Elysium

Review by Pete Roche

“Blessed are the poor,” opined evangelist Matthew.  “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The beatitude figures heavily in the sophomore science-fiction adventure from Neill Blomkamp, the upstart South African director who delighted many fans of the genre (and disgusted others) with his 2009 segregation allegory DISTRICT 9. 

In ELYSIUM, urban blight has gone global by the early 22^nd century, leaving Earth ill, underfed, overpopulated, and crime-infested.  The skyscrapers once occupied by well-to-do execs have been abandoned to street urchins and opportunists, but most of the planet’s millions of luckless souls live crammed in polluted slums and tent cities on the outskirts of the former metropolises.  Sentry robots maintain order with iron hands (literally) and have zero tolerance for resistance or sarcasm.  Astounding advances have been made in science and medicine, but the tech isn’t available to the impoverished 99%.

Dope Island: The Best Movie Book Nobody's Ever Heard Of

I've recently been enlightened that the Cleveland Movie Blog is open to book reviews as well. I suppose I always guessed that, but the full reality was too much for me to face. It's bad enough I go on about miserable movies all the time. You don't want to let me loose going on about books.

That's because of my complicity in assorted crimes against the art form. True, thanks to my early Super 8mm experiments and now dabbling on YouTube, I can sort of claim to be a "filmmaker," as shameful a confession as that is. But there's no getting away from it that I am, with no libelous exaggeration at all...an author.