Elysium: The Art of the Film

I had the pleasure of watching Elysium on the big IMAX screen this past weekend and it was a blast to watch. Director-writer Neill Blomkamp created his first intellectual sci-fi hit with District 9 on the cheap and now with a Hollywood budget, he’s able to create visual science-fiction tour de force.

“The idea of Elysium was born out of growing up in a country where wealth discrepancy is a huge issue,” says Blomkamp – Elysium: The Art of the Film.

The year is 2159 and the Earth is overpopulated with scarce resources, rampant crime and poverty. The wealthy class escaped to space and built a heavenly space colony called Elysium. Our anti-hero Max played by Matt Damon clinging to life takes on mission to not only save himself but for the people of Earth. But before I get to the down and gritty of this art book I had some minor complaints: 1) Is it just me or Jodie Foster accent really annoying? 2) When the rebel ships try to land into Elysium, bad guy Kruger uses a shoulder-mounted missile launcher with missiles that are able to go all the way up to space and knock-down the rebel ships? 3) And this leads to my next rant, if this space colony has magic healing machines that can cure cancer and is a technical marvel, Elysium doesn’t have self-defensive weapons like in Star Trek’s Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5 – what is up with that? 4) My last rant – I wished we could see more of the people living in the futuristic space colony. But other than that, it was a wonderful summer movie.

“I love films that are set in the future, but, of course, are still dealing with the resonance of all of the political and sociological turmoil that we’re going through right now,” says Jodie Foster – Elysium: The Art of the Film.

Behind the scenes film art books are usually filled with photographs from the sets, drawings, storyboards, crew interviews, but this book has more than that. We get an inside look into the mind of director/writer Neill Blomkamp and how and why he made Elysium. The art book features incredible designs by Weta Workshop (Lord of the Rings) and artist Syd Mead (Blade Runner, TRON). The art book takes us on a journey on what inspired the logos & tattoos and just how much Neill’s eye to every little detail means so much to the greater look of the film.

If you like Robotech-style mecha, Star Wars-style spaceships, Mad Max-style vehicles, Halo-style weapons, and Gundam-style space colonies, well, this art book has it all! Anybody into science-fiction and fantasy genre or just movies in general will definitely enjoy reading and looking at all the visual tech drawings of the weapons, spacecrafts, robots and costumes. This art book – Elysium: The Art of the Film will make a great addition in your library and if you want to see a smart summer action film, go see Elysium in the multiplexes!