Ever since I saw the movie Elysium a few months back, all of this negativity towards new movies, books, music, etc. has been on my mind. Elysium is a solid piece of entertainment. The special effects are fabulous. The bad guy, Kruger, is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. There’s symbolism and allegory. It’s even science fiction which is one of my favorite movie genres.
So why is there so much hate? On message boards where fans proclaim their undying love for all things science fiction, Elysium was raked over hot coals again and again. Every perceived plot hole, missed theme, and poorly executed sequence was destroyed by the very fans that clamor for more smart science fiction.
Elysium vs. Empire Strikes Back
Are there problems with Elysium? Of course. Even my all-time favorite movies have issues. What disturbs me is that the criticisms don’t really stand up when compared against other great science fiction movies of the past.
Elysium Problems
Here’s a sampling of issues detractors have with Elysium:
- The have’s and have-not’s of the Elysium world have too clean of a break. How could they possibly maintained this balance between all of the rich on the space station and all of the poor stuck on Earth?
- The medical pods are not a finite resource. They are easily deployed with no effort at all. So it seems the rich are just not sharing because they’re jerks.
- Why would robots need to be irradiated as part of their manufacturing process?
There is truth to all of these criticisms. But do these faults make Elysium a terrible movie deserving of massive derision?
Take Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back for instance. It’s easily one of the best science fiction movies ever and far and away the best Star Wars film ever made. It’s generally beloved and deserves every bit of the accolades it receives. And yet, it’s plot holes and issues are no less glaring.
Empire Strikes Back Problems
Here’s a sampling of just a few of the issues I can think of with Empire Strikes Back:
- They wear air masks with no suit in the vacuum of space. You could say, they’re in a space slug so there’s an atmosphere but if that’s the case, why wasn’t Han curious as to why they were suddenly in atmosphere inside of an asteroid’s cave?
- What possibly could a space slug eat? I can’t believe there were enough ships coming along to just swallow those.
- How did the snow Wampa freeze Luke upside down? Did he have a bucket of water and held Luke upside down while he drenched the boots? How long would it have taken to make him stay frozen upside down?
- Luke randomly lands on Degobah (an entire swamp planet) but finds Yoda within a few minutes, the exact person he was looking for.
The list goes on. “But… but… Empire Strikes Back is a fantasy and some things had to be done to move the story along. No one would want to watch Luke searching Degobah for several years, trying to find life signs for Yoda.”
That’s exactly my point. Why does Empire Strikes Back get a pass but Elysium (and frankly, most new films) get shredded for the same plot issues and story contrivances?
It’s Happening Everywhere
The same thing happening for movies is also happening in books and music. The Internet comments are full of negative reactions to nearly every piece of media. Even when a piece of media is able to gain a positive majority opinion, there’s always a long list of detractors who line up to trash the work almost as if just for the very act of being contrarian.
Do films, books, music, etc. deserve to be trashed? When they suck, of course. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I see it as more than that. We’ve become a hyper-critical culture. Almost to the point where we can’t enjoy anything because we spend the entire experience searching for flaws. We perceive it to be a weakness to love something, to put ourselves out there and admit we like something. It’s safer to hide behind a list of critiques and give a review that is either fully negative or at the very least, neutral.
Let’s continue to critique but not just for the negatives. Let’s find the positives as well. Even with its flaws, Elysium deserved better. We all want more creativity instead of sequels and remakes in Hollywood but when we get something that is genuinely interesting and well made, we can’t stop ourselves from destroying it.