Elysium...no wonder the RW is pissed (some spoilers)

[nadinbrzezinski]

One of the corporate heads, he dies, last name is Carlyle...I think Rush can rightfully say it was a slam...on the Carlyle group...heartless, the way you imagine a CEO. Unlike Bane of the Batman series, this is of recent creation.

And in the end the 99% occupy the place using code, and bullets...and bring down the order of things. They also force the redistribution of resources...the obvious is medical.

In a sense it is not a classic American movie, the hero does not get the girl, but it shows the costs of revolution are very real.

It was a good movie...at least to us.

But yup, I can totally see why they won't precisely like it.

[Warpy]

1. I like movies that rattle the right cages

This one is on my list for when it comes out on DVD. So is "The Butler."

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. We plan to watch the butler next week

[avebury]

30. I saw it today and loved it.

Forrest Whitaker, Oprah and David Oyelowo gave great performances. I loved how Forrest Whitaker and David Oyelowo played off against one another as father and son.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. I thought it was great. It's certainly more action than drama, and it may not win any Oscars.

It did have a good message, and it was entertaining.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. They do give them for special effects

So there it could.

Summer movies are rarely nominated...though I thought Matt Damon was a very good acting. Now Carlyle...can we say cardboard cutout? Jodie Foster's character exuded evil.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. Matt Damon and Jodie Foster's acting were great as usual.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The guy playing Spyder

Apart of the classic cyberpunk character, was actually my favorite. He was very complex and the character act made him evolve in the mind of the viewer.

[liberal_at_heart]

7. he did kind of steal some scenes didn't he?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Yes, his character arc was textbook

Last edited Sat Aug 17, 2013, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)

I have a software program for writers...can't wait to get the screenplay and beat sheet on it

Countour is the software program, the other is Save the Cat

[demwing]

11. Whats that software title?

if you don't mind saying

[Berlum]

9. The flick makes plain the occultist Republicon ideal

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I would not say Republican only

there are those who claim to be Democrats who also believe in the same ideals, just not to the extreme of the RW. In fact, they are Right Wingers, moderate ones.

But there are others, not just Republicans, who believe in the market is king and if you cannot pull yourself by bootstraps, you deserve to die.

[Scootaloo]

12. A friend of mine shared a rant she recieved from a libertarian "friend" about the movie.

He of course lamented that it was "liberal nonsense filtered through Hollywood" and was "pro-Obamacare, pro-Illegal immigration"...

But what cracked me up was this guy's litany of other sci-fi franchises he thinks the movie "stole" from, including - this one made me laugh the hardest - Ringworld. Oh, Elysium is a ring-shaped space station, but you might as well compare it to Halo or ANY space station from sci-fi. I concluded this guy's either never seen the movie nor read Ringworld

My only problem is that max is a pretty unlikeable character. Sympathetic perhaps, but his personality is one of selfish entitlement. Maybe that's intentional, some sort of meta-story, the selfish jerk opening up just as Elysium does. But it still leaves us with Matt Damon being sort o a floppy prick for the first two acts.

[Brigid]

33. I thought that Max was a pretty believable character . . .

For someone who grew up in that kind of environment.

[Butterbean]

13. I don't want to see it because as a mom, even the trailers made me really upset.

I am so sensitive to sick/dying/murdered children, even when it's "just a movie." I am very tender hearted and just can't deal, and freak out really easily. Just answer me this, okay? Does the sick little girl live? Does she get cured? God please tell me she does. That part of the trailer just about killed my soul.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Yes, she does, at the end

but Damon's character has to make the ultimate sacrifice. She is cured, and the resources of Elyseum are extended to Earth.

[Butterbean]

15. Thank you. I'm actually all teary eyed now and a little queasy.

See? This is why I can't see the whole freaking movie. I'd have a damned breakdown. Thank you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I understand. And you know yourself...

[Skittles]

16. believe it or not, you don't have to be a mom to find it upsetting

[Butterbean]

18. I know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply only mothers would be upset.

Once I had kids, seeing that stuff became physically intolerable. I couldn't watch the news for many months after the birth of my first kid because all they ever talked about it seemed was somebody's child getting kidnapped, maimed, molested, or killed. My tenderheartedness went up about tenfold once the kids got here, and it really affected everything, including how I handled certain things at work to even how certain stupid commercials affected me.

I know people who don't have kids are certainly affected, yes. I was just referring to my experience of my sensitivity increasing so much after having them. Before having kids, I probably could have sat through the movie at least without having a panic attack. Now there's just no way, it's too personal.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. We have no kids

And covering the Hanna Anderson story was probably the hardest to cover.

After the vigil I came home and had a good cry before...writing it.

You are not alone, mothers do indeed report that. It is normal.

[Butterbean]

20. Oh my God, you poor thing. I can't even imagine, I'm so sorry. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. We had a job to do

And speaking amber alert brought her home

The media collectively has a very small role to play, but we did.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Remember this whine festival?

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/07/01/25504/right-wing-hates-wall-e/

[Butterbean]

23. Oh for fuck's sake. Every time somebody whines/complains about

the "evils of environmentalism," I always retort with, "what on earth is wrong with wanting clean air and clean water?" When they complain about regulations that they say are associated with global climate change, which they assert is false, I again retort with, "Well, even if what you say is true and climate change is false, what's wrong with wanting to preserve natural resources and cut back on trash and keep the planet clean for future generations? Why is that a bad thing?" I have found that shuts them up immediately, every single time.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. If they whine about the COST of a clean environment say, "It's only money."

(I like watching the veins in their temples bulge.)

[Butterbean]

26. That's easily shut down, too. I use the same argument I use for

funding for early intervention. Pay a little in prevention/intervention now, or pay dearly to fix the problem later. You can either pay up front to prevent problems (or in the case of early intervention, to help train/prepare an entire generation of future workers/taxpayers), or you can pay later to clean up the environmental mess (or to support an entire generation of untrained/totally dependent adults). The ol' ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure adage. It's pure logic, and if they disagree they're being morons, and they know it. That one usually shuts them up too.

[jwirr]

25. I am hoping to get to see it but when one lives in the boomdocks it takes a while. We need movies

like this with a good deal of reality.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Well we were wondering what was the Ciudad Perdida they used

as a backstage. It could be one near Mexico City... Part of the production was in Mexico

[prairierose]

28. Nadin, I read an article yesterday....

that said it was filmed near Mexico city. Sorry, can't remember where or I saw it or I would provide a link.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. We thought so, reminded me of the area leading to Puebla

[Brigid]

31. If Blomkamp had really wanted to give the RW shit fits . . .

He would have had the Earth people hijack a few of those transports and invade Elysium. I wonder if maybe that was his first idea and it was nixed by the studio.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. How many were shot down?

On the way? What they did... in my mind, was more than adequate to explain that side of the story.

I suspect they used the EMS robots and ships as a symbol of redistribution... since it is easy to get.

But when the credits finished rolling, both hubby and I were both going... no wonder the RW is getting shits over this, the peasants revolt and get medical care for all.

[Brigid]

34. I meant a full-scale military-style invasion.

What they showed was civilians trying to enter Elysium to get medical treatment or other assistance. It looked to me like they might have had the manpower to stage an actual rebellion.

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. Yes, but that would be a very different movie

[hunter]

36. The frightening thing about Elysium is it looks a lot like the world of today.

The gated communities of Elysium, the slums and overstretched hospitals of Earth... these things already exist.

I've stayed with wealthy people in La Jolla, and I've stayed with struggling people in Tijuana.

Minus the robots and fusion powered shuttles, the world of Elysium is already here.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Since it was filmed near Mexico City

absolutely.

I worked in an ambulance in TJ, the scenes at the LA County Hospital were very reminiscent of the General Hospital in Tijuana in the 1980s and 90s. Yes, it was that crowded. The disregard for worker safety, it is already here, and not in the Developing World, but here in the US.

The world exists, but the movie is a way to tell us here is what it is going on. Sci Fi is not about the future, rarely it is about the future. It is a mirror to the present or where things are going in the near future.

[Brigid]

37. Something else struck me that has gotten little attention.

Remember that scene where Max was forced by his boss to enter that radioactive area and got trapped there? They took him to sick bay, and he was coldly told by a medical robot that he had been exposed to radiation and would die in five days. "Thank you for your service," the robot says. Wow.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Yuo, a good reflection of where we are with worker safety

it is not "that bad yet" but if I go on the intertubes I can find that.