Elysium

ACTION/ADVENTURE, DRAMA

The Haves and the Have Nots

8.0 out of 10 | MOVIE OR DVD

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Rated: R Strong bloody violence and language throughout
Release Date: August 9, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

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Director: Neill Blomkamp
Writers: Neill Blomkamp
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, William Fichtner, Brandon Auret, Josh Auret, Emma Tremblay

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SYNOPSIS: Set in the year 2154, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

REVIEW: District 9 writer/director Neill Blomkamp return for his second film in the dystopian sci-fi near-future genre. Impressing critics and audiences alike with the refugee alien film, Blomkamp sets foot into a similar soil to present how the near-future is not unlike what the world is like today.

In the year 2154, the richest of the world's population has escapes from the overpopulated and blight-ridden planet to live on a lush orbiting satellite habitat named Elysium. Max (Matt Damon, Promised Land) has grown up in poverty and in an orphanage in Los Angeles, dreaming of the day he could buy a ticket for the habitant. He steals and scraps away with an existence with the single purpose to get him and his best friend Frey (Alice Braga, The Rite) in mind. When an assembly line accident leaves Max with only days to live, he contacts a man from his old life, Spider (Wagner Moura, Father's Chair), for a favor and a ticket on a transport to space. Instead, Spider gives Max a suicide mission... taker the bank and account codes out of the head of a Elysium 'citizen' named John Carlyle (William Fichtner, The Lone Ranger). What Max can't anticipate is that John Carlyle has critical data that concerns Elysium, its defense minister Delacourt (Jodie Foster, Panic Room), and a sleeper agent named Kruger (Sharlto Copley, District 9).

Neill Blomkamp is a master of creating near-future societies that mirror and echo the socially relevant of today. In District 9, he dealt with class structures, racism, and the politics of refugees. In Elysium, he writes and directs, essentially, about the 1%. Just like in today's society and economy, the richest of us live outside the confines of a normal life, controlling and directing the mechanisms of power. And, like in today's world, the desolate and downtrodden are a scourge to be hidden out of sight. What better way to live a conscious-free life than to look down on a ruined Earth from a place in the heavens.

Elysium continues Blomkamp's mastery of creating a real-world environment that meshes seamlessly with gritty and polished CGI special effects. The barren landscape of Los Angeles could be any number of modern day impoverished locales around the world. Add in a little decoration of blowing paper and burned out vehicles and you have a world bereft of hope beyond looking to the stars at the orbiting ring in the sky. The robots, the Elysium habitat, the set design, the shuttles and the weaponry are beautifully rendered and woven into the visual spectacle of the story. Unlike the CGI-heavy Star Wars franchise or the fantasy look of the Lord of the Rings films, Blomkamp balances the practical and visual effects perfectly!

Elysium is the perfect followup for District 9 for the director. It has the same style as his first film while delivering a completely different message. I do still like District 9 better. Copely was such an underdog character in that film that it was heartbreaking to watch his struggle and physical changes. Matt Damon's Max, while also an underdog, carries with him a spark and drive that leads the audience to believe that he cannot fail. Copely returns as the sinister and off-center Kruger, shedding his waif self in  favor of the semi-bionic breaded mercenary. I did also enjoy the performances by Alice Braga as Frey, Wagner Moura as Spider, and Diego Luna as Julio. Jodie Foster's Delacourt is abrasive, coarse, and sinister as Elysium's power hungry defense minister, but she could have played the part with a little more fake courtesy.

Elysium is a smartly written, poignant sci-fi drama that most fans of the genre will appreciate. I marveled at the story and the cinematography. Just the tiniest bit disappointed that I was not more emotionally invested in the characters, I still found plenty to enjoy!

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The Rite

The Devil is in the Belief

[Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga, Rutger Hauer]

image from highdefinitionphotosandwallpaper.blogspot.com

RANT: Went to Denny's last night. Encountered a couple with 4 kids, ages 1 to 12. The parents kept leaving the table, putting the 12 year old in charge. The baby cries and carried on, the next two older screaming for the parents to come back to the table. At long last, their meals came - consisting of one beef ravioli meal for the 6 of them. I do not think the tip to the server is going to be worth the trouble... but that is only my opinion.

SYNOPSIS: A man in the seminary questions whether to complete his training and become a priest. Before making a final decision, he is asked to study in Italy with an experienced exorcist.

The Rite is inspired by some events from a book by Matt Baglio, with the screenplay by Michael Petroni. Mikael Håfström, director of 1408, explores existence of God and the Devil, questions of faith, and the controversial calling of exorcists. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and The Tudors Colin O'Donoghue, The Rite is what The Exorcist would be if wholly from the priests' point of view.

Mortician's son Michael Kovak (O'Donoghue) looks to escape his life by entering the seminary -one of two approved career choices for the Kovak men. After four years of religious training, Michael comes to terms with his lack of faith and asks to leave the school. His superior, Father Matthew, tells Michael that there has been 500,000 reports of demonic possession in the last year and that the Vatican was looking to install an exorcist in every diocese across the United States in the coming year. Not only that, Father Matthew sees in Michael something that he feels would excel at the religious trade, and tells Michael to complete his training in Italy before making a final decision about leaving the order. Enter Father Lucas Trevant (Sir Anthony Hopkins) as the long experienced exorcist with the unorthodox methods in the practice.

Håfström uses the camera to capture the ominous nature of ordinary objects. In previous religious suspense thrillers, we were shown the shadowed carvings of the church and diocese. In Håfström's film, the most ordinary overturned shopping carts and swing sets in America and satellite dishes on top of Italian villas take on additional meaning. Does a television antennae on a century's old structure equate to how far a person's faith has come with each new generation? There seem to be subtle reminders throughout the film.

Anthony Hopkins is still an expert of his craft. In no role since Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs has Hopkins portrayed such a chilling character. He is at once vulnerable, weary of the world, as well as possessed by the Spirit. O'Donoghue, although the relative newcomer, paces Hopkin scene for scene, brooding and unbelieving of the hand of God that his deceased mother claimed to be upon him. Rutger Hauer, as Michael's father, is notable as being caring and creepy, but does not hold a candle to the performance that Marta Gastini brings as the pregnant, as possibly possessed, Rosaria. Epitomizing the struggle of belief in demonic possession and the need for exorcism, Rosaria embodies both the fragile little girl in need of psychiatric help and the polluted, possessed girl she believes herself to be.

Ever referential to the best of breed genre film The Exorcist, Father Lucas Trevant asks Michael what he had expected from his first experience - "...spinning heads? Pea soup?" We will never have the same experience as we had during our first viewing of The Exorcist, but The Rite comes in at a worthy second.

Worth: Matinee or DVD

Butter Popcorn Meter

Predators

They'll Be Back
[Adrien Brody, Danny Trejo, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walter Coggins]



RANT: Just when you thought I could not find something to rant about, here I go again! I arrived to a fairly crowded theater for the first matinee of the day. I sat in the first row in front of a group of teenage boys. They were yacking it up before the previews started and continued to tell each other which of the movies they were going to see based on the quality of the trailers. But worse than that, they started their own DVD commentary throughout the movie. I told them to shut up a couple of times, but to no avail. I then started scouting for another seat, but could not find similar as good as the seat I had already claimed before the lights dimmed. Why is it that some people, young or old, believe that courtesy to others in a movie theater is optional?

SYNOPSIS: A group of assorted mercenaries, soldiers and thugs are assembled on a "gaming preserve" planet to serve as prey to the alien race of warrior Predators.

As a fan of all of the "Alien" quadralogy, the first "Predator" movie and the "Aliens vs Predators" films, I was looking forward to the Robert Rodriguez produced and Nimrod Antal directed continuation of the "Predator" franchise.

Going back to its roots, "Predators" pay homage to the original material, as well as bridging Schwarzenegger's Dutch back into the universe's mythology. And any fan of the original will enjoy the almost direct parallels between the singular and plural films, from the gatling gun that Bill Duke's Mac and Oleg Taktarov's Nikolai both carried, to the blade showdown that RIchard Chaves' Poncho and Louis Ozawa Changchien's Hanzo have with the alien species. Even the final showdown in the sequel is tinged with the mud of its predecessor.

Fresh off of "Armored", Antal seems to know his way around an ensemble flick. And it shows. Each member of the newly-formed squad is a warrior-killer in their own right, from ex-military merc Royce to government operative Isabelle to Yakuza enforcer Hanzo to death-row inmate Stans. Throw in a tropical militia death-squad fighter and a Russian special forces soldier for good measure, and the stage is set. The only character out of place in this platoon is Topher's Edwin, a knowledgeable doctor with seemingly no survival skills, although he does serve hos purpose. The tension is palatable as they struggle with their surroundings and each other. The dialogue is short and terse, because talking is for the weak. Talking does not get the job done, action does.

Though the action is not overly-choreographed, it doesn't need to be. A rain of bullets have a dance all their own. Not only do the "good guys" have to contend with the mostly camouflaged trio of Predators, they also have to face predator hell hounds and other quarry series brought to the gaming planet. There are some decent hand-to-hand fights and the heat during the final battles are turned up full. There is even a special cameo for the group that is both a blessing and a curse, to them and himself.

The story both simmers and boils over. Any soldier knows that the waiting is the hardest part. And for the audience, it's all worth while. The Predators stay elusive for the first half of the film, striking and disappearing back into the jungle, picking off their prey one at a time, finding weaknesses, learning and adapting. But Brody and crew also learn and adapt. Our world's monsters and bogeymen against a species dedicated to evolving into relentless and precise killers. Its hard to know sometimes who to root for.

But for fans of the multi-mandible menaces, this film is for you.

Worth: Matinee and a DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!

out of 5 popcorn buckets