Elysium
Release Date: August 9 Oscar Prospects: So-so For the slightly more high-brow action and science fiction fans, Elysium has been THE summer blockbuster film they have had their eyes on since the outset of the season. In Neill Blomkamp's first film since his surprisingly successful Apartheid allegory film, District 9, the director is back with another politically-tinged science fiction feature, this time with his crosshairs aimed squarely at the "1%". The premise of Elysium is that in the year 2154, the Earth has been transformed into a completely third-world country where the vast majority of people toil away in the glorified garbage dump that has become terra firma. For the privileged elite though, there exist a world above Earth, a man made paradise known as Elysium which from the trailers, looks to be some fancy five-star resort. Matt Damon plays a sort of "working class hero" who decides that he has had enough and attempts to invade the heavily guarded paradise of Elysium in order to bring some equality between the two worlds. What was interesting and shocking about Mr. Blomkamp's last film, District 9, was not only that the film was able to break through to the masses and prove to be a financial success, but it somehow achieved the practically impossible for a science fiction flick and earned itself a Best Picture nomination for the Academy, as well as nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. A possible explanation for this most unusual outlier was the fact that District 9 (and Elysium looks to be very much in this camp as well) was very much in the tradition of politically-oriented dystopian science fiction literature and film, which was much more likely to appeal to the left-leaning inhabitants of Hollywood than your traditional Sci-Fi fare. Regardless to the actual merits of Elysium as a film, I think the key question in terms of its Oscar prospects is can lightning strike twice? In other words, in a "fringe" genre such as science fiction, without the innovativeness and freshness that caught the Academy off guard with District 9, will Academy members allow themselves to go "slumming" in the realm of science fiction for a second time by the same director? I tend to think not, which is why I am tepid about the film's prospects, although the one branch that would disregard such ridiculous calculations, the Writers Branch, could stick up for the film's script. This year looks to be an especially competitive one in the Best Original Screenplay category though, so I wouldn't bet much on its chances, even in this category. Possible nominations: Best Original Screenplay (Neill Blomkamp), Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing