Elysium is such a massively underwhelming movie.
The action scenes are just way below the bar that's already been set by action movies of 2013 and 2012. What action there is is ruined by a shaky camera and blatantly poor choreographing. It tries to make up for this by being a "LOOK AT ALL THIS COOL FUTURE STUFF" movie with robots, magic healing stations, "futuristic" weaponry, and the tired dystopian theme.
As a science fiction movie it's just awful. There's a plot hole every 15 minutes, issues that are never addressed, and terrible writing altogether. The science part is never in any way explained — this would be better billed as a science fantasy film. It makes absolutely no effort to be anything other than another cheesy "sci-fi" film to throw in the bin along with After Earth It takes after District 9 in that it's trying to be a social commentary but falls flat on its face so hard it's almost amusing.
The "message" of the film is like any other film being released lately: being socially privileged is wrong. It's yet another film that sets out to make you feel shameful for living in a first world country for no other reason than the fact that it seems to sell really well lately.
Honestly, I give it a 4/10 meaning it wasn't quite painful to watch, but it was pretty difficult to enjoy. The humor (at least I HOPE it was intended as humor) kept me from outright leaving the theatre and that's really all it has going for it in my opinion.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie. It just means it's way below average. If you haven't seen much sci-fi and you don't want to think too hard (and in fact staunchly refuse to pick it apart) then it's a fantastic movie for you otherwise, don't bother.
The action scenes are just way below the bar that's already been set by action movies of 2013 and 2012. What action there is is ruined by a shaky camera and blatantly poor choreographing. It tries to make up for this by being a "LOOK AT ALL THIS COOL FUTURE STUFF" movie with robots, magic healing stations, "futuristic" weaponry, and the tired dystopian theme.
As a science fiction movie it's just awful. There's a plot hole every 15 minutes, issues that are never addressed, and terrible writing altogether. The science part is never in any way explained — this would be better billed as a science fantasy film. It makes absolutely no effort to be anything other than another cheesy "sci-fi" film to throw in the bin along with After Earth It takes after District 9 in that it's trying to be a social commentary but falls flat on its face so hard it's almost amusing.
The "message" of the film is like any other film being released lately: being socially privileged is wrong. It's yet another film that sets out to make you feel shameful for living in a first world country for no other reason than the fact that it seems to sell really well lately.
Honestly, I give it a 4/10 meaning it wasn't quite painful to watch, but it was pretty difficult to enjoy. The humor (at least I HOPE it was intended as humor) kept me from outright leaving the theatre and that's really all it has going for it in my opinion.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie. It just means it's way below average. If you haven't seen much sci-fi and you don't want to think too hard (and in fact staunchly refuse to pick it apart) then it's a fantastic movie for you otherwise, don't bother.