Blomkamp's 'Elysium'

 

Earth, 2154. The planet is plagued by disease, famine, poverty, overpopulation and other nasties. The rich have relocated to 'Elysium', a super-advanced paradisiac habitat that orbits the earth, leaving the poor to suffer. Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), an orphan raised by nuns, is a convicted felon, out on parole, living in squalor and working at a droid-manufacturing plant owned by Armadyne, a security technology corporation. One day Max is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, in a work accident, and is left with only 5 days to live, before his organs shutdown. Max must leave earth, where he cannot receive life-saving medical attention, and get to Elysium, where he can access a 'Med-Bay', an ultra-advanced device that can cure almost any disease and heal almost any type of injury. But there are many perilous obstacles in Max's way, that he must surmount at any cost, and therein lies the spellbinding tale.

 

I like Trent Opaloch's cinematography. This film is a feast for the eyes. The scenes that depict the wasteland that earth has become, have virtually no colour, and this 'bleached' look, accentuates the desolation. This reminds me of an article I read some years back -- an interview that filmmaker David O. Russell gave. Russell talked about his brilliant film 'Three Kings', which also has the 'bleached' look that the 'earth segments' of 'Elysium' have. Russell said that he and his collaborators used a process called 'Bleach Bypass', to achieve the 'washed out' look of 'Three Kings', which was meant to give the film a realistic sheen -- like news footage. I wonder if they used the same process for 'Elysium'.

The scenes that are set on the paradise that is Elysium, are the visual opposite of those scenes set on earth. On Elysium, it's 'All Colours Go!' Every conceivable colour appears here. The whole colour gamut is restored in these scenes. We see lush, green lawns; bright red security droids and bright red helicopters, amongst other things. This richness of colour on Elysium, juxtapositioned with the scarcity of colour on earth, hits home the idea that these two places are vastly different.

 

It took me some time to get used to Sharlto Copley, as a villain. He just seems like this approachable, gentle human being who wouldn't harm a fly -- the kind of person whom you approach to play a sort of nerdy character, like his Wikus van der Merwe from 'District 9'. Had Copley played the bloodthirsty, psychologically disturbed mercenary, Kruger, without a beard, I doubt very much that I would have found him believable. The copious amounts of facial hair -- his beard -- gave his 'soft' face some grit, and ultimately helped me suspend my disbelief.

The beautiful actress Alice Braga, who plays Frey, Max's love interest, seems to be making a name for herself in big-budget Sci-Fi fare, such as 'Elysium'. She played opposite Will Smith's Robert Neville, in the Francis Lawrence-directed 'I Am Legend'. She played opposite Jude Law in Miguel Sapochnik's dystopian artificial-organ-repossession actioner 'RepoMen'. And now this. Braga is a highly capable actress. I enjoy her work, a great deal.

'Armadyne', the name of the droid-manufacturing corporation in this film, struck me as a nod to 'Cyberdyne Systems', a similar corporation in the 'Terminator' series of movies. And the name of Matt Damon's character Max, struck me as a reference to the character popularised by Mel Gibson, in the dystopian 'Mad Max' movies.

 

The camera moves in a pretty interesting way, in the scene where Max and a couple of Spider's (Wagner Moura) men, conduct a 'data heist' -- stealing 'organic data' from the brain of Armadyne CEO, John Carlyle (William Fichtner). Specifically, just after Max has fired 'air-burst' rounds (from what seems to be a suped-up AK-47) at one of Carlyle's security droids, which shatter it, spectaculary, into tiny pieces. And when Max moves away from this spot, to the downed shuttle, where John Carlyle is, the camera sort of 'locks' onto Max, who becomes the visual center of the frame, and 'pivots' from him, whenever it moves. And as Max moves around, one can see, for lack of a better description, 'video scan lines', which briefly make the movie feel like a 3D shooting video game, which is very enjoyable to see. Blomkamp did something similar to this, with the camera, in 2009's 'District 9', which was also fun to see.

 

There's an interesting mix of languages in this film -- English, Afrikaans, Spanish and a bit of French. It's not often that one comes across such. I am intrigued by the fact that Jodie Foster, who plays power-hungry Defense Secretary Delacourt, can speak French and has appeared in ‘A Very Long Engagement’, a film by renowned French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet. I found it interesting that it was mostly Hispanic people that were fighting to reach Elysium. And Elysium seemed to be populated mostly by White people. Hmm.
This is the first film in which I've seen a super-advanced Bugatti shuttle, that can accelerate to supersonic speed, in seconds, and a super-advanced Versace tanning bed. I found this imaginative. The shuttle impressed me more. It's a triumph of flying vehicle design. All of the design in 'Elysium' is impressive, from the environments; to the vehicles; to the weapons; to the droids and other things. It's all absolutely impressive. I haven’t yet fathomed the mechanics behind the exo-skeletons worn by Max and Kruger, but these devices were so beautifully realised, I was willing to suspend my disbelief.

 

Ryan Amon's score is nothing short of magnificent. There's a certain very poignant piano-based theme that plays just before Max dies, while he's saying his last words to Frey -- 'Max and Frey' would be an appropriate name for it -- it's magnificent. This theme carries over into the sequence showing the Emergency Medical Services ships being deployed to earth, and closes the film. Then follows the piece that plays at the beginning of the end credits roll, with its exquisite strings, or is it wind instruments? I'm not sure. It's achingly beautiful.

Max has to die, so that the poor masses of earth may enter Elysium -- paradise. Is he a messiahnic figure? In the climactic fight between Max and Kruger, towards the end of the film, the camera lingers on the blood flowing from Max's hand -- a wound inflicted by the blade-loving Kruger. Could this be a reference to the stigmata of Christ -- the holes pierced through his palms, as he was nailed to the cross? Is any of this... religious symbolism?

Why does Max sometimes experience fleeting, but severe head pain, when he encounters Kruger? Kruger has bits of metal sticking out of each of his cheeks -- is he some kind of cyborg? Are these remnants of the various surgical procedures that he has undergone (perhaps in a 'Med-Bay'), for injuries sustained on the job?

 

Interestingly, Carlyle has the word "RICHE", which I think is French for ''rich'', imprinted on his right cheek.

The location of Max and Kruger's final confrontation -- a sort of bridge, linking two buildings, one of them housing The Core; the 'central processing unit' that runs Elysium -- is somewhat reminiscent of a Japanese garden, because of the few pink flower blossoms (what the Japanese might call "sakura") that are on either side of it.

 

It's interesting how director Neill Blomkamp is taking Afrikaans culture (and South African culture in general) to the world, through his films. Sharlto Copley's psychotic Kruger is the caricature of the bad Afrikaner, gleefully taken to extremes. This makes for some welcome bursts of comic relief, sprinkled throughout the film. There's even a scene in which Kruger sings an Afrikaans lullaby to a child. Afrikaans words like 'lekker', 'boet', 'kak' and 'boitjie', are used liberally. 'Elysium' is 'more Afrikaans', so to speak, than Blomkamp's previous 'District 9'. Here he really let's loose. And quite enjoyably so.

I like Blomkamp's brand of Sci-Fi. It has a great deal of heart. The human element always transcends the pseudo-technology, no matter how awe-inspiring that technology may be. Okay, I may have overshot the mark there, as I have seen only two of his feature-length films.

I have watched 'Elysium' three times thus far, not knowing that this particular (bootleg) DVD had English subtitles, so I missed everything that was said in Spanish. I only discovered the subtitles when I was well into my essay, while watching particular scenes and verifying my recollections. I decided that if this piece was ever going to see the light of day, I would have to let that go. I had spent more time than necessary, altering, adding and primping, already. "A work of art is never finished", they say, "it is abandoned."

Liebesman's 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'

 

So I finally watched Jonathan Liebesman’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ last night, courtesy of my 8-year-old nephew Ethan, who (to cut a long story short) acquired the DVD. The following are my first impressions, which are likely to alter with subsequent viewings.

Ethan was educating me, telling me the names of the four Turtles, by colour, and I listened humbly to his Master Splinter-like wise counsel. It was cute. I was watching the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ animated TV series; eating TMNT ice cream; buying a TMNT colouring book and keeping it in pristine condition; and drawing the Turtles for my classmates in primary school, about 15 years before he was born. So, it was cute.

Designer Massimo Vignelli said “If you do it right, it will last forever.” The ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ are a perfect example of this. In the early ‘90s, when I was a preteen, the TMNT were all the rage. Now two and a half decades later, I’m 33-years-old, and TMNT are still a hot commodity. Creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman outdid themselves. They created a pop culture phenomenon that has stood the test of time, that has lasted ‘forever’. Okay 25 years isn’t ‘forever’, but you get the point.

 

It’s difficult to make a child-friendly science fiction-action-adventure-comedy movie, in which there are four giant reptiles who wield Ninja weapons and a ‘robot samurai’ who shoots knives from his arms. Liebesman had the task of restraining the gore and not showing a single trace of blood (except in the ‘blood draining’ scene) in this film where bullets, katana, bo-staff, sai and nunchaku, fly in almost every frame, without looking ridiculous. He pulled it off. Although, I think the child-friendly rating (PG-13), kept this film from really soaring, from achieving its full potential. Had TMNT had an ‘R’ Rating, it would have been a much better film, I think.

 

When bad guy scientist Eric Sacks (William Fichtner) had Leonardo (Johnny Knoxville), Donatello (Jeremy Howard) and Michaelangelo (Noel Fisher), in his clutches and was marveling at these mutated humanoid reptiles, that he and other scientists, unwittingly created, he said something like “And to think, we could have used rabbits!” This struck me as a nod to cartoonist Stan Sakai’s rabbit bodyguard, Usagi Yojimbo. I enjoyed this.

When Splinter (Tony Shalhoub) tells the Turtles how they ended up in the sewers, that it was the young April O’Neil (Megan Fox) who saved them from a laboratory fire and brought them here, he calls April a ‘hogosha’ – a guardian spirit. Then one of the Turtles says, quite funnily and somewhat reverentially, “Dude, like, our friend is a guardian spirit” or something like that. I found this amusing.

 

The action sequences, though impressively elaborate and ambitious (e.g. the chase down a snow-covered slop), left me a little underwhelmed. Why? Perhaps it’s because I felt a sense of deja vu, as though I had seen it all before. In one shot, I felt that a CG character didn’t interact convincingly with a human actor. This is when April meets Splinter for the first time. We see this brief shot of them facing one another, but Megan Fox, to me, doesn’t look like she can actually see the computer-generated Splinter. Did the problem lie with the acting, or the VFX, or both?

 

There are four giant turtles and one giant rodent, who have a familial bond; unwittingly form an alliance with a female reporter; have mastered Asian-style armed and unarmed combat; live beneath a gigantic city that is threatened by a diabolical scientist and an evil, shadowy master of the war arts. I am looking for the subtext and symbolism, in this premise. I can’t find any.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, this name manages to combine four disparate elements – a phase in the growth or aging of a human being, a genetic phenomenon, an ancient martial art used by mercenaries in feudal Japan, and a reptile that resembles a tortoise – and makes it look natural. This is quite a feat, if you ask me.

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ is a great deal of fun to watch. I look forward to watching it again.

A fairly enjoyable, decadent, slice of French cinema

'The Page Turner' ( La Tourneuse de Pages) is about Mélanie Prouvost, a girl (played here by Julie Richalet) who dreams of becoming a concert pianist. She attends trials with her mother, at a prestigious school. In the middle of her piano recital, one of the panel of judges watching and listening, who happens to be distinguished concert pianist Ariane Fouchécourt (Catherine Frot), is disturbed by an assistant who brings her a message. Mélanie stops in the middle of her performance, waitng for the messenger to leave, so that all the judges may be attentive to her. With the messenger gone, she resumes her recital, but the flow of her performance has been interrupted, and the judges are not impressed. They do not accept her into the school. Her dream is destroyed.

Years later, when Mélanie is now a young woman (played here by the immensely beautiful Déborah François) she lands a job at Jean Fouchécourt's law firm (husband of Ariane Fouchécourt, who interrupted Mélanie's recital, all those years ago) so that she may exact her revenge. After working at the law firm for a while and gaining the trust and admiration of her employer, she finagles her way into Fouchécourt's opulent home, where she is charged with the care of their only child -- a young boy named Tristan, who's a budding pianist.

The vengeful damsel puts her diabolical plan into motion. One afternoon, when Ariane (who doesn't remember Mélanie at all, now that she's an adult) is practicing for an upcoming concert, Mélanie comes into the room, goes over to the piano, reads the music sheet from which Ariane is playing, and without invitation, turns the page at the right moment, so that Ariane may play on uninterrupted. Ariane is greatly impressed that this seemingly 'unmusical' young woman who's taking care of their son can read music. Ariane then hires Mélanie to be her page turner at the upcoming concert. The concert comes Mélanie turns beautifully for Ariane, and the crowd is immensely impressed by the performance. A strong bond begins to form between the two.

Jean goes away on a business trip, leaving Ariane, Tristan and Mélanie. Mélanie is due to leave the couple's home soon, so she doesn't waste time. She makes romantic overtures towards her host, Ariane, and a little romantic affair blossoms. But Mélanie is feigning her feelings, it's all part of her plan. With Ariane still in an emotionally vulnerable state because of some unpleasant past event whose nature I cannot recall, she falls deeply in love with Mélanie. Not only is Mélanie the pianist's page turner, she is now her love interest too. Ariane is now doubly dependent on her, Mélanie has become like a drug to her.

One of Ariane's band members, tells her that she doesn't have a good feeling about the new page turner, and Ariane doesn't pay any attention, she's smitten. Another concert comes and the Mélanie intentionally absconds, at the last minute, from the concert, leaving a stranger to turn for Ariane. Ariane is devastated. She is a nervous wreck. Without her lover at her side, the concert is a flop. Ariane, and the rest of the band members' reputation is tarnished. After the ill-fated concert, Mélanie reappears, and because Ariane has fallen so deeply in love with her, she tries to reprimand her, but she can't, she goes against her better judgement and takes her back. Mélanie is in a position of immense power -- exactly where she wants to be.

On the evening before Mélanie's departure from the Fouchécourt's home, Ariane writes a note, declaring her love for the young woman, and tells her that she would like to see her again (without Jean's knowledge off course), and slips the note under the Mélanie's bedroom door. Mélanie sees the note, reads it and keeps it -- ammunition to use against the woman who cheated her of her dream. Morning comes and Mélanie is up earlier than she's supposed to be, packs all of her belongings, leaves the note from Ariane in Jean's study, with the rest of his mail, where he's sure to see it, and blithely walks out through the large, ornate, front gate, without saying goodbye. Tristan sees her leave though.

Jean returns from his business trip and receives a warm welcome from his wife and son. He enters his study and as per habit, starts checking his mail, and discovers the romantic note. He reads it and is so shocked, he is at a loss for words. He enters the room where Ariane and Tristan are waiting to give him his homecoming surprise, shell shocked and holding the note in his hand. Ariane sees the deathly morbid look on Jean's face, and the note in his hand, and knows that she is ruined. She is so filled with the pain of shame that she falls to the floor, unconscious.

The camera cuts to Mélanie, walking alone down a picturesque country road, with a look of self-satisfaction in her steely eyes. Mission accomplished. Revenge has been exacted.

I had seen this film, about seven years ago, in a film magazine (Sight and Sound, I think) and had been intrigued by it. So when the Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo library -- my only source of French cinema (this isn't a paid advertisement, by the way :)) -- acquired a copy, I was thrilled. I snapped it up.

Deborah Francois, the actress who plays the older Mélanie, is immensely talented and beautiful. It's a pleasure to watch her. She bares a resemblance to the great Audrey Hepburn. She is the French equivalent of Hepburn. I adore her.

The 'questionable romance' in this film was, ahem… interesting to behold. There's a scene in which Mélanie emerges from a swimming pool, water flowing down her scantily clad form, and walks past Ariane, who looks at… You get the picture. :)

I found 'The Page Turner' to be a fairly enjoyable film.

Del Toro's Fantastic 'Robots-versus-Monsters' Epic

Tectonic movement under the Pacific Ocean, creates a fissure, but this is no ordinary fissure, it's a portal, a bridge between our world and another world populated by beings bent on exterminating humanity and taking over earth. To achieve their goal, the hostile alien beings, send gigantic creatures known as Kaiju, to wreak large scale destruction on land. To counter this attack, humanity pools its resources and creates monsters of its own -- equally gigantic robots known as Jaegers, piloted by two people through a neural link, and capable of destroying Kaiju. The battle for earth escalates, culminating in a final confrontation deep under the ocean.

 'Pacific Rim' is a Guillermo del Toro film alright. Long time collaborator Ron Perlman is in it; there are massive, highly unsual creatures in it; it has dimly lit visuals, in which a golden yellow colour tends to appear; it was photographed by long time collaborator Guillermo Navarro; a Catholic rosary appears on screen; there are shots that are so detailed that they have to be seen more than once to be fully appreciated, and so on.

The immensely exciting choreography of the human-to-human and Jaeger-to-Kaiju fights, was a great deal of fun to watch. There was grace, power and clarity. My most favourite Jaeger-to-Kaiju fights are the ones where jaeger Gipsy Danger (piloted by Raleigh Becket [Charlie Hunnam] and Mako Mori [the beautiful Rinko Kikuchi]) goes head-to-head with the Kaiju that I have nicknamed 'Electro-Disabler' and 'Spitter', after Electro-Disabler has disabled jaeger Striker Eureka and destroyed jaeger Cherno Alpha, and Spitter has destroyed jaeger Crimson Typhoon. Ohh maan, both fights are uber-fantastic! The camera briefly focuses on Gipsy Danger's right heel, while she's fighting Electro-Disabler, and we catch a glimpse of the Jaeger mechanics at work -- giant gear-like devices turning, seemingly playng the same role that the achilles tendon does, in the human body. Impressive! If the giant 'articulated' sword that Mako uses to slice Spitter in half, isn't an homage to Voltron, then I don't know what is!

I enjoyed the intense fist-fight between Raleigh and the arrogant Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky), co-pilot of Striker Eureka, who made an offensive  remark towards Raleigh's co-pilot Mako. Raleigh landed some impressive blows. Chuck got a satisfying comeuppance. I also enjoyed the balletic stick fights between the various pilots in (what I will call) the 'Jaeger Corps', whose purpose was to determine 'drift compatibility' -- whether the two participants could pilot a Jaeger together or not. I wondered how this 'drift compatibility' could be determined through stick fighting, and came to the conclusion that that was merely an excuse to include more exciting fight sequences in the film. :)

Charlie Hunnam reminds me of Garrett Hedlund, who played Flynn's son in 'Tron: Legacy'. Both bear a strong resemblance to one another.

I like Raleigh's monologue, at the beginning of this film. It's well-delivered and effectively ushers the viewer into this brilliant fantasy.

The two Scientists -- Gottlieb and Geiszler (played by Ben Gorman and Charlie Day respectively) -- who made up the Research Division of The Resistance, struck me as this film's equivalent of the signal analysts in the first 'Transformers' film -- something to cut to (a filler) when the Jaegers and Kaiju were not on screen. I liked Charlie Day's character but I also found him a little annoying. His high-pitched voice and the hyperactive, sort of ADD nature of his character, were a little annoying.

At first, I couldn't accept the side story that linked the leader of The Resistance, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), to Mako. It just didn't ring 'true' to me. I just couldn't accept that Pentecost had raised little Mako as his own, after her family had been killed in a Kaiju attack. And that memory of Mako's, where, as a little girl, she's pursued by a Kaiju, that is then killed by a Jaeger piloted by Pentecost, who triumphantly steps out of the 'cockpit' and smiles at Mako, who smiles back in relief -- I couldn't buy that. For me, it lacked 'truth'. But after three viewings, it seems far less implausible.

Another thing that didn't sit well with me in the first viewing, is the sentimentality that precedes the final battle in 'Pacific Rim'. It seemed out of place to me. I'll give two examples. There's the scene where the father-and-son pilots of jaeger Striker Eureka, Herc Hansen (Max Martini) and Chuck Hansen, respectively, have to bid each other a final farewell, as Chuck goes off to help mount a final offensive against the aliens. And the scene in which Pentecost and Mako also have to part, for good. At first I wasn't moved by either of these scenes. But now, I'm starting to appreciate them. I now get moved, somewhat.

I noticed two references to old age, in this film. I wonder if they were of special significance. In the first 'drift initiation' sequence of 'Pacific Rim', brothers Raleigh and Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff), decide who's going to initiate the neural link, and Raleigh jokingly says to his older brother "Age before beauty, old man". And when jaeger Striker Eureka is rendered inoperable by a Kaiju energy burst, and Herc is flung to the far side of the 'cockpit', by the force of a Kaiju blow to Eureka's hull, Chuck rushes to his father's aid, and says "Come on, get on your feet old man!" as he helps Herc up, to which Herc replies, quite annoyedly, "Don't... call me that!".

'Pacific Rim' is an excellent film, a technological marvel. I have never seen anything like this before. This film is a great deal of fun to watch. It's a fitting homage to Monster Masters, Ishiro Honda and Ray Harryhausen. WOW.

Sissako's 'Timbuktu'

Abderrahmane Sissako's 'Timbuktu' is about the occupation of the titular city by Muslim Jihadists, and the subsequent fight against the invaders and their draconian laws, by the inhabitants of this enchanted place. The story centers on herdsman Kidane, his wife, daughter and adopted son, whose tranquil life is thrown into turmoil, when Kidane accidentally murders a fisherman who has ruthlessly killed his favourite cow, interestingly named GPS, for wandering into his fishing nets, while drinking from a lake.

This film has a lethargic pace and the camera dwells, seemingly pointlessly, on seemingly mundane and inconsequential images. An example is when Kidane has just killed the fisherman. For a long time, both figures lie motionless, partly submerged in water, as if dead. Then Kidane stirs, pries himself from under the lifeless body of his victim, and staggers away, shocked. The camera switches to a long shot, which shows us two tiny figures, one wading across a wide, shallow lake, while the other lies motionless, half-submerged. It stays this way for a long time. I wondered what Sissako was trying to put across. It didn't dawn on me. There's a scene in which a group of young men are playing soccer on a dusty field, without a ball, because the Jihadists have outlawed soccer. They dribble and kick an invisible ball that exists only in their imaginations, and rejoice when they score. It's quite a sight. The players, and camera, actually move as though there is a ball in the scene, when there is none. It's skilfully shot and scored. It's sad.

When Kidane is held prisoner by the Jihadists, for committing murder, he expresses to his captors, that it is not death that he fears, but that he will not see his daughter's beautiful face again. He said this at two or three different occasions. At first, I was moved. And then it started to seem inappropriate. There's a very strange lady in this film, who comes across as a mentally disturbed sorcerer. She walks around dressed in strange garments that drag along the ground behind her, with a live chicken on her shoulder. At one point in the film the camera gazes upon this woman for a long time, as she watches the goings-on around her. I wondered why. I did not see anything of significance within the frame. When one has become accustomed to the machine gun pace that tends to characterize mainstream cinema, it takes some effort to appreciate an unhurried approach. I blame Michael Bay! Just kidding. :)

I laboured through 'Timbuktu', under the starry night sky, in the freezing cold, in the picturesque garden of the Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo. The images of barren, sun-scorched, wind-swept desert, were in direct contrast to the cold, and seemed to alleviate it a little.

P/S: When I was collecting images to accompany this piece, it is only then that it became apparent to me, how beautifully shot 'Timbuktu' is.