Elysium

    Elysium seems like, on the surface, a tired repetition of an old dystopian story. The story of the poor's rebellion against the segregationist rich. It feels like "The Hunger Games" without The Hunger Games. Then you add the other clichés that surround this movie. Like that best friend that dies and is never talked about again even though in those ten seconds after his death, the main character seemed completely broken up about.  What about the kid that only has 3 lines and zilch in the way of character, but were supposed to care about because she's just so darn adorable and is also dying of Leukemia so were automatically forced to feel sorry for her? It sounds terrible, right?
    Well, I guess Elysium is a great example of how you can present these tropes and plot points while also being able to uncover new ground in familiar territory.
Probably the reason the movie doesn't feel as hackneyed as it could have is the relentlessly quick pace. The movie goes through the motions so frenetically, not wasting any time, but managing never feel too choppy. The director Neill Blomkamp is able to jump from a quiet scene of characters exchanging lines to a scene of violent shooting and make it feel completely natural. Nothing about the transitions or the pacing of the scenes is ever off-putting. In one particular scene, Max (Matt Damon) comes charging into the hospital after a bloody fight. His old friend and now nurse Frey (Alice Braga) takes him home and heals

 his wounds, and afterwards talks to him quickly about her leukemia stricken daughter and how it's important to get her to Elysium so she can be cured. The short conversation amply develops the characters and doesn't feel awkward amidst the plentiful action. In "Star Trek:Into Darkness", where the romantic tension between Spock and Uhura just randomly gets bought up, shoved aside in leu of a high-tension battling, and is never really addressed again. It didn't irk me so much, I waved it off believing it was too hard to smoothly transition from loud and frenzied to slow and quiet in mere seconds, but Neill Blomkamp has proved it possible.
    However, those quiet scenes of characters exchanging lines I mentioned earlier aren't very common in Elysium. Not because this movie is underdeveloped, but because Blomkamp is a great visual filmmaker, he stays absolutely loyal to "show don't tell."  For instance, we know Frey has compassion and dedication to her daughter by what she does more then what she says. We see no fear on her face as she confidently charges through Elysium, holding her daughter close. Then, without hesitation, she smashes down a glass door in order to break into an Elysium house and get to a machine that can fully cure her daughter. 
    There are occasional clichés in this film, like I mentioned in the first paragraph. However, they are presented so well, and this film avoids some of the more obvious tropes commonly found in action films. Yes, there may be a best friend that dies and an adorable kid with a sob story. Elysium manages, however, to not have the sappy speech or the cast of thousands, both of which were popularized by "Independence Day". Neill Blomkamp, who was also the scriptwriter, doesn't put in a particularly overdone ending that he could have. I don't want to spoil what happens, so I will just go as far as to say that when Elysium gets to it's ending, I rolled my eyes because I felt their was going to be such an obviously overdone "twist" there. Then guess what, Blomkamp just doesn't do that. He doesn't conform, he doesn't squeeze in one last convoluted attempt to get the audience to cry, and the film ends up being a lot more powerful, and memorable, then if Blomkamp had chickened out and done the same thing a million films had done in the past.
     So Elysium is technically proficient and original, but what actually should pull the movie together is a tense atmosphere. That being said, this is one of the few movies I've seen that made me feel adrenaline pumping through me while I watched. It's amazing how Blomkamp is able to keep such a steadily intense pace, making sure that all the action and dialogue isn't drawn out. Every new action scene is different, energetic, it doesn't feel like your'e watching the same action scene over and over again.(*cough, cough, Pacific Rim, cough, cough*). The movie also feels just as intense during a conversation centered scene, since it's moving just as fast. Not that the dialogue is rushed, you can easily tell what characters are saying, but it feels just as enthralling as any action. In fact, one of the most intense scenes of the movie comes from when antagonist Krueger (Shartlo Copely) interrogates and abuses Frey and her daughter to find out where Max is. Copely is able to fully seem like a psychopath, he's not being overly flamboyant and chewing the scenery. It's a quietly toned, suspenseful scene that's able to captivate without needing any exploitative gore or grand explosions. The short exchange is a perfect testament to how good a filmmaker Blomkamp is, and how there's always room in a blockbuster for a scene that's disturbing and enthralling from the power of the actors and script, not the effects.
    So when you do your modern, darkly toned summer sci-fi film, Hollywood, remember that there's always room for original plot points and intense dialogue. Also, remember to use the "shakycam" method to help create an already thrilling atmosphere, don't use it in a vain attempt to make it seem like your movie is intense when it really isn't... (*cough cough World War Z cough cough*)

                                                                            4/5