Elysium

Scott's belated birthday extravaganza consisted of Gramma and Papa taking the kids, a movie for us, take-out for dinner & sweets from Kondetorei (supposedly the best desserts in town). It was a good day!

The movie we saw was Elysium. The word Elysium comes from Greek mythology. It is described as being a place that was reserved for those chosen by the gods, those related to the gods & heroes, the righteous and the heroic. Supposedly these people would remain there after death, to live a blessed and happy life. In the movie, Elysium is a planet where only the elite can reside. People there speak French & English and they have tanning beds that can cure any illness. This movie is sort of like Wall-e, except everyone isn't obese & life on Earth is much worse than huge towers of square-shaped trash. The storyline of this movie is interesting, it definitely keeps your attention. Matt Damon is awesome in this film & the mentally ill homeless man turned Iron Man is very entertaining as well. The story requires lots of action & lots of death. My stomach was in knots during most of the film. I'm just not good with senseless killing and completely unrealistic action that is coming at you so fast it's hard to keep up. I need to remember that. Matt's love interest is named Fray, just like the band. Her name was very distracting to me. I hate that band. Her character is a "good person", although I didn't find her likeable at all. The scenes with her daughter did make me teary-eyed though. There are moments in the movie that are definitely questionable. For instance, in a world where you can install a computer into the back of someone's head, why are they still using walkie-talkies? Or how about the carriage of farm animals that keeps Matt from being detected by security, but apparently nothing else will? I enjoyed the Los Angeles scenes, a city marinating in graffiti, scattered  with security robots & crazy women hauling pigs. Jodie Foster's character is stale, just like my dad had warned me. All and all, it is a very entertaining movie if you like action & the killing of massive amounts of innocent people. The message of the movie is great - there is a reason each one of us is here, everyone has a destination. I'd like to believe that is true.

I'd like to add that after the movie I went to the restroom and used a toilet that flushed for me when I stood up, a sink that turned on when it detected my hand movement & a machine attached to the wall that blew air to dry my hands when I put them under it. Maybe we are closer to Elysium than we thought.