Neill Blomkamp’s next project... ELYSIUM? - Part 1

It's hard to strike that balance with critics in general. They want a movie to be filled with pathos and deep story AND action all at once. There are movies that can balance it, but it's hard to do it simultaneously, which is apparently what they want.
 
Forget critics, how about trying to strike that balance with the movie itself? That would be nice. Elysium would have been much, much better if it had been picked between being a sci-fi action movie or a tense, thought provoking thriller. As it stands it literally switches gears halfway through and never looks back. Critical perception isn't the issue, it's fully realizing your thematic objective.
 
Anyone who's seen this tonight at an early showing or midnights, PLEASE keep us updated with the trailers attached! We need confirmation of a Robocop trailer!

Theres really no word about it right now, so I'm doubting its true, but Id still like some confirmation!
 
Loved it. Granted I'm biased because I'm a big fan of Blomkamp, but I truly loved it. However they did cut too much from the script. This thing never breathes, it just rushes through the 3rd act. But I'll take that over bloated. The visuals are some of the best I've seen. Jodie Foster wasn't as bad as I heard though. I thought Matt Damon was great but Copley was the stand out by far.
 
Oh no ROBOCOP trailer and my theater was surprisingly full. I also LOVED the score.
 
Just got back from this. Yeesh, what a shockingly formulaic and underdeveloped mess it was. I was definitely not expecting that. Tons of movie cliches boiled into one. I realize that is pretty much the case with most sci-fi (hell, it's sort of the idea behind the genre), but here it was a little too blatantly obvious. I could spend time picking out each cliche and all the influences of other films/filmmakers (very Chris Nolan-ish at times), but I'd rather not.

The VFX were stellar, some really amazing stuff in there, but it too often falls flat or serves no purpose. Matt Damon did his best to carry the film, no complaints there. Copley was fun, although I do feel he was miscast. Jodie Foster was also solid (with what she was given), but I can't begin to get into how disappointed I was with her character without getting into spoilers.

I'm a big fan of D9, and I realized months ago this wasn't going to be anything like a "District 9 2.0" (rightfully so). I didn't even have what I'd consider to be "high expectations " going in. To put it simply, for all the grand ideas Elysium seemed to present, the film itself boils down to little more than a thinly veiled immigration metaphor...and a big excuse to basically turn Matt Damon into a superhero.
 
I thought Sharlto was amazing, he is a force on screen and I can't take my eyes off of him, Damon did well with what little he had to work with and Foster was shockingly awful. The dialogue was bad, the direction only so-so and the story was only okay. The entertaining last act, Sharlto and Damon saved it from total mediocrity.

RATING: 6.5/10

Very disappointing film overall.
 
This is a great movie. I was enthralled the entire time. The only thing I didn't like was shaky cam during the fights. Also one character's fate seems to come out of nowhere and feel anti-climatic. I don't get the criticism of Jodie Foster's performance though. I thought she did fine. I think most people here will really enjoy this.
 
Didn't dig this flick at all. Surprised the Critic response is that high.
 
Gonna post this again (sorry if that bothers some) but I'd like to get feedback from those of you who've seen it and are in the same boat as me (most anticipated sci-fi movie of the year, tons of faith in Blomkamp). If you have a minute let me know if I was too negative: http://www.gotham-news.com/news/201...st-looking-dumb-movie-of-the-summer-review-★★

So you don't want feedback from those of us in a different boat?

To address something you said earlier, you made it sound like the movie had to choose between genres or something. First off, I think that's bull, but secondly I think it is pretty dang clear that Elysium wanted to be an action flick, first and foremost, it just used relevant sociopolitical ideas for its world-building. Then you have this rhetoric against the film for something that should be a positive because God forbid an action movie try to incorporate, like, serious ideas into its framework. Because when the action movie switches gears to emphasize the action in the final act, pretty much as an action movie should, the haters want to be like, "No, you have to keep talking about THE ISSUES!" Neverminding that the action was a cinematic means of bringing the film to a place where there IS character and theme resolution, unless you missed that denouement.

also, I just gotta say, whoever rails against this movie for being derivative or cliched (cuz you know what's original? endless Marvel movies!), well, you better not have given Pacific Rim a free pass on that. Because, seriously. Poni, I know you rated them about the same, so that's cool.
 
There is always some obscure story someone has done before. Everything is "Simpsons did it" these days.


Yea it's impossible to have an original thought. There's been so many tv shows , books , and movies that have come before. Now all the sudden the hero saving the day has become too cliche for some critics.

I just thought I'd point it out before someone else did.
 
So you don't want feedback from those of us in a different boat?l.

Nope. Not from you. You will defend the movie till the end of time regardless of how it turned out. No objectivity = no interest. Move along.
 
Darn someone for enjoying Elysium and/or District 9!!! DARN THEM!!!
 
All movies are cliched, it's just how it is, you need at least a couple of clichés to make a story work, a story without any cliché of any kind doesnt exist, after centuries of storytelling, story tropes are bound to exist and persist.

In an interview on Collider, Collider Frosty told him that he really liked the movie but thought that he could predict every single thing that was going to happen, and wanted something edgier, Blomkamp said this:


BLOMKAMP: It depends on the kind of film you want to make. Elysium really is the film I wanted to make. Again, if I don’t die of Legionnaires’ disease, looking back on it like five films down the line it may be the most expensive film and it will be something I will eternally be proud of. So it was the film I wanted to make. But answering your question, the next film I want to make is far lower budget than this and is ****ing mental. And the film after that is…I think it may end my career. It’s a comedy and I don’t know what will happen and I like that I don’t know what will happen. If it’s too volatile and people just hate it and I get booted out of Hollywood I can go back painting paintings and stuff. To have a bunch of lower budget, very interesting, super edgy films and not have something cinematic- my whole goal with this was cinema, big scale cinema and archetypal storytelling and archetypal lead character. I would not be happy to be a guy that didn’t have that in my body of work. So that’s really the thinking.

So, there you go.
 
Nope. Not from you. You will defend the movie till the end of time regardless of how it turned out. No objectivity = no interest. Move along.

And you still think you're not being trollish after a statement such as this one? Wow, that will be all.
 
Not trollish at all. I was the first person from his board to have seen the movie but every one of my critical comments was being reneged and called wrong by Persona. Who hadn't seen it. Who was defending it just because he wanted it to be good. And then after he saw it and loved it he even himself stated that his opinion is biased because he wanted to love it, etc, etc.

So, no, I don't want to participate in conversation or critical analysis anyone who exchanges any chance at objectivity for blind fanboyism. It's *********ory behavior.
 
I thought the movie was rather good, I'd give it a 7/10. My friend I went with didn't like it so much. But then again, her issue with it was it was too sic-fi.

So many people explode in this movie, ha ha.
 
A science Fiction movie too Sci Fi? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It can't be!
 
Cliched or not I just thought it was boring. If this was a fun and entertaining formulaic flick I wouldn't care. But this was dull, and filled with uninteresting dialogue through most the film. Besides some cool visuals and gadgets there's just not much going on. Felt like you could have cut an hour out of it and the film would essentially be the same. Really not much there in the script even though the film thought there was because of its themes. Had alot of potential but even the action was a let down imo. Too bad.

4/10

All I kept thinking watching it (besides more people need to explode) was when the hell will Cameron move forward on Battle Angel Alita.
 
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I haven't seen the movie but it seems like the complaints are that it's more formulaic than District 9. However, I have the feeling that if this were Neill Blomkamp's first movie and District 9 had never been made everyone would be praising him for Elysium. District 9 wasn't so formulaic but then again it was done on a considerably smaller budget so it's not like he had much to lose if the underlying themes were too deep and the masses didn't accept it. Elysium, however, is done on a much bigger, mainstream scale so Blomkamp decided to play it safer. It's easier to put it all on the table when you have $200 compared to $20,000.
 
Nope. Not from you. You will defend the movie till the end of time regardless of how it turned out. No objectivity = no interest. Move along.

Because not liking the film means you're objective?
 

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