Friday 23 August 2013

El Ysium!

It's that movie from that guy, and it just might have a little, just a smidge, you might not notice it, social commentary in it.

Poor people are on Earth, and slave away at their jobs, and commit crimes, and are generally barely getting along in life. The rich people are on the orbiting space station, Elysium, and they are having a grand ole time, and shoot down any ships that try to get on board. So when schlub Matt Damon gets injured, he needs the medical facilities up in space, and so begins a chase scene and then some punching, and poor people screwing up life for the rich.

One thing that confused me. We see the rich in their rich surroundings, with food and technology and stuff... who maintains that? There are a few robots around, but do they do all the cooking and cleaning? We never see. I can't imagine that the rich people are doing it (although they do have rather menial jobs pushing buttons), but poor people wouldn't be allowed on board to do it either. And, frankly, if the rich people had just put a few of the medical facilities on the planet, the poor would be better off and a better, healthier, workforce and a lot easier to keep under because there wouldn't be people storming Elysium for decent healthcare.

But this movie isn't out to be subtle. Poor people are good, rich people are evil, that's all you need to know. Matt Damon and Alice Braga are good, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley are evil, no shades of grey here. Production is decent, Weta was probably involved, but the robots didn't really look that interesting.

Not a subtle movie, but District 9 wasn't either. Decent enough, but if you don't catch it at the movies, not a big sadness.

[END]

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