It can be an awesome action film, if that is your cup of tea. A tender romance is what you are seeking? Well, it has that covered as well. You dig the high tech, sci-fi scenes, special effects, apocalyptic doom-watching? Oh sure. How about a healthy dose of social consciousness and morality? (A heaping helping). How about cruelty in the workplace? Or perhaps what the abuse of authority can bring when the 'sin' of slightly disagreeing with the powers that be can get you a trip to the hospital as a troublemaker.
Yes, this show has all this and more, wrapped up in a violent red bow. I found it to be 5 stars out of 5. Disturbing, unsettling, exhausting to watch in emotional terms. Good, perhaps great, perhaps art. Should you go? Will it be a happy pill that will brighten your day? Yes, to the first question and a 'no' to the second.
Let me say that the critics are calling it 'bloody violence throughout'. There is violence and I'd recommend that you go to the restroom when Max (Damon) is getting his exo-skeleton attached to his body. It is intense.
It is 2154 and humanity is divided into Elysium, a space station (the Haves) and earth (the Have-nots). Max is a parolee who is trying to play life straight, working in a robot factory. His cruel boss sends Max into a death trap and the former car thief gets a lethal dose of radiation. This, I found, was memory provoking since I worked in the nuclear industry and saw a lot of training films about radiation, including documentary film footage of the horrible deaths by radiation of individuals.
So, a robot tosses Max some pills and says "You will be dead within 5 days, thank you for your service". This catch-phrase is used for veterans all over our society and for others such as policemen. Thank you for your service.
Max seeks out a ride to Elysium in hopes that he can enter one of their healing tubes. The space station is off-limits to the dregs of earth. Life is perfect there and the ability to heal anyone, but refusing to do so, gives these people a god-like power and attitude. To have the means to heal a child's leukemia and not do so would give a horrid look into one's soul. The personification of Elysium is Secretary Delacourt (Jody Foster). She runs the place and is planning a coup so that she can become President. Cool, for her.
Max comes into possession of Delacourt's plan and uses his knowledge of it to catch a ride to Elysium. He takes along his childhood sweetheart, Frey (Alice Braga). Frey has a daughter who is dying and needs the healing that only Elysium can provide.
In our time, on a planet that is running out of resources and rich in people, we as a society are in for some soul searching. Can we decide who eats? Who gets into hospitals? Who has a job? Who is disposable? (And thanks for your service?) This movie is a parable of our world and the world soon to come. It is troubling and thought-provoking, as well as entertaining. See it, but be prepared to be touched, maybe shed a tear; maybe leave the theater sober, reflective, tight-jawed.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
P.S. By the way. Carley just looked up the word Elysium in the dictionary. "The abode of the blessed, after death, in classical mythology."
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