zwolanerd

Remember that issue where Richie Rich built a huge orbiting space station and then went to live there and never invited any of his poor friends up to hang out? Neill Blomkamp made it into a movie.

Now, it’s actually been a long time (30+ years) since I read a Richie Rich comic, so I don’t remember exactly if that was an issue, but the caricature of rich people in the movie sure reminded me of those comics.  I sorta remember Richie being nice, though?  But his defining personality trait was that he was rich – he had the fur-lined sinks, the solid-gold Dachsund, the platinum bow ties, all of that. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I don’t get what the Richie Rich people were trying to do. Were we supposed to wish we were super rich?  I mean, more than we already did?  Or were we supposed to consider our current state and be happy? Or maybe we were supposed to make rich friends?  I really don’t know.  Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark being rich let them become superheroes, but I don’t remember Richie Rich having a Richcave or a Richsuit or anything.  Now I want to research Richie Rich some more and figure out what the deal was there.

But back to this movie. I realize they were trying to make a point, what with the Everything Clean and White and Perfect Spacestation contrasting the Dirty, Dusty, Brown, Gross, Trashful Earth, but there’s “making a point” and MAKING A POINT SEE? RIGHT HERE? THIS POINT? HERE IS A POINT WE ARE MAKING. I dunno, it just seemed kind of heavy handed and full of itself. And we’re supposed to immediately side with Max because… he’s Matt Damon? And the story is told with him at the center?  I never found a handle on the character that let me like him, and without that the whole movie ended up not being my thing.

I go into most movies expecting to like them. Actually, it’s more correct to say that I usually go into movies knowing how much I’ll like them. I’m rarely surprised, but this time I was.  Scifi movies get extra bonus points up front just because, so I was really expecting to like it. There were some neat action pieces and some nice scifi touches, but I left the movie with a solid “meh” next to it in my mental notebook.  I didn’t dislike it, but the difference between my expectation of liking it and the meh it ended up makes me feel like I did.

But we like to be positive here, yes?  So here’s a few things I did like:

• Robots all over the place, doctors and policethings
• It takes 19 minutes to get from Earth to Elysium
• There was a particular explosion that caused a particular thing to happen that was simultaneously EWWW and COOL
• After seeing this movie I no longer need wonder whether or not I would want an exoskeleton attached to me. I would not.
• Sharlto Copley’s accent
• Jodie Foster!

I probably won’t buy the Blu-Ray, though.

Written by: Mark