As we mentioned earlier today in our giant summer movie preview, “Elysium,” Neill Blomkamp‘s eagerly awaited follow-up to his groundbreaking “District 9,” is one of the movies we’re most looking forward to this summer. Pitched between social commentary and sci-fi spectacle, the movie envisions a futuristic earth that’s ruined and toxic, with the most powerful and wealthy humans living on an orbiting space station called Elysium. As two new photos from the movie show, Earth really has gone to hell.
The movie’s plot concerns a grunt (Matt Damon) who is irradiated and has to force his way into Elysium (run by an icy Jodie Foster) to get the necessary cancer treatment. In order to get to Elysium, he has to outfit himself in robotic prosthetics and outrun a deadly bounty hunter (Sharlto Copley). The two new photos feature Damon on the desolate earth, fully kitted out with his robo-enhancements. There’s another dude in these photos, who seems to have similar embellishments, and Damon looks pretty angry. Probably has to do with the flaming wreckage all around him.
In terms of creating a very specific and distinct mood, Blomkamp has succeeded. The question, of course, will be whether or not the politics of “Elysium” are too on-the-nose. If they start to clutter and get in the way of the fizzy sci-fi fun, then that would be truly awful. Maybe Blomkamp called Paul Verhoeven for pointers on how to navigate the tricky waters of the social commentary sci-fi game? (Photos courtesy of CinemaTeaser.)
“Elysium” opens on August 9th in a space station near you.
