View Poll Results: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
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Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
#126
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Now I really know why I liked this movie; at first I saw the cerebral depot plot device as a cool nod to Johnny Mnemonic, a movie whose plot and look I really dug, but there are way too many similarties and references for it not be another adaptation that takes from Gibson's tale. The hacker dude's name is Spider for one thing!
#127
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
And that is my biggest gripe among other big gripes. The director lacks the vision and ability of how to make the movie a living breathing world. I knew the plot was going to be heavy handed, but I went in hoping to be sucked in by the cinematography and epic largeness of Elysium and the remains of an overpopulated earth. It just comes off as an over budget b-flick.
#128
DVD Talk Hero
#129
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Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I saw this yesterday. It looked great, it was mildly entertaining, but the story was really stupid.
Not really worth enumerating all the reasons, but here are the top three:
1. A few lines of assembly code magically fixes all of society's problems
2. Apparently no one has the source code to Elysium's systems to undo the changes
3. If the system says you're the president, who is the public (or anyone else) to argue?
Not really worth enumerating all the reasons, but here are the top three:
1. A few lines of assembly code magically fixes all of society's problems
2. Apparently no one has the source code to Elysium's systems to undo the changes
3. If the system says you're the president, who is the public (or anyone else) to argue?
#130
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I saw this yesterday. It looked great, it was mildly entertaining, but the story was really stupid.
Not really worth enumerating all the reasons, but here are the top three:
1. A few lines of assembly code magically fixes all of society's problems
2. Apparently no one has the source code to Elysium's systems to undo the changes
3. If the system says you're the president, who is the public (or anyone else) to argue?
Not really worth enumerating all the reasons, but here are the top three:
1. A few lines of assembly code magically fixes all of society's problems
2. Apparently no one has the source code to Elysium's systems to undo the changes
3. If the system says you're the president, who is the public (or anyone else) to argue?
#131
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Now I really know why I liked this movie; at first I saw the cerebral depot plot device as a cool nod to Johnny Mnemonic, a movie whose plot and look I really dug, but there are way too many similarties and references for it not be another adaptation that takes from Gibson's tale. The hacker dude's name is Spider for one thing!
#132
Moderator
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I agree. I was outright laughing by the end. Why do they have fleets of ships with the magic heal machines just ready to go...especially when everybody already has one in their house? It's clear that nothing was thought through, and that the director thought the "message" was more important than plot or characters.
#133
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Yea. All that time spent, making it look very real. They should have spent more time and fleshed out the logic behind everything. You can't always expect the viewer to take such large leaps of logic.
Still a cool sci-fi action film. But could have been something much more.
Maybe Blomkamp will be more critical of himself next time around. I think he's talented and will deliver some mind-blowing, epic movie experience one day. But I don't think he's done it yet.
Still a cool sci-fi action film. But could have been something much more.
Maybe Blomkamp will be more critical of himself next time around. I think he's talented and will deliver some mind-blowing, epic movie experience one day. But I don't think he's done it yet.
#134
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I agree. I was outright laughing by the end. Why do they have fleets of ships with the magic heal machines just ready to go...especially when everybody already has one in their house? It's clear that nothing was thought through, and that the director thought the "message" was more important than plot or characters.
Maybe it's a stretch but I'm just trying to think of something comparable... not to give an excuse for the script.
#135
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I really didn't see that many robots 'controlling' Los Angeles. We saw the factories and 2 robots harassing Mexican Matt Damon.
But when they REALLY wanted to find him they only had 4 guys in a chopper look for him? It's like it was a low budget movie that couldn't afford to show robots marching through the streets or running SWAT team raids.
WHERE WERE ALL THE ROBOTS OPPRESSING MANKIND!?! DAMMIT!
But when they REALLY wanted to find him they only had 4 guys in a chopper look for him? It's like it was a low budget movie that couldn't afford to show robots marching through the streets or running SWAT team raids.
WHERE WERE ALL THE ROBOTS OPPRESSING MANKIND!?! DAMMIT!
#136
Moderator
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Also, from a pure business perspective it would make sense to have one of those Magical Medical Machines in the factory. Somebody gets hurt, just put them in the machine and get them back on the line within minutes.
Also, why do they have robots doing service jobs (Parole Officer, Cop, Medic) but not working the line at the factory?
Also, why do they have robots doing service jobs (Parole Officer, Cop, Medic) but not working the line at the factory?
#137
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Also, why do they have robots doing service jobs (Parole Officer, Cop, Medic) but not working the line at the factory?
#138
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Went to see it with somebody else. Liked it more than I thought I would.
Sharlto
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Last edited by GatorDeb; 09-01-13 at 01:55 AM.
#139
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Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
Seen this awhile back. I liked it for the most part but the more I think about it the more I don't like it. I think the biggest thing that bother me was the ending. I wanted to know if Elysium could handle that many new people. I wanted to know what life would be like with a criminal running the place. Just seems like things wouldn't end well in the long run.
#140
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Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
It is ironic that in the beginning, it said Earth is overpopulated blah blah blah. At the end, the magical machine is now available to heal everyone. Wouldn't that exacerbate the problem by a factor of infinity?
#141
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Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
I finally saw it the other day and I really enjoyed it. But I enjoyed it as an action movie. There are some plot contrivances (it's a lucky coincidence that Matt Damon's plan happened to incur at the exact same time as Jodie Foster's coup), but if you look at it as an action movie where they have to break into location X and get to a MacGuffin, this was flipping amazing. Maybe I'm just releived to see a huge effects summer action movie go for an R-rating, but the atmosphere and direction were top.
Also who could ever guess that the dork from District 9 could play such a terrifying badass villain?
Although I generally agree with the political message, I was afraid this movie was going to be too preachy. District 9 somehow made the message work while still being an effective movie IMO. Elysium's message was much flakier, but aside from the setup and the ending it was easy to disregard in lieu of an excellent actioner.
But yeah, some problems. I get that the message is that the writers want universal healthcare in real life and that's fine. But I didn't buy how in the movie world that the magic healthcare devices are not to be found anywhere on Earth.
Also who could ever guess that the dork from District 9 could play such a terrifying badass villain?
Although I generally agree with the political message, I was afraid this movie was going to be too preachy. District 9 somehow made the message work while still being an effective movie IMO. Elysium's message was much flakier, but aside from the setup and the ending it was easy to disregard in lieu of an excellent actioner.
But yeah, some problems. I get that the message is that the writers want universal healthcare in real life and that's fine. But I didn't buy how in the movie world that the magic healthcare devices are not to be found anywhere on Earth.
#142
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Elysium (Blomkamp, 2013) — The Reviews Thread
While really heavy handed, I thought this was a really solid flick. I found District 9 to be pretty boring and many compared this negatively to D9, so I went in with pretty low expectations. The ending scene
was way too on the nose, but the rest of the movie was really entertaining and the visuals were fantastic. There were a few scenes that had me scratching my head as to what Blomkamp was trying to do, but they were few and far apart.
Spoiler:
#143
DVD Talk Hall of Fame