I saw Elysium last night with the lady, and I must say I’d been looking forward to this movie for a while. The premise seemed realistic: a future where the wealthy live on a lavish space station, and the poor live on a diseased and polluted earth.
I didn’t know what to expect when I went in there, but I had high hopes given that it had the same director as District 9. I’m very lenient when it comes to Sci-fi flicks, because it’s my weak spot. Unfortunately, though, Elysium was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a while. It was better than After Earth, but not as good as Iron Man 3, and I didn’t even like Iron Man 3 all that much.
Underwhelming Story
It was too “chosen one” that theme was so overdone the entire movie that it came off as cheesy. This isn’t something I expected from the guy that directed District 9, which I loved! The story just wasn’t that engaging, and I left the movie thinking, “That’s it?”
I was too distracted to dwell on it, though. The first thing out of my mouth after I turned to my lady was, “Did you see the technology!?”
Technology and Visuals
I was in awe at the technology and the visuals! I was so into the tech displayed in that movie, I think my fiancee got a little jealous. I left that movie inspired! It makes me want to take my programming skills to the next level. Robotics looks like quite an amazing field to go into now, even if it’s just as a hobby.
Part of the reason I entered the computer science field is because as a kid, I quickly understood that one day computers and software would rule the world. After you see this movie, you’ll see a glimpse of the future that I saw back in high school. The ability to design useful software, or hack into it is going to change the destinies of nations in the future, and it’s already happening to day. China’s hacking into everything.
If you’re a tech nerd, and you read tech news blogs like Gizmodo.com or Engadget.com, you will be breaking out into hot sweats during this movie. The robots were my favorite. There are police droids, bodyguard droids, EMT droids, and they look amazing.
In 2154 vehicles that can enter low earth orbit are as common as iPhones. Thank you Elon Musk! Not only are there large space ships capable of this, there are small ones too. Small, beautiful, luxury ships.
Facial recognition is used everywhere, by every robot, by every drone, by every ship, by satellites in orbit around the earth. If someone’s looking for you, they will find you. There’s nowhere to hide. It’s scary, and to be honest, the tech wasn’t that much better than it is today. In 10-15 years we’ll have facial recognition software as good, if not better than what we saw in Elysium.
The guns, oh the guns! There’s modified AK-47’s with smart bullets that do what can only be described as “destroy lives”. I have a paper shredder at home, and I look at that thing in a whole new light now. The Chemrails were another favorite, they were shot so fast I couldn’t tell if the bullets curved around corners, or just went through the walls. Shoulder mounted rocket launchers can hit targets in space. Battle Shields are a thing now, too.
If you’ve ever played Halo, you know about sticky grenades and they make a showing here in the movie, although different than what you’d imagine. They’re much smaller and more scary.
Lastly, there is a sarcophagus in this movie. If you’re a Stargate fan like me, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It plays a central role, and there’s one scene that depending on who you are is either disgusting or amazing. I thought it was amazing.
