advances into the wind in favor of social justice, either directly in its plot or indirectly via thematic suggestions - then I might be interested. Sci-fi that explores economic injustice is great; but I can't stand stories that solve problems by destroying scientific advancement.