OLIVIA MARNE
Now, I’m undecided.
Sony lost me with “Total Recall” but then gained me back, in a big way, with Rian Johnson’s “Looper” – which I went so far as to say was my number one must-see movie of the next twelve months.
That was until I sat through the “Elysium” panel, which concluded the Sony panel.
The new film from “District 9” director Neil Blomkamp looks like a delicious science-fiction spectacle with some masterful actors – Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley. It tells of a space station, Elysium, where the rich can live with no poverty and be quickly healed from any illness, by the machines on the space station.
- Matt Damon, sans hair, plays a poor, sick man on Earth who has to 5 days to live… unless he gets his ass to Elysium. Copley plays a bounty hunter trying to stop Damon’s character from getting there.
- The footage also revealed William Fichtner’s character to be a man on Elysium who Damon’s character has to kidnap. Jodie Foster plays one of the seniors on Elysium, who learns of Damon’s plans.
- There’s also some cool-looking robots, who go after Damon after he fails to kidnap Fichtner.
- There’s an exoskeleton that Damon has to wear – with spots for his guns to plug directly in – which looks awesome.
- There’s some great fight sequences between Damon and Copley’s (he’s got a sword!) characters in the movie.
- The space station looks colourful, almost paradise-like, but Earth looks grungy… not unlike ‘District 9’.
- The movie was shot mostly on green screens. Foster said she enjoyed the experience of working with nothing.
- The robots are actually stuntmen wearing costumes – looks great.
Again, “Elysium” is going to be a spectacle!
