Post: #1

Has anyone seen the movie Elysium yet? So many controversial topics in this movie. I took my kid to see it this weekend and I was cringing at the themes depicted. He's too young to understand. He just likes the sci-fi and explosions in the movie.

1. Private ultra-wealthy community located on the Elysium space station.

2. Very advanced medical technology that is only available to citizens of Elysium. Meanwhile dirt poor people are left to suffer and die on Earth.

3. Female in charge of the police/military. She repeatedly hires mercenary type people to handle police business even after being reprimanded by the President.

3. Feminist female plans a coup to overthrow the president and take control of the government.

4. Indian president of the world ...President Patel.

5. Unsafe working conditions for laborers and apathetic management. Management forces a guy to enter a radiation chamber to remove a blockage under threat of losing his job. He ends up getting stuck inside and exposed to lethal radiation and is given 5 days to live.

6. White Alpha Male characters are marginalized and depicted as laborers, thieves and terrorists against the government.

7. Police are heartless unfeeling Droids that enforce the law.

8. Heartless medical Droid on Earth that throws a bottle of pills at you. "Here take one of these with every meal until you die in 5 days".

Post: #2

I was kind of excited to watch it, then realised it's just a parody of everything bad that has ever been talked about here..

I don't really want to watch it now..

Post: #3

(09-23-2013 10:24 AM)Architekt Wrote:  I was kind of excited to watch it, then realised it's just a parody of everything bad that has ever been talked about here..

I don't really want to watch it now..

I hope I didn't spoil it for you. Don't waste your money at the theater.
You'll just get pissed off. You can watch it for free online.

Post: #4

I posted this elsewhere, but white nationalist Steve Sailer makes a good case that the South African director Neill Blomkamp is actually a right-wing anti-immigrationist.

It may well be that the film is supposed to portray a white man's nightmare world.

Honestly, I don't know how you guys can't enjoy films that you politically disagree with. I'll watch Birth of a Nation alongside Battleship Potemkin and feel just fine.

Who cares if the director is a liberal or a hard-core Afrikaner racist, if the film is any good.

Post: #5

The thing that irked me was that they didn't want earth ships to land on the space station world, but they had everything all open so anyone with a ship could touch right down if they made it through the anti=aircraft. It seemed like an unbelievable design to make the whole place mostly undefendable. I liked a lot of the dystopian stuff like the robot doctors.

You don't think you're going to keep being allowed to deal with expensive people if you're not an expensive person yourself, do you?

Post: #6

(09-23-2013 10:27 AM)Therapsid Wrote:  Honestly, I don't know how you guys can't enjoy films that you politically disagree with.

It all depends on which character you identify with.

Post: #7

(09-23-2013 10:06 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  1. Private ultra-wealthy community located on the Elysium space station.

7. Police are heartless unfeeling Droids that enforce the law.

8. Heartless medical Droid on Earth that throws a bottle of pills at you. "Here take one of these with every meal until you die in 5 days".

Sounds more like nonfiction than fiction.

Post: #8

I really enjoyed it. I only noticed the furore it had created when I saw some reviews from the States. Some of the right wing press were saying it was anti white, but I was thinking "all the main 'goodies' were white though". Then again, it depends whether you're classing white mexicans and brazilians as white... can't be bothered with this again haha!

Post: #9

Get ready for the future!

Post: #10

I thought the film was great, the story was good but the main reason was the character of Kruger (the Badass South African Guy)without him in it the film would of been a lot worse in my opinion. About the themes of the film I thought they were very similar and the story was quite similar to the film In Time starring Justin Timberlake. Basically the main difference is in the film In time the currency that the super rich have hoarded is "time" rather than wealth,resources etc.

Post: #11

Sounds like another spinoff of the Hunger Games.

Post: #12

(09-24-2013 04:51 PM)la_mode Wrote:  Sounds like another spinoff of the Hunger Games.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Elysium but it's nothing like The Hunger Games, which was actually a spinoff itself.

Post: #13

I'm sure it's different, but these "doom scenario" for everyone and only the fringe elite get to live in this secret society concept is just dumb to begin with, although it's metaphorical to what is happening with the growing rich/poor dynamic in the world. In that respect, they are similar.

Post: #14

The problem with movies like Elysium and Hunger Games is that they are taking the past and projecting it on the future. What I mean is that you have these civilizations with amazing advanced technologies and for some reason, they hoard these technologies and force the masses to live in squalor. Why?

In Hunger Games, they have the power to create live animals out of thin air and power some crazy space-age city, but they still have whole districts full of wheat farmers and coal miners. I haven't seen Elysium, but I imagine that there is something similar going on.

The reality of our present trajectory isn't that the masses are going to be kept in poverty and misery. Rather the masses are going to be kept fat, happy and distracted, because what the economy needs is not more labor, but more consumers. A good dystopic view of the future would have the majority of people existing as debt slaves instead of wage slaves.

Post: #15

Just saw it. What a ridiculous movie. Big drop off from District 9.

I laughed at the end when the Indian president was banging on the door like a maniac.

Post: #16

I saw some of the bilboard marketting for it before it came out. It got me interested then I went online to see the trailer. It looked really bad so I passed on that movie.

Seems I was right.

Post: #17

I saw Elysium based on my appreciation for District 9, filmed by the same South African director. Elysium was execrable. It was vapid and manipulative advertisement for Obamacare and Section 8 Housing.

The theme could be restated as we must break up White majority communities for the people to have health care. What possible incentive would there be not to have that healing machinery on earth and charge for its use? Zero. The flick should win a Nobel for Dumbassery.

Post: #18

I saw it, a bit ridiculous. If you wanted to create "Elysium" you could just dome it off for a lot less than creating some huge orbiting ring. Like Fort Bonifacio in Manila with a dome and air conditioning.

Kind of like when I saw Pacific Rim, I thought, why didn't they just blow up those Kaiju with low-yield nukes?

I thought that Kruger gave some moments of fun, I look forward to asking my Afrikaaner bodyguard friends what they thought of the movie. Most of them hated District 9.

Post: #19

I was hoping for something more like "Battle Angel Alita". I ended up pretty bored.

Post: #20

I thought it was ok but it looked like it had about half an hour cut out of it. I really like the director as District 9 is one of my favorite films.

Post: #21

Just saw it today on cable.
Fantastic movie.

Kind of a metaphor for the times we live in.

Depressing, but inspiring.

Post: #22

(09-25-2013 01:57 AM)j r Wrote:  The reality of our present trajectory isn't that the masses are going to be kept in poverty and misery. Rather the masses are going to be kept fat, happy and distracted, because what the economy needs is not more labor, but more consumers. A good dystopic view of the future would have the majority of people existing as debt slaves instead of wage slaves.

What are the consequences of this view of economics in a society? Would those who innovate and maintain the productive resources in a society rationalize themselves into codependents who must take care of the "debt slaves."

(09-25-2013 01:57 AM)j r Wrote:  What I mean is that you have these civilizations with amazing advanced technologies and for some reason, they hoard these technologies and force the masses to live in squalor. Why?

Post: #23

It's a silly movie that requires a lot of willing suspension of disbelief, but it is ultimately depressing with a few fun bits here and there. I was wondering why there were south africans inside the movie.

Post: #24

I liked it. Entertaining and a decent popcorn flick.

Post: #25

Saw it a few days ago. I liked the effects. Some of the plot points were weak. I was drunk, so I got pretty angry at the abusive droid cops, and felt engaged with it from an emotional standpoint. Over all, the movie felt like a veiled Messiah story (guy gets a death sentence, sacrifices his life so that everyone can get the ticket to heaven he has).