I really like sci-fi movies and sci-fi stories and will watch about anything if it's sci-fi related, so you must understand that I will always have a bias with anything sci-fi related. Blade Runner is one of those movies that is by no means perfect but because the sci-fi themes in it I give it a lot more wiggle room than I normally do with other movie, thus is the reason I really like Blade Runner. But you must also understand that I will be severely critical also with sci-fi because I have such a passion for it. I don't like sci-fi that is so focused on delivering a message that it bypasses all logic and any form of character development for the sake of pushing a message. Or the sci-fi movie becomes so focused on the technology and science that everything else in the story plays second fiddle. These are how you don't do a sci-fi movie, hell for that matter, these are how you don't do any story in general. Character should always be the first focal point in any story. You create a good, interesting character then everything else should flow from that character with ease. If the character isn't interesting then everything will feel forced.
Elysium is an example of how not to do a sci-fi movie. It's preachy and agenda driven as it sacrifices all character development for the message it's trying to deliver. Then because of this there are a bunch of things this movie does to force the agenda on the audience. One is by having a dying girl be a kind of catalyst for the story line, without really giving her any sort of motivation, well because the writer doesn't have to, she's dying, so dammit we should have to care about her. If we don't then we are just callused, mean people. This is the worst sort of helping the viewer care about the character ever. Honestly I cared more the about Sharlto Copely character (who's the bad guy) than I did about anyone else in the movie. His character was just that much more interesting as was his motivations when compared to the other stale, standard characters in this movie.
Another thing I didn't understand about his movie. Matt Damon's character works in a factory that manufactures robots, by I'm guessing either the thousands or hundred of thousands a day (this factory has to be at least one of many more), yet there seems to be a very short supply of these robots walking around on either or Elysium to police the people, which is why they were created. Little things like this irritate me. Needless to say I was very disappointed in this movie considering Blomkamp's first film District 9 was very good and could be held up high as an example of how to do a sci-fi movie the right way. That Elysium is this bad doesn't excite me for Blomkamp's next film.
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