Film review: Elysium

Elysium. Rated MA 15+ (strong bloody violence). 109 minutes. Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Verdict: An uneven, but ultimately rewarding, post-apocalyptic, big screen adventure.

Hollywood’s obsession with a post-apocalyptic universe reaches a particular zenith with Blomkamp’s (District 9) aggressive and over-loaded take on our not-too-distant future. It is a grand and ambitious vision, beautifully realised by Production Designer Philip Ivey and cinematographer Trent Opaloch, both of whom collaborated with Blomkamp on District 9.

It is 2154, and the privileged live on Elysium – a state-of-the-art space station where cancer is cured by a full-body scanning machine in only minutes. Everyone else lives on an over-populated, impoverished Earth – dreaming of, one day, being able to afford a ticket to Elysium’s utopian world, where sprawling mansions are surrounded by picturesque gardens and unpolluted water.

Blomkamp’s cut ‘n’ thrust screenplay explores so many grand themes that it becomes difficult to keep up with them. And unlike almost every other movie reviewed this year, Elysium powers to a stark and incredibly moving conclusion that you expect it to dodge.

Matt Damon is great as parolee Max, whose desperation to get to Elysium ensures that the stakes at play are incredibly high. Damon is well supported by an excellent performance from Alice Braga (I Am Legend) as his childhood sweetheart, now doctor and single mum, Frey. As the leading resistance fighters, Wagner Moura’s resourceful Spider and Diego Luna’s loyal friend Julio both deliver spirited performances that beautifully account for the resistance movement’s resourcefulness and determination to eventually reach Elysium safely.

Jodie Foster, surprisingly, spends much of her time striding around Elysium and fighting with a peculiar accent (the accent wins), while Sharlto Copley’s (The A-Team, District 9) toxic, special agent Kruger is so unlikeable that it becomes increasingly difficult to care about what happens to him.

Even though Blomkamp sets Elysium in 2154, it might just as easily be taking place today. Corruption, greed, selfishness, poverty, pollution, over-population and ruthless exploitation are all themes we can immediately relate to. Precisely what we are prepared to sacrifice in order to change what we can for the better (and not just for ourselves), is the question.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Now You See Me

Now You See Me. Rated M (mature themes, coarse language and sexual references). 116 minutes. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt.

Verdict: This curiously unengaging heist tale fails to equal the sum of its parts.

Occasionally, a promotional trailer will flash across the screen that makes a film look intriguing. It won’t reveal much about the plot, but the flashy effects and instantly recognisable cast will ensure that the film’s impending release registers in our consciousness.

Such is the case with this Now You See Me – an over-produced story about four street magicians who are invited by a mysterious mentor to form a group known as The Four Horsemen, and use their combined creative powers to perform daring heists around the world.

Leterrier (Clash of the Titans) has assembled an outstanding cast, led by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) as one of the four magicians, and Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers, Shutter Island) as an FBI agent tasked with breaking the cycle of increasingly ambitious robberies the group manage to pull off – right under everyone’s noses.

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to watch Morgan Freeman, and his performance as Thaddeus Bradley – a man who has dedicated his life to revealing the secrets behind magic acts – is a gem. Equally, Michael Caine devours his brief but critical turn as the wealthy philanthropist, who suddenly finds himself to be nothing more than a powerless pawn in The Four Horsemen’s grand plan.

The central relationship between Ruffalo’s Dylan and Mélanie Laurent’s Interpol agent Alma fails to ring true, and if there is a flaw in the otherwise interesting screenplay, it’s that the human relationships are left wanting in the presence of the glossy magic acts. We are left with the sense of not being particularly engaged in the lives of the main characters, but rather impressed by all the technological wizardy that make the unbelievably fantastic heists possible. With a generous injection of more heart and soul, this is a film that might have been a good deal more involving than it ends up being.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Conjuring

 

The Conjuring. Rated MA 15+ (strong horror themes and violence). 112 minutes. Directed by James Wan. Screenplay by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes.

Verdict: A terrifically atmospheric spook fest that only stumbles at the finish line.

With his breakout film Saw (2004), made in collaboration with fellow Australian Leigh Whannell, Wan succeeded in stamping his torturous mark on the world of horror movies. The seemingly never-ending series of Saw films, which eventually concluded with the seventh instalment Saw 3D (2010), were smash hits at the box office – with Billy the sadistic puppet becoming one of the most instantly recognisable characters of the horror genre.

With The Conjuring, Wan and the Hayes brothers plough familiar horror movie territory – and the film’s overall effectiveness suffers as a result. By basing the film around Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and his wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), paranormal investigators who first found fame as a result of their investigation into the Lutz family home that would go on to become The Amityville Horror (1979), the film-makers ensure that comparisons come thick and fast.

What ensures that The Conjuring becomes something far more superior to the standard, haunted house shock/horror tale it constantly threatens to is Wan’s meticulous, beautifully-crafted direction, Julie Berghoff’s (Saw) superb production design, John Leonetti (The Woods) atmospheric cinematography, and the extraordinarily committed performances from a uniformly excellent cast.

Lili Taylor (Six Feet Under) is the stand-out as the wife and mother of five daughters struggling to hold it all together in the presence of evil forces determined to destroy her family, while the scene in which Joey King’s Christine thinks she sees a ghost behind her bedroom door, is as good as they come. If you are not hiding behind your hands during this scene, then you must be asleep.

The anxiety-inducing tension throughout three quarters of the film is unbearable, but as Berghoff’s brilliant house reveals its hideously terrifying depths, the script defaults to one derivative horror movie cliché – failing (unlike The Blair Witch Project or The Exorcist) to deliver the truly terrifying conclusion that was always well within its reach.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.