Oh how this movie sucks. Let me count the ways. Fair warning this article is going to be long. I really don't want to get too much into the story because I have too much to say about the poor way this movie tries to deliver it's message. If you want to know the story, it's District 9 and Johnny Mnemonic thrown into a blender and turned on puree. And it sucks.
It's a weird thing to realize that a writer has no idea what money actually is. I didn't think that was possible until I saw this movie. I wouldn't make such a big deal about this but it's very thesis of the movie.
Here's what the movie is about... Or at least what it thinks it's about... It's about how the rich have everything and the rest of us have nothing. And I know it sounds like I'm joking around when I say this movie doesn't know what money is, but I'm being 100% honest. This movie has no idea what the hell money is for!
Here's what I'm talking about. Money is a sophisticated way to exchange goods and services. Let's say you need something like a can of paint to paint your fence. I give someone money, and they give me the paint I want. I also can give money to someone else in exchange they paint my fence. But what if I don't need my fence painted? Well, then I don't go out any buy paint or pay someone to paint my fence. I keep my money and use it to purchase something else I might need. Or hire someone else to do a job I need done.
Here's where I say this movie doesn't understand money... what if you don't need anything? If I have a dollar, and say I don't have any tasks to be completed or have any need to purchase goods, what good is that dollar to me? In this movie all tasks on this orbiting space station called Elysium are done by robots. The space station is self sufficient so it doesn't need supplies. We're left to assume there's plenty to eat since nobody in the entire movie ever eats, sleeps, or goes to the bathroom. On Elysium there is literally nothing to do but lay by the pool. Robots and machines take care of everything. They want for nothing. So, why do they want to earn money?
I'm being serious here. Why do they need money? Why do they need it so badly that they are willing to treat fellow human beings like disposable diapers? Just give me some kind of justification. Anything! Uhm... they have to pay taxes to stay on Elysium and if they don't they are sent back to Earth. I'd accept that. It's still more or less BS because again robots take care of everything and really there's nothing for the people to do. The government doesn't need money because they along with the other rich people all live on a self-sustaining space station run and maintained by robots.
I have to keep emphasizing this: I'm taking this movie seriously because the movie wants me to take the movie seriously. It's really trying to talk about how people who have everything become jaded to the suffering of others. But when it's taken to this kind of extreme with no explanations at all, it's confusing at best and complete crap at it's worst.
Take for example the magic science health beds. Say for example you fall and break your leg. Well, just lay on the bed and hit the start button and in about a minute that broken leg will be completely healed. The bed does everything from curing the common cold to bringing the dead back to life. Wait what? Okay, in fairness the guy wasn't dead. BUT HE SURE AS HELL SHOULD'VE BEEN DEAD! This guy took a grenade TO THE FACE! He's just about as dead as a person can get because he, you know, had his face ripped off in a violent explosion! But just put in the bed and he gets better. And crazy... for some reason. Not that he was the picture of mental health to begin with, but yeah. He went a little nuts. I guess if I had died and come back to life I'd be a little pissed too.
Wait a minute. What was I talking about? In this movie we have the technology to cure any illness and treat any physical ailment. We literally can have the lame walk and the blind see using this medical technology. So, why doesn't everyone have this? I'm not being funny here. This is what really pissed me off about this movie. This is what had me flipping off the movie for the last hour or so of the movie. REMEMBER: This movie wants to be taken seriously not only as a science fiction movie, but also a high drama movie. On my walk home from the theater I really tried to figure this out:
In this movie, only the rich people have access to these sciency health beds. They are literally in everyone's house on Elysium... probably in case they get stomach cramps in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, down on Earth, hospitals are so overcrowded and under funded that the terminally ill are literally thrown out. They don't have this technology... for some reason. The implication is that because the rich have all the money, they have access to the best of everything. They get the clean air, the fresh water, the best healthcare, yada yada yada.
Here's the problem: The technology exists. I made a joke that it's magic but it's not. It's technology that is readily available to a select few. Why is it only available to a select few? Maybe you're thinking it's a resource thing. There's only so many that were made and it's too expensive to make more. With this argument we go back to the whole money doesn't mean dick if there's nothing to spend it on. People in Elysium do nothing. I keep coming back to this because they literally do nothing. There's like a handful of people that "govern" the place. But that's it. And even they do nothing. Jodie Foster channels her inner Colonel Jessup but that's about the extent of her day. They have one business guy. And he does... business... things... I don't know why... He runs the factory on Earth that builds robots... not sure why he does that. You have robots. You have robots that fix robots. Robots are cheaper labor than humans so why employ humans? They work harder, need less of them, don't sleep, and don't need lunch breaks. I digress... anyway at the end of the movie, medical ships fly down from the Heavens and start healing the sick and the crippled. So right there the argument about limited resources is completely invalidated.
So what other reason could they have for hoarding this miracle technology? It can't be limited number of beds because again the medical ships come flying down and literally treat every single human on the planet. It's not limited supply. It's not limited resources. It's not limited energy or medicine because the beds don't use medicine. It just passes a light over your body and then you're fine... The only answer left is that the people on Elysium just don't want to.
That is a comic book level of evil. Nobody purposefully watches others suffer for no reason except for the mentally deranged or the most depraved of Bond villians. No I take that back. Bond villians always have a plan and a reason for doing it. These people have absolutely no motivation. "They want to keep their way of life." Bulls*** They want for nothing. It costs them nothing to make everyone a citizen and give access to all the privledges of Elysium. They just don't because they are evil. No motivation. They want to live well and for whatever reason they just don't like the people on Earth. They hate them so much that they intentionally inflict remorseless suffering on them just because they are there. Sure you can try and insert some kind of racial or social commentary on this but I go back to the whole notion of Elysium is paradise! They want nothing. They need nothing. They have plenty and keep taking just because they can. They don't even really want it. Because they are too busy wallowing in their own boredom!
Is that what I'm supposed to take away from this movie? The rich make the poor suffer because it's something to do? Suffering amuses them? Just how bleak of a worldview does this writer have?
What really kills me is that this movie had so much potential and it was just all wasted. It's told so poorly it forgets it's own subplots and even manages to make the main story superfluous. If I was writing this movie, I would've scrapped the whole thing and started again. I would've had it be a bit more like Total Recall where there's a resistance movement against the people living on Elysium. Because really the way the people on Earth were treated, there really is no reason to obey the law. Or just scrap the whole "on a space station" thing and have it be more like the movie In Time or The Hunger Games where people are in different economic quadrents. At least then there's a reason to earn money. That way they can pay for defense of their economic quadrent and keep the lower class out. But then you fall into the "why keep anyone out" problem because it went too far. It's not that they have an abundance of resources, it's that they have unlimited resources.
This movie is a socio-political commentary told in the worst kind of way.
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