The hype for this film was incredible. It has at its helm the same director as did the well-received movie District 9 and many consumers were very excited to see Matt Damon in another action film as well as to see Jodie Foster come back to the big screen after a few years of scarcity. Also, since District 9 was met with such great critic reviews and audience reception, many expected Elysium to be better or just as good. However, it just didn’t live up to those expectations. The previews gave viewers the idea that this movie was going to be a big action flick and while it does have a lot of action in it, it isn’t the fun joyride that many people went looking for. This film tries to employ action as a way to grip the audience and get them to accept a message. It attempts to be thought-provoking while also trying to entertain and excite.
While watching Elysium, I found myself many times wondering if the director used some of the same footage from District 9 in his sophomore film. Both take place in the slums in some part of the world and have a message of social inequality and class warfare. Elysium is very heavy-handed with regard to the issues it presents. The film pits the poor against the rich in a world where only the poorest live on earth anymore and the rich and privileged live on a heavenly utopia in space called Elysium. This can be a very difficult topic to deal with because it is a real issue in today’s world. There are many moviegoers who love to hear about the poor man looking out for his fellows. The modern day audience especially because of the financial crisis and the social gap that seems to be getting wider and wider. However, though it is interesting and engaging, it is very volatile and easy to get wrong. The wealthy people in the film were not real and there was no way of connecting with them at all. They were very much caricatures of real life in the way that they had no regard for any life that was not at their social status and they literally ran away from the less fortunate who resided on Earth. At one point, one of the CEOs actually becomes angry when a lesser poor person breathes in his vicinity. This adds nothing of meaning to the issues presented by the film and just pushes the audience even further away. It is hard to connect with something so exaggerated.
The antagonists were made out to be too bad and the poor people were too good. They did not seem real enough to really get the audience to care.While this film has an earnest message that it would like to put out in the spotlight, it has very little to hold it together. In order to really grip the audience and make them truly take home a message, a film must make the viewer make an emotional investment in the film so that he feels what the protagonist feels and begins to believe what the protagonist believes. The film focused too much on the evil of the wealthy people and too little on the good of Matt Damon’s character for the audience to really care about him and support him.
Some argue that this film is a great piece to watch solely based on that fact that it has an earnest and heartfelt message. It is true that the film should be given credit for really wanting to make people think about the way the world is. One can tell that the crew really does want to audience to leave having thought about the issues. However, the flaws that exist should not be ignored just because of this one good merit. While the effort was there and the intentions were earnest, the message reached a very small percentage of the audience because of the film’s shortcomings. It could’ve really affected millions if it had been carried out better by the characters and the plot. This is why Aristotle placed reasoning in the third position after plot and character. If the first two needs are met well enough, the third will fall right into place and be very well expressed. However, this film put reasoning at the top and did a poor job of supporting it with the other elements so it was left impotent.
Previews are meant to give a small snippet of a film that engages the audience and leaves them wanting more. The previews for Elysium did a wonderful job of this and really excited moviegoers. However, it failed to hold up its end of the deal. It wasn’t the movie it promised to be and the message it was trying to espouse seemed to fall flat with nothing to support it. There are really only a few tweaks that could have been made to this film to make into a true blockbuster and a critical success. The idea was there, unfortunately, it was not handled correctly. The audience was deceived and had a poorly built idea thrown at them.
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