• From: Van Dieman's Land
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

bullet3 wrote:

Finally saw it, and you guys are being way too kind. It's forgettable and mediocre at best.

That't it, it's over folks. No one knows how to make sci-fi action movies anymore. If the guy who made District 9 can botch it like this, with basically full creative control, an R-rating, and 100 million dollar budget, it ain't happening.

The bar for a 'pass' is getting lower. While Oblivion and Elysium (& Stoker?) are looking to be the best movies of 2013, in prior decades, they wouldn't make the top #10. They'd be forgettable like Sphere or Event Horizon or Supernova.

At this stage, we'll take anything. Any redeeming features? At all? Look hard. There's one....pass.

Project the trend forward another 10-20 years, and Adam Sandler flicks will be revered like Citizen Kane.

Last edited by avatar (2013-09-01 18:36:09)

not long to go now...

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  • From: Gardena, California
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Still formulating my own thoughts but it's largely covered (bad movie, good VFX, what else is new).

The one thing I'll add is I noticed Jodie Foster's lines were mostly if not all overdubbed. I think her weird performance might be because she did the part in a different accent (given she speaks French a few times, I would guess a French accent), then they thought better of it for some reason (hard to understand, too silly, who knows) and then redid the lines more "neutral." But she had to match the cadence of the flat dialect to the other performance and it made it weird.

Total guess, but that's me Sherlocking it together. Doesn't make the performance or movie any better, just speculating for academic purposes.

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  • From: Farmington, CT
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Dorkman wrote:

The one thing I'll add is I noticed Jodie Foster's lines were mostly if not all overdubbed. I think her weird performance might be because she did the part in a different accent (given she speaks French a few times, I would guess a French accent), then they thought better of it for some reason (hard to understand, too silly, who knows) and then redid the lines more "neutral." But she had to match the cadence of the flat dialect to the other performance and it made it weird.

That's as good a guess as any, but given that Fichtner had the same weird sort of cadence, I'm not sure. She was definitely dubbed, though.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

I've heard they did reshoots with her, so that theory would make sense. She's in it so little though honestly, that if the rest of the movie worked, it wouldn't be a big deal (the big bad mercenary actor in district 9 wasn't very good either, but we go with it). Unfortunately the problems are core story, pacing, and filmmaking issues, which are much harder to ignore.

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30 Reply by Sam

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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Saw it last night. Thought it was absolutely pants.

I was pretty excited for Elysium as the trailers made it look pretty decent, but they really dropped the ball here. The concept was great on paper, but no one did anything that made sense. You've guys pretty much have covered why it was awful, but I got to thinking what could've made this a great movie:

First of all, why do most movies nowadays tend to build up this interesting world and then try and tear it down in 90 minutes? This is why Dredd was such a success, it was just him trying to get on with his day. You don't need to do it about the rebooting of Elysium.

They could've had Matt Damon find out his kid is sick or something and then show him deal with that by way of getting to Elysium. Maybe have him get a hold of those shuttle launch codes that the poor people just happen to have in the beginning of the movie with not much explanation. You have Max trying to get his kid to a medi bay. That's all the premise of the movie should be. Along the lines of that Firefly episode perhaps (Ariel I think it was called?)
That would be a much tenser and  exciting sequence of events to watch, in my opinion.

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  • From: Farmington, CT
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Sam wrote:

Saw it last night. Thought it was absolutely pants.

I don't know what that means, but it's my new favorite saying.

"The Doctor is Submarining through our brains." --Teague

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  • From: Chicago-ish
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

They call it slang, but it's actually code.

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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  • From: State of Idaho
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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Sam wrote:

Saw it last night. Thought it was absolutely pants.

I was pretty excited for Elysium as the trailers made it look pretty decent, but they really dropped the ball here. The concept was great on paper, but no one did anything that made sense. You've guys pretty much have covered why it was awful, but I got to thinking what could've made this a great movie:

First of all, why do most movies nowadays tend to build up this interesting world and then try and tear it down in 90 minutes? This is why Dredd was such a success, it was just him trying to get on with his day. You don't need to do it about the rebooting of Elysium.

They could've had Matt Damon find out his kid is sick or something and then show him deal with that by way of getting to Elysium. Maybe have him get a hold of those shuttle launch codes that the poor people just happen to have in the beginning of the movie with not much explanation. You have Max trying to get his kid to a medi bay. That's all the premise of the movie should be. Along the lines of that Firefly episode perhaps (Ariel I think it was called?)
That would be a much tenser and  exciting sequence of events to watch, in my opinion.

That was my initial impression of it was that Damon's motivation was more personal than really just a tool to achieve a specific end.

Would making it more personal have worked better?

God loves you!

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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

IT gets to the fact that modern filmmaking is WAY over-stuffed with convoluted PLOT at the expense of memorable action or characters. Dredd is a good counter-point actually, as it sets up it's world, protagonists, and villain, all within 10 minutes of screen-time, without any shitty protracted flashback scenes that add nothing. Elysium is one of those rare movies that simultaneously feels like its too long, but also feels like it's missing an hour of material. That's always a sign of bad pacing.

I think the movie would've been much better if it just started cold on Damon's character, and we never even met the villains until he crosses paths with them.

Last edited by bullet3 (2013-09-02 14:44:40)

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35 Reply by Sam

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Re: Elysium [Spoilers Marked]

Doctor Submarine wrote:
Sam wrote:

Saw it last night. Thought it was absolutely pants.

I don't know what that means, but it's my new favorite saying.

Haha, it just means it's trash.
If you like that, we brits also use 'toilet/toilet sheet' as a noun.


But going back to the movie....yes. I would've preferred it if it was a more personal story on Matt Damon's part at least. He initially didn't even want to help the sick kid (who looked fine to me haha) and kind of eventually sacrifices himself for the greater good blah blah.

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