The best thing, worst thing, and main thing about Matt Damon’s new Sci-Fi film “Elysium” in about the time it takes to watch the trailer.
TEXT REVIEW
Wow, we were facing a health care crisis in this country. good thing Elysium showed us the answer… an exoskeleton.
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“Elysium” stars Matt Damon as a former criminal trying to make things work in a future world where the poor suffer on earth while the rich live cushy lives on a space-station. Not only that but they have a technology that with one scan of the body can heal any disease or ailment, but they refuse to share it with the poor. Sensing a political agenda yet? Yeah, me too.
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Now before I go to far into this, yes the healthcare agenda that is plastered on this movie is my worst thing, but my goal here is not to discuss or decide what’s right or wrong in the health care/socialized medicine arena. For Pete’s sake I break out with hives anytime anyone even utters the phrases “liberal agenda” or “Right Wing Nut Job”.) My issue is more that when a movie decides to preach instead of present, it’s just a tad bit frustrating. If I’m going to call out “Christian Movie” for getting lost in message and forgetting quality or story, I have to do the same for this film as well Of course, the worse thing about a movie getting caught up in it’s politics is that it can ruin its ability to bring sensible thought to a real situation. There is nothing wrong with a movie tackling this subject as a story, but let the truth of the story have the impact instead of directly preaching to us. This will also keep you from oversimplifying a complex issue like healthcare. But it’s not just the healthcare hadwringing that detract from the movie. The movie itself really doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I mean there is a basic, linear, and very straightforward,story presented here but that’s just it, it never strays off what everyone in the audience already knows will happen. The resulting effect is that you wake up for the action scenes but spend the rest of the time wondering why the whole thing feels so boring and predictable.
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Speaking of the action scenes, they’re really quite good in this, the consequence feel real and the choices made by the characters seem genuine, this isn’t my best thing though, I’d save that for the Beauty of this world. And not just the amazingly designed Elysium station, but the raw destitution of the crumpling earth is beautiful in it’s own way. This is a world that seems very well designed and beautiful, I only wish that as much care had been taken to craft the story as the incredible lawns of the Elysium elite. I should also stop and give a nod to Matt Damon in this, as he continues to take interesting roles and produce really quality acting work
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Overall, even if you can look past the oversimplification of the health care debate and possible political agenda in this film you will unfortunately still find a tedium movie with only the occasional life in the acting and action. It’s not awful, but it’s certainly not good either, lets go with a C.
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