Elysium (2013)

Title: Elysium (2013)

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura

Elysium comes to us from director Neil Blomkamp, the guy behind the critically acclaimed box office hit District 9 (2009), a fantastic film in my book because it speaks about racial differences and the need for different races to show empathy towards one another. In that film, aliens arrive on earth and are initially welcomed by humanity, but after a few years, that welcome wears off and transforms to xenophobia. It isn’t long before the aliens are segregated and end up living in these refugee camps that have turned into ghettos. The main character of the film is a human immigration officer named Wikus, a man who has been appointed the task of giving the aliens eviction notices that let them know they are now being relocated. One thing leads to another and Wikus ends up turning into an alien. He quickly learns what it means to be persecuted, he feels the unfair treatment; he gets to understand what being on the other side is all about. Blomkamp figures that the best way to know what racism feels like is by experiencing it yourself, which is what is so brilliant about District 9, you feel racism first hand, you feel it’s happening to you. Racism is something humanity has yet to outgrow; Blomkamp knows it and wants you to experience it. On Disctrict 9 the main character is part of an oppressing force in society, but then he becomes the oppressed, he becomes the one that’s persecuted, he suddenly knows what it means to be on the other side of the equation. And that was just Blomkamp’s first film! District 9 made such an impact that the film was nominated for four academy awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, something of a rarity for science fiction films. So of course he was going to move up in the film world, of course we were going to see another film by him. So here comes Elysium, Blomkamp’s sophomore effort, his second film. How was it?

On Elysium the world as we know it has gone to shit, essentially, earth is one giant dumpster, the poor live down here on earth, while the rich and privileged live on a gigantic spaceship hovering close to earth called ‘Elysium’. The story revolves around Max, a blue collar worker who ends up having a horrible work related accident and is suddenly faced with the fact that he only has five days to live! What can he do in order to survive? Well, if you were rich and lived on Elysium you’d simply get inside something called a ‘Med-Pod’ and cure yourself, but that’s only if you live in Elysium, if not, then you die because you are not one of the privileged, you my friend are scum. But what if there was a way to make these machines available to everyone? What if someone could infiltrate Elysium, reboot the whole system so that everyone can benefit from these Med-pod’s? This becomes Max’s mission, for he is not about to die any time soon!

First thing I noticed right away was how similar Elysium is to District 9 in terms of themes. This film is also about one group of people being neglected and oppressed by others. The whole thing with the rebels trying to get into Elysium felt a heck of a lot like Mexicans trying to cross the American border, so in that sense, it is also felt like it was addressing racial issues. The difference between both films is that while District 9 presented us with themes of xenophobia and racism, Elysium focuses more on themes of classism. But then again, class issues and racial issues function in the same ways, so yeah, the films are very similar in this way. We’re basically talking about one group of humans thinking they are superior to another which is kind of disgusting because we’re all humans on this spaceship called earth, so what’s the point? Why do some humans feel the need to bring others down? I personally find the idea repulsive and nauseating, as should every one of you out there my friends. We should aim to help each other, not exploit each other. So I immediately found the themes in Elysium fascinating because they speak of the world we live in today. After the success of Elysium, Blomkamp said that he’s been asked about how he sees the future, how he thinks the world will be and his answer was that the film isn’t so much about the future, that it’s about the world as it is NOW, which is a fantastic reply. This lets us know that Elysium is the best kind of sci-fi, it’s the kind that reflects society, it holds a mirror to it.

I mean, wouldn’t it be better if those that achieved success and wealth in the world used that power for the good of all humanity as opposed to propelling a society that is built on the idea of exploiting those less fortunate? This is what happens in the world today, and it’s just another form of slavery if you ask me. We don’t have people putting literal chains on others, but there’s symbolic chains, you know what I mean? The way society is constructed benefits the wealthy and ignores the poor. One of example of this are the roads in my country of Puerto Rico. You go into a rich neighborhood and you see the streets paved, the street lights illuminating every street corner, the garbage picked up, but if you go into a poor neighborhood you see streets filled with gigantic holes (because the government doesn’t pave them) you see dark streets because light posts are shut off and the streets filled with garbage because the government doesn’t bother picking up the garbage on a regular basis. So yeah, there’s a difference in the way classes are treated. Wouldn’t it be better if everyone was treated fairly? I’m talking about my country here, but I’m sure this is the same in many countries; the poor side is ignored and treated unfairly, this is why ghetto’s exist. It’s a place to dump the poor so they don’t have to live next to you.  Sad part is all those poor people pay taxes as well; their money should pay for the cleaning up of their town as well. It should be enough to light all the streets and avoid dark areas that breed criminal activity. But alas, this is the world we live in and these are the lives were living.

And so, the same can be said of medical attention, which is a major issue in Elysium. On the film the Med-Pods are these miracle machines that can cure any decease, hell, they can even bring you back to life! According to the film, you can live forever if you are a citizen of Elysium! This part of the film talks about expensive medical plans that many people cannot afford to pay and the ridiculously high priced medicines. Ever had to take a pill that costs more than 70 dollars? I know people who have. Many can’t even afford paying a medical plan; they live life frightened of getting sick or needing major medical attention. Shouldn’t medical plans be more affordable? So the situations depicted in Elysium aren’t farfetched at all, only the wealthy get the best medical attention, the poor get the worst or none at all. The poor get sick and die faster. Why are things this way? Maybe this is the kind of situation that the powerful want? For poor people to die faster? Things to think about, and so, this is the main theme of Elysium, making quality medical attention affordable to everyone! How hard can it be? The same can be applied to education which is also kept expensive so only a certain group of people can get quality higher education, this is a vicious circle from which only the wealthy can benefit from .

Visually speaking the film is impressive, I mean, Elysium itself is a wonderful creation. It’s this gigantic spaceship/city hovering in space. By the way, this idea of a giant spaceship that harbors livable space inside of it reminded me a lot of Arthur C. Clarke’s amazing novel Rendezvous with Rama.  Anybody read that one? It’s one of my favorites of Clarke’s and basically, it’s about this gigantic spaceship that one day parks itself next to earth. The government then organizes a search party to enter it. They discover that inside of the ship there is a habitat, including a city, an ocean, artificial sunlight and plants…basically the same idea we see in Elysium. I’m thinking Blomkamp maybe read Randezvouz with Rama and was a bit inspired by it. Though the idea of spaceships with habitats inside of them is nothing new, I mean, this premise was also explored in Disney’s The Black Hole (1979), only in a far cheesier fashion. These similarities with Clarke’s novel got me thinking that Blomkamp would be the perfect director for a Rendezvous with Rama adaptation. By the way, Elysium also has elements from George Orwell’s 1984, and George Lucas’s THX-1138 (1971), especially when it comes to the whole thing with Max working in a robot factory, and the whole thing with the robotic police force. It also shares similarities with Johnny Mnemonic (1995).

An amazing cast brings this one to life, Matt Damon is great as Max, he pumped up for the part and looks like a tank for it. Jodie Foster is effectively icy as Delacourt, the person in charge of running Elysium. She's a nice lady to her rich costumers, the people of Elysium, but an icy cold bitch to those who want to try and enter into her special private little kingdom, kind of like the governments of the world who only cater to the wealthy. Sharlto Copley, the actor who played Wikus on District 9 reunites with Blomkamp once again. He plays Kruger, a killer/mercenary that the government hires to execute Max, interesting how the film alludes to the idea that governments sometimes rely on the help of criminals to achieve their goals. Copley really gives it his all here, dare I say he actually kind of outshines every other actor in the film.  I was also glad to see Diego Luna on this show, though he has a small part. So anyways, I’ve gone on long enough about Elysium, it’s a fantastic sci-fi film, the best kind, the kind that talks about the world we live in through its fiction. The success of the film has probably assured Blomkamp’s next film which will be called Chappie, looking forward to it. I’m happy that Blomkamp has rejected working on established science fiction properties like Star Trek or Star Wars (yup he’s gone down saying that) in order to stick to his more original stuff. What a fantastic concept, a director aiming to do something new and original, how about that?

Rating:  5 out of 5 

The Rite (2011)

Title: The Rite (2011)

Director: Mikael Hafstrom

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Rutger Hauer, Alice Braga, Colin O’Donoghue

Review:

The Rite is a film that wants to remind you that faith is important, and that you should never loose it. It wants to let you know that “not believing in the devil does not protect you from him”. Barf; whatever! Spread that fear why don’t you! In yet another attempt at addressing the issue of exorcisms, once again, they’ve gone and made this film that, though well made, feels like an onslaught of clichés seen in other exorcism films. And speaking of films about exorcisms, there’s been a lot of them! Though most of them are hardly convincing, yet they keep getting made. And they keep hitting us with cliché after cliché. For example: is it just me or is every single priest on these films always loosing his faith? Is it me or is the ‘possesed’ person always bed ridden? And does the final exorcism in the film always take place with the possessed tied to a bed or something? Like I said, clichés. So here comes yet another entry into the exorcism films sub-genre, how was it?

It wasn’t all that bad. First off, the film is very well shot and directed, technically speaking, it’s a solid film. Its tone is a deadly serious one, it doesn’t come off as goofy or anything like some exorcism films do. On this one we meet young Michael Kovak the son of a mortician, who by the way is played by Rutger Hauer. A bit underused if you ask me, but hey it's always a pleasure to see Mr. Hauer on screen! Will somebody give Hauer more roles that are worth a damn? Pretty please with vanilla on top? So anyways, on this family you are either a mortician or a priest, and so young Michael Kovak has decided to become a priest. Though to be honest, he really doesn’t seem to be the priest type. You see, Michael Kovak is a young man with very little to no faith at all. But he goes to priest school none the less and becomes a priest. Weird thing is that just as he is about to send an e-mail saying he doesn’t want to be a priest and that he is giving up on the whole thing, a priest decides to send Michael to Rome to train himself in the ways of  exorcism. Michael accepts the offer, willingly giving the whole faith thing one more try. Will Michael see anything that will convince him of the existence of the supernatural? Will Michael’s faith ever return?

The Rite is very similar to The Last Exorcism (2010) because it is also about a faithless priest who doesn’t believe in the supernatural. He thinks that possessed people are very disturbed people whose perception of things have been altered by all their religious beliefs. I enjoyed that about the film, how the character Michael Kovak serves as a means to voice the plea of the Unbeliever, same as the priest character in The Last Exorcism. For most of the film you’ll find Michael Kovak saying things like “It gets complicated when proof of the devil is no proof of the devil” Right on brother! He hit the nail on the head as far as faith goes; at the root of the matter is believing in things that you cant proof or see.  

My take on these kinds of films is that they are no longer scary, audiences just don’t get as spooked as they used to by these films. It could be the ever growing number of non-believers out there; it could be that people know too much about how films are made and nothing amazes them anymore, so the illusion and magic behind the whole thing is no longer there. We got dvd special features to thank for that. The Last Exorcism for example was a successful film, but only because it cost about 2 million dollars to make. Had it cost more, it might have flopped. Case in point: The Rite which cost 37 million dollars but only made 33 million in the U.S. It came and it went from theaters without much of a fuzz. To the world, it was just another horror movie. No big deal. In comparison, when The Exorcist (1973) was first released, people passed out while watching the movie, people walked out of theaters because they couldn’t take what they were seeing. It was an experience to watch; an event. This latest exorcism movie  (The Rite)  failed to capture the attention and imaginations of the audience. This was not a ‘shit in your pants’ scary film, but did it work on any level?

Well, I did enjoy the fact that the film didn’t come off as hokey, the way a lot of these films do turn out. It seems to me that for The Rite they were trying to do a film that wasn’t exactly a horror film. They were apparently trying to do a realistic depiction in the life of an exorcist, so goofy it aint. This is the kind of film that the catholic church would be proud of.  A good example of a goofy exorcism film is Lost Souls (2000) with Wynona Ryder and even goofier was The Unborn (2009), if you want to see a laugh inducing exorcism sequence check that one out. The Rite made an effort to make things a bit more credible and authentic. A lot of that could have something to do with the fact that the film is based on a book called The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio. In preparation to write his book, Mr. Baglio actually went to the Vatican for a seminar on exorcism. There he met Father Gary Thomas, the actual person on which the character of Michael Kovak is based on. In addition to that,  director Mikael Hafstrom actually went to a couple of ‘real life exorcisms’, a couple of which he heard from afar because they wouldn’t allow him to see them. So there is a level of authenticity to the film.

But when it comes right down to it, no matter how ‘authentic’ the film is, there’s no such thing as the supernatural. No one has ever seen the things that happen on these exorcism  films in real life. All these priests have seen in their ‘exorcisms’ is people screaming, and twisting and cursing profusely, but supernatural events? Real life supernatural activities that we could see with our own eyes or document with a video camera? Nope; never happened. Don’t you think if these supernatural events ever really happened a priest would have already caught something on tape? Or on their cell phones? Yet no actual evidence of the supernatural exists outside of a couple of hoax pictures that somebody altered on Photoshop in their home computers. Still, films that are ‘based on real life’ try and make us believe that events such as these actually occured. To that I say ‘phooey!’  Of course, if ask the catholic church they’ll tell  you that they loved the movie. And loved it they did, the catholic church gave this one glowing reviews. They loved it as much as they loved The Exorcist. Why? Because these films spread their fantasies around, and after all that’s all the church really wants, to dig themselves deeper into peoples consciousness.

What we got here ladies and gents is a decent exorcism picture. It is well photographed and acted, the locations are beautiful looking (most of it was shot in Hungaria) and the visual effects are decent. It plays everything deadly serious, not a smile to be seen. These characters seem to really believe that they are dealing demons, or perhaps even Satan himself? Oooh spooky! Everything is augmented by Anthony Hopkins performance, and may I send kudos his way for throwing himself so completely into this physically demanding role. This film is one big catholic fantasy brought to life in the only way that in can be brought to life, through the wonderful alternate universe of movies. And as such, it works. I thought it needed a few more creeps and scares, but the ending is really what it’s all about with this movie. Stick all the way to the end, for the big exorcism scene, it’s worth it.    

Rating: 3 1/2

Predators (2010)

Title: Predators (2010)

Director: Nimrod Antal

Cast: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace

Review:

Many moons ago, when Rodriguez was directing Desperado, and his career was in diapers still, he wrote a script called PREDATORS. The studio rejected it because it was deemed too expensive at the time. Fast forward many successful films later, and many millions of dollars at the box office and the studio unearths Rodriguez’s script and decides they want to have him resurrect the Predator franchise. Cool thing is that Rodriguez now has his own production studio (Troublemaker Studios) and makes his own movies in his own way. The studio offers him the option of making the film with Troublemaker Studios, in this way giving him and his production crew the freedom and liberty to make this Predator movie in their own way. That is how Predators the film I will be reviewing today, was born.

The film tells the story of a group of individuals who are hurled into this strange planet that resembles earth, but isn’t. They literally wake up while free falling down to this planet! Good thing who ever hurled them down gave them a parachute! And good thing these guys know how to use it. Once down on the planet, they explore their surroundings and ask themselves how they got there. It’s not just every day that you wake up free falling towards a strange and exotic planet with more then one moon. As they explore their jungle like surroundings, they realize that they are being watched, and quite possibly hunted! Turns out this planet is the Predators own private wild life preserve where they raise the creatures that they hunt. Will the humans find a way off this god forsaken rock?

What we got here ladies and gentlemen is a sequel that completely respects the original. So much so that it practically plays out exactly the same way that the original Arnold Schwarznegger film played out. A bunch of tough guys in the jungle running from an invisible creature that hunts them. Some scenes are almost too similar, like those where the guys find dead skinned bodies, scenes where everyone is terrified that there might be something looking on from behind the fauna. And of course, the scene where everyone goes batshit insane wasting amo, shooting at ghosts. So expect lots of similarities with the first film.

Testosterone Overdose coming right up! The tough as nail cast of the original Predator (1987).

Of course, the filmmakers were going to give us some familiarity with this new film. They want us to connect, via our collective nostalgia, to the first film. Let’s face it, if you were a kid through the 8o’s chances are you went to see this movie to the theaters. Or at least saw it at least a gazillion times on VHS or on cable. Schwarznegger films had reached an apex by the time PREDATOR was released in 1987. Schwarznegger was king of action films back then, and this movie took him up a couple of notches in that department. The original was a film for guys, about guys. If you notice, the cast was made up entirely of tough hombres. Cigar chomping, muscle bound, military killing machines. Besides Arnold, the original films cast was made up of a who’s who of tough guys: Jesse Ventura, Carl Weathers and a couple of other tough looking actors. Heck, it was a film produced by king of macho action films Joel Silver, so this film was bound to be a testosterone overdose from the get go. In fact, the original film was such a guys film that the only female presence in the film was a scared native girl they find while investigating the jungles of Guatemala. She is terrified of the creature, but she’ll be alright, she’s got all these tough dudes to protect her! Keeping in line with all the similarities to the original, on Predators we also get a female thrown in the mix played by Alice Braga. The update is that she’s not a scared and horrified girl waiting for the tough guys to protect her; she’s actually a kick ass war torn chick who knows how to handle herself. And a machine gun!

This one is a bit different in that the guys in this film are not addicted to going to the gym everyday to pump iron. On this one we have mostly guys, yeah, but they are a bit more vulnerable. Let’s face it, Adrien Brody isn’t exactly the embodiment of tough looking dudes, he has a more vulnerable looking physique, though I think that helps the story a bit. He isn’t this indestructible looking tank like Arnold. But to Brody’s credit I will say that he did apparently work out to toughen himself up for this role. Topher Grace is also thrown in the mix, and he isn’t so tough looking either. Actually, he plays a doctor! We get a Chinese guy with katanas, and finally, I think the toughest dude on this movie is Machete himself, Danny Trejo. So we get an assortment of tough yet vulnerable dudes to go up against the beasts.

The big difference in this film is that we get more Predators. Hence, ‘s’ at the end of the title. I really liked something about this movie and it’s that we have two warring Predator factions, the younger vs. the older ones. In one awesome sequence we get the older Predator fighting against the older one, and the older one looks exactly like the Predator on the original 1987 film! A great nod to Stan Winston and his work in designing the original beast. The new predators that show up in the film are interesting as well. Kudos to the guys at KNB FX (headed by now make up effects legends Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero) for outdoing themselves once again with yet another batch of excellent make up effects creations. These guys have never disappointed me with their work, and Predators is no exception.

The KNB FX guys give a nod to Stan Winston's original creature design on this new film

This wasn’t the best Predator film ever made; the story feels like it needed a little something extra to make it fully tick. I mean, I didn’t like the fact that they changed the focus from having the Predators be the main threat to having some of the humans become the threat. The main focus of the original was the human vs. the monster. On this one, the film plays out more like CUBE (1997), where we lock a bunch of humans up in one place and see which one shows his evil side first. The story wasn’t as epic or as important as I would have liked for it to be, but we owe that to the studio. They deliberately wanted a smaller film, to test the waters, see how much the audience wants another Predator film. I guess people do want another one, the film went on to make 126 million worldwide. But whatever, I didn’t hate this Predator film which is a good thing. I mean, at least it wasn’t a complete disappointment like Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem (2004) was. Let’s just hope that future films in this franchise improve. Rodriguez himself said that the story can go any number of directions, let’s hope they decide to take things in a more epic direction. There is hope in Rodriguez’s own words: “the bigger movie would actually be what comes following that. Then you can really go crazy from there”. Let’s hope the next film lives up to those words!

Rating: 3 out of 5