Elysium (2013) - Blomkamp's second feature is a pompous, tedious sci-fi exercise

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Matt Damon is bald, wears strange metallic extensions and finds himself in space on this poster for Neill Blomkamp's Elysium

In the year 2154, the world is a miserable place, where people speak Spanish, are dirty and poor, listen to bad hiphop and all dream of escaping to the space station Elysium, where the rich few live a jet set life, wearing white clothes and speaking French.

This ridiculously shallow premise is rolled out here as a highly improbable future scenario, as simplistic as it is dumb. Elysium is written and directed by Neill Blomkamp (Chappie (2015)), whose sci-fi sensation debut District 9 (2009) also really wasn't my cup of tea. 
Jodie Foster (Paper Moon (1974), TV-series) gets wasted in the part of the tough space leader. Matt Damon (Gerry (2002)) is boring in the lead and goes into a predictable Bourne fist fight mode a while into Elysium. Blomkamp's District 9 star and fellow South-African Sharlto Copley (Europa Report (2013)) plays an off-putting villain here.
Elysium's implicit societal critique and warnings lie comfortably in the same shallow, unapplicable, leftist vein as District 9, where Blomkamp's opinions are still expressed rather weakly and without binding him to anything really. Above all this space actioner is unmerited and enormously dull.

Related posts:

Neill Blomkamp: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
District 9 (2009) - Blomkamp's strenuous, sci-fi-dressed Johannesburg squalor

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 115 mil. $
Box office: 286.1 mil. $
= Minor flop (according to Film Excess' ratio standards; according to Sony, it made an 18 mil. $ profit)
[Elysium premiered 7 August (Taiwan) and runs 109 minutes. Blomkamp has stated that although the film is set far in the future, the themes of immigration, overpopulation, health care, worker exploitation, social class issues and the justice system are meant as comments on the world of today. Blomkamp initially wanted South-African rapper Watkin Tudor Jones for the lead, then Eminem. None proved possible, and Damon was the third choice. He shaved his head for the film. Shooting took place in British Colombia, Canada, including Vancouver, and in Mexico City, Mexico from July - September 2011 with re-shoots in October 2012. A screenplay copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against Elysium's producers in 2013, but its conclusion has not been made public. The film opened #1 to a 29.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for one more week (#3) and grossed 93 mil. $ (32.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 25.6 mil. $ (8.9 %) and Russia with 15.8 mil. $ (5.5 %). Although its gross makes it a minor flop according to Film Excess' ratio standards, the 2013 Sony hack revealed that Sony itself assessed that the film made an 18 mil. $ profit. Blomkamp admitted in 2015 about Elysium that he "fucked it up" because his script "just wasn't there; the story wasn't fully there." He returned with Chappie (2015), and Damon returned in The Zero Theorem (2013). Elysium is fresh at 67 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Elysium?

District 9 (2009) - Blomkamp's strenuous, sci-fi-dressed Johannesburg squalor

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An evocative, volatile poster for Neill Blomkamp's District 9

QUICK REVIEW:

An alien life-form has landed its massive spaceship over Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1982, and have been rescued out of it to stay in a slum part of the city. Now, they are to be moved to a new area.

I wasn't captivated by District 9 the first time I saw it. And seeing it again, I find that I like it even less now than I did at first. It is the feature debut of South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp (Elysium (2013)), who wrote it with Terri Tatchell (Chappie (2015)), based on his short Alive in Joburg (2005).
The main reason for my dislike of the film, which has a huge (for me inexplicable) attraction on many people, is the protagonist, who serves as the anchor of the film: He is a bureaucrat with no extenuating qualities whatsoever, who we are nonetheless required to shower with our deference and attention in order to take in District 9 the way it's supposed to be taken in. Sharlto Copley (The A-Team (2010)) plays him like a real moron, who I fast felt I didn't want to hang out with at all.
There are no other nice humans in the film as well, and the 'prawns' (the derogatory slang for the aliens) are repugnant in the extreme. So my problem with District 9 basically is that I don't want any of them to win anything. And that I don't give a rat's butt what happens to any of them.
Blomkamp has served up his native city in as ugly a scoop as he could have made here, and he tells the story as if it's the work of a documentary crew. District 9 is full of disgusting scenes and ugliness, little to no charm or music and no stars to break the fall for someone with no penchant for aggressively ugly science fiction-coated, pontificating squalor such as this. 
Pontificating about what, you might ask? - Something about racism, slum existence and dehumanization. - South Africa has massive slum, social and cultural problems, which the aliens become an integral part of here.
The film has striking effects, creatures and CGI. Watching it makes me so happy to live in a country that is distinctly not South Africa.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 210.8 mil. $
= Huge hit
[I obviously can't really explain what made people fall over their own feet to get to watch this film, but they did: It opened #1 in North America with a 37.3 mil. $ opening weekend and grossed 115.5 mil. $ (55 % of the total gross) there. It was met with great reviews and was even 4-time Oscar-nominated: For Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects and Editing, - becoming the first found-footage movie to be nominated for Best Picture.]

What do you think of District 9?
What stroke of genius is it that I am missing ... ?