Finally got around to watching Elysium (2013) and thought it was terrific. I really don't understand the low critic scores or lukewarm reception for this cyberpunk classic: solid performances, good costumes/sets/effects, and a straightforward story (which clearly inspired a certain video game)
I'd held off watching Elysium (2013) for a while (obviously, lol), because I wasn't a huge fan of the director's previous movie, District 9; just not a fan of crime noir, generally. I'm glad I finally took a chance on it, though, as this movie is a cyberpunk classic. Though the director would later express regrets about the story, I think its stripped-down, basic-betty storyline is one of its strengths: a criminal prodigy trying to go straight is pulled back into one final score after the exploitation of a megacorp nearly kills him. Slap on a nice cybernetics alternative, some drone warfare, and ubiquitous surveillance and you've got yourself a hell of a fun movie. Matt Damion and Jodie Foster turn in solid performances (probably Foster's best since Silence of the Lambs, though I don't know her full CV). The mix of practical and digital special effects works well, didn't seem too dated, even 13 years later. All around, a solid movie that I'll likely watch again.
(As an aside, I was also struck by just how much this movie seems to have inspired a certain video game, which shall remain nameless. From the setting to the plot—including, seemingly, every major plot point—to much of the art style, [REDACTED] seems to have taken its cues from Elysium . And that's not a bad thing: the greatest art is always the product of one artist being inspired by another. Is anyone going to decry Neuromancer because Gibson drew heavily upon Shirley's City Come A-Walkin' ? Of course not. I have my problems with [REDACTED] because its story is not a cyberpunk story [and, no, I don't want to argue about it; it's a lit-criticism thing, true cyberpunk protagonists are high mimetic, not ironic, as only the exceptional can rise within the oppressive cyberpunk universes], but I am glad to see that the game's writers at least took inspiration from this fine cyberpunk movie, Elysium.)