Elysium

[Ginaz]

Have you even seen this movie or are you taking this as an opportunity to ramble about social injustice?  Its a bad movie with some really bad performances that tries way too hard trying send us a message.  Period.  End of story.

Nothing I said here disputed that. But the trying of sending a message isn't a singular fault of this movie. Its what Scifi movies tend to do. Social commentary under the guise of distant future or alternative dimensions is one of the reasons why some SciFi was and is created.

You can blast them for doing it bad or hamfisted. Blasting them for even trying it shows a severe lack of knowledge in Scifi history which is the thing I pointed out here.

There's ways to have a message movie work without beating your audience over the head with it.  This movie failed to do that.  Again, have you even seen it?

[lamaros]

Stop saying SciFi. It's SF these days people.

[Margalis]

Stop saying SciFi. It's SF these days people.

Is this a serious comment? I honestly have no idea.

Edit: To clarify, this has been a debate since like 1970. "SF" is just SciFi for people who think calling it something else makes it more respectable.

[Stormwaltz]

Was that a plot hole?  My understanding was that the ground merc system was based on 'plausible deniability'.

I didn't recall that, but I would count the utter lack of plausibility as an additional plot hole.

[SurfD]

Was that a plot hole?  My understanding was that the ground merc system was based on 'plausible deniability'.

I didn't recall that, but I would count the utter lack of plausibility as an additional plot hole.

Considering the level of tech difference displayed, the idea that Elysium would not have weapon's tech capable of shooting down the stuff the earthies were sending up (which, lets face it, is probably barely spaceworthy, held together by spit and duct-tape crap) does not really seem that far fetched.   Besides, it like they just leave that kind of stuff sitting around all over the place where anyone can get it.  It was pretty much stated that the unit the merc was directed to was some kind of drop / plant, which may have been there for a while (given it's cammo), but was probably completely inaccessable without the proper access codes / authorization.

[MediumHigh]

Merc teams living on shithole earth capable of shooting up at your space station/second earth and you incapable of shooting back? Makes perfect sense.

[kaid]

Merc teams living on shithole earth capable of shooting up at your space station/second earth and you incapable of shooting back? Makes perfect sense.

Sure it makes perfect sense. It is deniability. The rich in elysium can say oh noes we did not kill the immigrents it was the nasty dirty terrorists on earth that keep shooting them down. We are kind and gentle people and want only whats best for the people of earth so of course we would never think of harming innocent women and children.

[kaid]

I was also disappointed that never any explanation as to why they didn't have these miracle medical station things on Earth. I had assumed that it was a matter of resources through most of the movie, and that they were either too hard to mass produce, or they required a shit ton of energy or something. At the end though we see that there are easily dispatchable med ships full of them capable of traveling from Elysium to Earth. I was hoping to see that Matt Damon's actions at the end came with some sort of cost, but nope.

I think the decision not to put these miracle medical stations on earth originally was a concious and political one. If your world is hugely overpopulated and starved of resources giving people effective immortality takes those problems and amplifies them to insane levels. Sure while everybody wants to never get sick or injured or die if nobody ever does than the population will keep exploding until either you managed to colonize everything in space or you run yourself totally out of resources and the population eats itself.

[Tannhauser]

Makes sense.  Too bad the movie couldn't even spend a sentence saying similar. 

[Ingmar]

Stop saying SciFi. It's SF these days people.

What does San Francisco have to do with this? SciFi (or sci-fi, which I would be more likely to type I think) is much clearer.

[UnSub]

I thought it was SyFy.

[SurfD]

Makes sense.  Too bad the movie couldn't even spend a sentence saying similar. 

Why should it?  They didnt have to come right out and have some Elysium beauroctat say "neener neener, we dont want you to have this".  It was pretty heavily implied that the people of Elysium just didnt care.  They were wealthy and powerful assholes, doing their best to live their comfy, rich lives, while pretty much willfully ignoring the people of earth.   Earth was not their problem. They moved off earth centuries before to get away from it all.  Why should they go out of their way to help, and risk the safety / comfort provided by Walled Garden by giving the people of earth access to the same things they have? The average elysiumite would probably just as soon have forgotten the people of earth even existed if they could.

I said it before.  I believe the message the movie had (in the broad strokes) was more about the idea that people with vast wealth, power and influnce are more likely to do everything in their power to keep that power / influence and the benefits it comes with for themselves, then use it to help those in need.   If you gave the average person a billion dollars,  99% of them would use it to to enrich their own lives and live in luxury rather then donate it to charities or help clothe / feed the poor.

[MediumHigh]

I thought this forum prepared me for how dumb this movie was going to be.... man was I mistaken.

[murdoc]

This movie was awful and I couldn't stop wondering how the Hell he got his t-shirt on under all the cyborg stuff.

[Abagadro]

You people are weird.  I really liked this.  I also think you are all missing the point. It is an actual sci-fi story (unlike most supposed "sci-fi" put on the screen) as the universe is made to illustrate some themes, but the story isn't really about the big overarching social themes.  Reminded me of Modesitt's stuff.  Had to take some short-cuts because of the format, but otherwise was very true to that type of sci-fi book.

And for people complaining about being hit over the head you pretty clearly missed a lot of the subtext of what was going on.

[shiznitz]

Subtext #1: Jodie Foster can no longer act but she is still willing to get paid for it.

Subtext #2: LA = the world

[MediumHigh]

You people are weird.  I really liked this.  I also think you are all missing the point. It is an actual sci-fi story (unlike most supposed "sci-fi" put on the screen) as the universe is made to illustrate some themes, but the story isn't really about the big overarching social themes.  Reminded me of Modesitt's stuff.  Had to take some short-cuts because of the format, but otherwise was very true to that type of sci-fi book.

And for people complaining about being hit over the head you pretty clearly missed a lot of the subtext of what was going on.

I think this movie is carried by people who felt guilty for missing out on District 9, which was an example of great sci-fi, with actual subtext and didn't preach to you the message it did have with oversimplification and boring deliver.