7 Weakass Criticisms Of Elysium

 [h2]7) We’ve seen too many dystopian movies this year[/h2]

It may be true that a lot of movies from this summer, such as After Earth, Oblivion, and now Elysium, are variations on a theme that future Earth is uninhabitable or unrecognizable and the civilization that’s replaced it is corrupt or stuck with the same problems of current Earth. I get the fatigue. I feel your pain. But to me, this is more an example of poorly timed release than objective quality of the film. Of the three mentioned, and there may be more of this genre this year that are escaping my memory presently, Elysium is the strongest and most compelling by quite a lot.

That may not be saying all that much. And this whole list, again, is not trying to make the case for Elysium being a spectacular movie by any means. It simply seemed to me like a solid summer sci-fi film, one released in a month where judgments of films tend to be much harsher and less patient than films released in May. I’ll wait and see what Neill Blomkamp goes on to do in the years to come before determining what he’s capable of, and where this movie fits in his filmographic oeuvre. But for god’s sake, let’s just cool the jets on jumping all over a film’s flaws and finding a conclusive evaluative measure for it, can’t we? Maybe observe what we liked and didn’t like about it with a little less conviction and certainty and rigidity? Because as far as I’m concerned, if an equal case can be made for an aspect of a movie being terrible versus being sound, I’m going to favor the side defending its strengths rather than the one brandishing the knives, especially when the criteria being used is nearly impossible for most films to live up to. I don’t like seeing things as that bleak. But more importantly, I think it does a disservice to the evaluation and discussion of current movies that can simply be mildly entertaining and interesting rather than either awesome or terrible.

Were there aspects of Elysium that worked for you, or others that just didn’t? Share your own evaluations and observations or thoughts on how weakass this article was in the comments below.