After his noticeable feature directorial debut with District 9, everyone had
their eyes on South African director Neill Blomkamp. His follow-up, Elysium had
all the trademarks you would expect. A satirical look at class inequality, grimy
and tactile practical effects, among other Blomkisms, unfortunately it looked like a mash-up of a satirical look at class inequality and an action film
with bad and irregular accents.
Speaking to Uproxx Blomkamp revealed that he feels like he fucked up
Elysium "a little bit", however the filmmaker owns that the
film didn't work, but also explained why.
I feel like, ultimately, the story is not the right story. I still think
the satirical idea of a ring, filled with rich people, hovering above the
impoverished Earth, is an awesome idea. I love it so much, I almost want to go
back and do it correctly. But I just think the script wasn’t… I just
didn’t make a good enough film is ultimately what it is. I feel like I executed
all of the stuff that could be executed, like costume and set design and
special effects very well. But, ultimately, it was all resting on a somewhat
not totally formed skeletal system, so the script just wasn’t there; the story
wasn’t fully there.
It's a great idea, and very much of the moment, but sadly it didn't
deliver. But mind you it's not an unwatchable film, just subpar in comparison
with District 9.
The filmmaker also explained how his love for the ideas of the film got in
the way of the actual story.
The problem with me
is I get so caught up in concepts and ideas. Like I just said, the ring is so
cool. The satirical idea of a diamond encrusted ring above, like, slums is such
a satirically cool idea – I’m not like a normal person in the sense that I have to have a story for
something to be interesting. Concepts are just as interesting to me as stories
are. Where, to normal people, stories are more interesting. So, that’s an
example of what I mean. I can be like, “F*ck, I love this ring, I love all the
visual effects related to it, I love these images and how they’re juxtaposed
with one another.” And then be like, “as a director, I could have done better.”
And you sort of realize that all these people prefer this element I didn’t pay
as much attention to, but I paid a lot of attention to this.
Blomkamp's next film, Chappie opens on March 6th.
Source - Uproxx
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