Elysium (2013)

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Directed By: Neill Blomkamp

Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga

Elysium is director Neill Blomkamp's second chance at directing a feature film. His first was 2009's District 9, which still remains as one of my favorite movies of all time. Elysium seems to share a lot of traits with D9: a gritty/dirty setting, a not-so-subtle political message, and badass looking future tech. So, now that Blomkamp has had a chance with a bigger budget and Hollywood star power; did he pull of another sci-fi masterpiece? 

Elysium is set in the year 2154. The earth has become a desolate wasteland, with future LA taking center stage looking like a sprawling third world slum. The ultra-super rich have retreated to a space station called Elysium. They have robot servants that cater to their every need, and space magic medical beds that can cure any aliment in seconds, including severe cases of "exploded off face". Mat Damon stars as Max, a reformed car thief and thug. Max suffers an accident at work, leaving him with only days to live. Rather than die in a slum on earth, max decides to enlist the help of his old gangster friends to get him to one of Elysium's magic medical beds. 

Elysium gets a few things right- Blomkamp comes from a visual effects background, and it still shows. All of the future tech is incredibly cool looking. Not only does it look slick, but it looks feasible; from the cobbled together tech of the gangsters that live in poverty, to the shiny (and scary) looking security droids of Elysium. You can tell a lot of attention to detail went into creating this world. The action scenes are also well done, even if they don't last that long. 

Apart from that, Elysium falls into a deep pit of mediocrity. The villains in the film, both the rich soulless bureaucrats and the evil mercenaries that protect Elysium, are totally one demential. There is more substance in the average Scooby Doo bad guy. Jodie Foster seems totally out of place as Elysium's defense secretary, it almost feels the only reason she was cast was so they had another cool name to put along side Matt Damon on the poster. 

The bad guys aren't the only ones that suffer from poor character development. Max, the main character, is little more than a blank slate. He has no arc, remaining totally flat throughout the entire film. He never has any kind of revelation or change of heart, and never really faces any difficult decisions. This rings true for the other protagonists as well. The film' message and conclusion is just as hollow as the characters. 

Bottom Line- 6/10- Blomkamp's second film is far more forgettable than his first. It has the same fun visuals and action, but fails on the most important things that make a movie: characters and story. 

Pacific Rim (2013)

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Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi

Pacific Rim is a rare film considering its competition this summer. Its a big budget summer action film that manages not to be a reboot, sequel, remake, or a haphazard adaption of a novel. Yes, it is inspired by the giant monster movies of the past, but it manages to feel quite original and refreshing. So, what do you get in Pacific Rim? Just what the trailers have shown you: giant robots punching the shit out of giant monsters, and vice versa.

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'Nuff said

The plot in Pacific Rim is a fairly simple ordeal. Monsters, dubbed kaiju, are coming through an inter demential portal at the bottom of the sea. After cities are destroyed, the nations of the world pool their resources to create jaegers; giant, 250 story tall humanoid robots operated by two pilots  All of this is explained in the first 5 minutes of the film. This is one of the good things about the Pacific Rim. It doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary backstory, nor does it try to make up too much fake science to explain how it's fictional technology works.

After years of fighting the war against the kaiju, the jaegers start to loose their effectiveness. The nations that fund them start pulling out of the project to pursue other options. What was once an army of robots is reduced to a handful, stretched thin trying to push back the increasing number of monsters. Instead of continuing the war of attrition they decide to take the fight to the monsters, and collapse the portal that is delivering them to our world. Pacific Rim is definitely a movie that requires the suspension of disbelief. However, its not a movie that will insult your intelligence, like some other popcorn-entertainment flicks.

In the character department, Pacific Rim is a mixed bag. Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam) is our main charter,  a washed up jaeger pilot. He is a pretty blank slate, which is a normal story telling technique to allow the audience to insert themselves into the story. He is a bit too blank, and comes off as bland and forgettable. Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) is a rookie pilot with an interesting back story that doesn't get fleshed out enough. The one that really leads the cast is Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), who is a veteran pilot and in charge of the jaeger program. Never since Independence Day have such corny, cheese filled lines been delivered with so much fervor. Other times, I'm not sure which accent the British actor is trying to use. J.J Abrams Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are a fun addition as the pair of kaiju researchers attached to the jaeger program.

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Of course, you wouldn't be able to have this movie without copious amounts of CGI. Overall, it works, with the effects giving you a good deal of how freaking big these monsters and robots are. During the battle scenes there are a few neat moments that bring everything back down to average human level. One in particular involves a robo-fist plowing through an office building. The action scenes were excellently filmed, and the shaky cam is kept at a minimum. If you see it, you'll want to see it on the big screen. I get the feeling it won't be the same on a home TV screen.

 Bottom line- 8/10. Overall, Pacific Rim manages to be a quite entertaining action flick, with a fair amount of heart to go along with it. Those who complain about their inability to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy a film about giant robots vs monsters may want to skip it. It has plenty of action/disaster movie tropes and cliches, but also does something a little new, and has a few genuinely emotional moments.

Looper (2012)

Director: Rian Johnson

Release Date: 28 September, 2012

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

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Looper is... Hard to describe. Its a very interesting take on the very tired time travel genre. Even if you get a gist of its premise from the trailers and description; the plot manages to surprise on more than one occasion. It isn't a time travel movie, but more a movie about the what happens when time travel exists. If that makes any sense. 

Much, much more sense than this. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Joe, a looper. Loopers are special assassins hired by the mob to eliminate targets without leaving a trace. You see, the mob has access to illegal time travel devices in the future. When they want to wipe someone out, the victim sent back in time, bound and with a hood obscuring their face, where a waiting looper executes them and destroys the body. They're paid very handsomely for this morbid task. The only catch is that, eventually, they'll have to "close their loop". They must execute their future self to eliminate any evidence of time travel being used. The reward is a huge payout and 30 years to live as they wish. 

Of course, it doesn't go as planned. Joe becomes increasingly concerned as many of his fellow loopers are retired. Rumors go around that the mobsters in the future are planning on getting rid of all of the loopers. Eventually, Joe is brought face to face with future Joe (Bruce Willis). For some reason future Joe isn't bound or hooded, and quickly over powers young Joe. He escapes, intending to kill a future murderous gang leader only known as "The Rainmaker" while he is a child. Young Joe must hunt his future self down or become a target of the mob himself. 

Heres where the plot could have become very cliche. I was expecting future Joe and young Joe to eventually team up together to take down the gang. But that never happens. There's no "good"or "bad" Joe either. They both have an end goal they wish to achieve  and are willing to go to any means to get it. This leads to a showdown that completely caught me off guard (in a good way). 

Plot and story aside, Looper comes together pretty slickly. The future world has a very dirty "tech noir" feel to it that harkons to films like Blade Runner. Looper is fairly violent, but doesn't revel in the violence. It would have been easy for them to erase the blood, half second of visible breasts,  and a handful of F-bombs to get a PG-13 rating. But the mature and complex themes remain, which I don't think would appeal to a PG-13 audience. The film looks great, with some pretty impressive action sequences. They're not grand in scale where everything explodes leaving half of the world scorched. The set pieces are smaller, but the action is more tense because you actually care about the characters and their world.

"Yes, I know pages 37-90 are blank. Thats where all the CGI robots and fake boobs go."

The characters and actors are great. Willis and Godon-Levitt make a great pair and their chemistry with each other is great. Pierce Gagnon has a role as a youngster that puts most of the grown up actors in this movie to shame. He plays a character that is too spoiler-y for me to talk about here, but the performance deserves serious recognition. 

There is some silly makeup that Gordon-Levitt wears to make him look more like a younger version of Willis that looks pretty awful from some angles. It is something the film could have totally left out and it wouldn't have made a difference. The film ignores the time travel paradoxes that could potentially bog it down, which keeps it somewhat not confusing. That being said, the plot may be had for some to follow.

Bottom Line: 9/10- Looper is a surprisingly entertaining sci-fi film. It is a shining example of what sci fi should be. Introduce an amazing technology and ask a simple "what if?" question. Looper isn't about shoving as much shiny computer generated future on the screen as possible. Looper is about how the world can shape a person. Its about how even one person can become two completely different people, willing to go to completely different means to get what they want.