Elysium features extreme violence and is one of the more intense movie experiences I've had in many years. I found myself detaching from the movie experience just to try to ward off the intense violence. I wasn't distracted so much as trying to defend myself from a frontal assault. I mean, this movie doesn't stop with one exploding body -- it has at least 3, possibly 4, not including one face that is blown off and then rebuilt. The violence is extreme and physical, despite the CGI effects. The movie doesn't spare us the horrors of a back-room "surgery" in which an exoskeleton is welded onto a human body, or the pain caused by a sword and knife fight enhanced by superhuman technology, and it uses extreme slow motion to expand the impact of its "kill moves," like a video game. Elysium aims at high art, and Jodie Foster's presence promises to elevate the movie to political art. It reminded me a little of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which the line, "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," is found, but it has none of that classic tragedy's intimacy or subtlety. The political overtones -- the director is aiming at a parallel between modern-day fortress America, which aims to keep illegal immigrants out, and the uber-rich Elysium colony, which ruthlessly does the same thing -- simply do not justify the level of violence in the movie.
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