Elysium – The Next District 9?

Neill Blomkamp wowed science fiction fans with his feature film debut, District 9, but can his next film, Elysium, live up to the now incredibly high expectations?

Elysium shares many of the visual qualities of District 9, and may even be set in the same film world but decades in the future. The financial gap between the rich and poor has only continued to grow. Earth lies in ruin, overpopulated and diseased, and is now home to everybody but the ridiculously rich. These rich people pay to live on a thriving paradise of a space station orbiting Earth, named Elysium, complete with machines that can cure cancer and other diseases. It’s the prospect of using this magical medical machine that brings Matt Damon’s character, Max, to accept a job that involves breaking into Elysium and downloading sensitive information from the mind of man who lives on the station.

Like all good science fiction and its predecessor District 9, Blomkamp is making an important statement with his film and he doesn’t deny it.  “The theme is about wealth discrepancy, and about the separation between rich and poor,” he said during the Elysium panel at Comic Con 2012. “Layered on top of that you know is a lot of explosions and popcorn.” He also said that the kind of films he wants to make have to have interesting settings, hence the space station.

The name of Blomkamp’s fictional space paradises comes from the heaven like afterlife in Greek mythology of the same name. It too is a paradise, one  that only mortals related to the gods or those chosen by them could reside after death. It’s not hard to see why Blomkamp chose this title, as it matches the films themes perfectly.

Simon Kinberg, a producer on the film speaking after showing several minutes of the film to fans at Comic Con, said that he was excited to work with Neill, as Kinberg is a big fan of the science fiction genre. “What’s so cool is there is politics, social commentary and rich themes, but as you see here, a kick ass, fun, loud, bloody, science fiction action movie.”

The astounding success of District 9, a film with a budget of $30 million that went on to gross over $200 million, gave Sony Pictures confidence that the $130 million they gave Blomkamp to make Elysium won’t go to waste. Expect Elysium to make the one percent uncomfortable when it lands in theaters March 1, 2013.

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