Elysium

Elysium focused too much on the heavy-handed theme and not enough on the actual story elements. It wasn't exciting, believable, or worth watching. 

The trailer for Elysium didn't sell me on it, and neither did Roeper's review, even though he gave it an A-, which is pretty high. It's from the same guy who directed District 9. He really needs to lay off the heavy-handed themes. He's not changing the world with these movies. He's from South Africa, though, so I guess that explains where he gets it.

The character development and pacing was really weird. I get what they were going for having Max be a smart-alec, but it just didn't work for me. All his opening scenes just seemed shoehorned in. The part with the little girl on crutches was so melodramatic. I mean come on, really? They didn't think they could sell it without having her be on crutches? I felt like it was too literal for the poor people to be living in a Spanish-speaking slum, too. And then they were speaking French on Elysium, sure.

Which brings us to Jodie Foster's acting. Like everyone else who saw the movie, I'm just going, what the heck is she doing?! It was such a bizarre performance. She was acting like a total nutcase; no one else in the movie acted like that. It didn't make any sense at all.

You knew it was a bad idea right from the start for Matt to go into that machine. I don't understand why they would've made him go in, anyway. It was obvious as soon as he fixed the pallet, the door was going to shut. Didn't they have some kind of procedure in place for when that happens? Was that the first time it ever happened? They acted like it was a big deal that he got a lethal dose of radiation, so you'd think they would've tried a little harder to avoid that happening. If nothing else it stopped production, which is bad.

Matt's rig looked totally fake. It looked like plastic. It didn't have any visual weight to it at all. Kruger's rig looked more substantial; that's the one Max should've been wearing. The little ear communication devices the Elysians wore were cool at first, but then they got kind of distracting. I don't know that it was technologically necessary for them to be glowing all the time.

Max's Spanish wasn't terrible, but he didn't sound like someone who grew up speaking it, either.

Kruger's character didn't get enough development. He was just crazy for no reason; it wasn't grounded enough for me. I just had a hard time figuring out what was going on with him. I think they liked that he was spontaneous and unpredictable, but it didn't work for me. I was pretty confused when he was still alive after his face got blown off, too. The actor did well with what he had, though. I didn't recognize him as the protagonist of District 9 at all. Those are totally different characters, and he pulled off both of them.

I didn't like the look of LA. It was hard to get a read on. It did remind me a little of the town in District 9. All the CG was hard to get a read on; it was shiny and flashy and bright, but it's like I couldn't really *see* it, and it didn't look real. I think Roeper said he wanted to see more of Elysium. Not me. It looked just like Earth; not interesting in the least.

I didn't understand why they had so many plants all over the place in Elysium. Maybe it was to help with the oxygen levels. It just seemed out of place, like they were trying to shove it in our faces, "look, on Elysium everything is lush and there are plants everywhere!"

The exposition only took half an hour, but it felt like years. Everybody knows what's going to happen to Max, so just do it already. The part after he's been stabbed at the data grab was useless, all the way up until he gets to Elysium. The movie didn't even get interesting until that part.

I did like Spider; he had a cool accent/voice, even if I couldn't understand what he was saying half the time. I couldn't understand Kruger, either. If there was something they could've done about that, they should've done it. I usually like William Fichtner, but he didn't have a lot to do here. The plot point about "rebooting the system" and "coding in a new President" seemed glossed-over and bizarre.

The entire idea of "making everyone a citizen" was ridiculous. For one thing, they'd crash the ecosystem, and for another, they'd loot/destroy everything, so it wouldn't be worth inhabiting. Sure I think they should have healthcare and they shouldn't have to work in the conditions that they do, but come on, they can't all live on Elysium. Maybe they could work towards building another one, or just fixing Earth. The opening said it was "overpopulated, diseased, and polluted," which it is now, so it doesn't sound completely destroyed.

Having Max die was fairly impactful, but I still didn't like it. It felt like kind of an easy way to go with the story. I did care about him and Frey. That was probably the only part of the movie that worked. I liked Julio, too. You could tell he was going to die as soon as he joined the mission, which was a bummer.