Elysium

[Jayman]

Loved this but definitely can't disagree that it was laden with plot-holes galore.
[spoiler]Surface-to-space missiles - haha! WTF!!! Elysium doesn't have its own defence mechanism?
Mansions fitted with healing machines all of which require shattering a glass door/window in order to get to them.
Elysium's reboot kills all the electricity, etc etc etc...[/spoiler]
Was entertained from start to finish and thought the depiction of Elysium itself was stunning.

Copley's accent sent me into a fit of hysterics everytime he spoke. If I ever meet Blomkamp in person I seriously need to ask him why he repeatedly chooses to depict the Afrikaner members of his country as a bunch of buffoons and also why, in this particular case, he chose to make every single Saffer a brutish antagonist. The sticker of the ZA flag on their craft was especially hilarious; We're bad guys but we're still proudly South African...lol.

This is one of those bad movies I simply can't wait to watch again. Call me crazy, but I genuinely dig Blomkamp's style. Now he just needs to give it a rest with the slum culture of growing up in Joburg. There's so much more to SA than shanty-towns and violent thugs. Yeah, I know this was filmed in Mexico City but I assure you, the location could've been swapped and nobody would've known the difference.

[LondonCityNights]

Loved this but definitely can't disagree that it was laden with plot-holes galore.
[spoiler]Surface-to-space missiles - haha! WTF!!! Elysium doesn't have its own defence mechanism?
Mansions fitted with healing machines all of which require shattering a glass door/window in order to get to them.
Elysium's reboot kills all the electricity, etc etc etc...[/spoiler]
Was entertained from start to finish and thought the depiction of Elysium itself was stunning.
.

Just on those points:

[spoiler]1. The missiles were fired from Earth to give Jodie Foster's character plausible deniability - the population would start getting agitated if Elysium were directly shooting down refugee ships. If the missiles come from earth they can make up something about gangsters or whatever.
2. If every citizen of Elysium has free access to the healing machines then there's no real reason to keep a tight lock on them.
3. The power going off was a time-saving visual metaphor for the system resetting.[/spoiler]

But yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Jayman]

Not quite what I meant. [spoiler]It's just a bit silly that a tiny missile could travel all the way from the ground covering a few thousand miles out of space and then take down an entire ship. And by defence mechanism, I meant at least some kind of an interception station that could monitor inbound traffic. I mean c'mon, this is an exclusive home for the rich and affluent. Surely their safety should have been covered in the package. They didn't even have a dome or an atmosphere for God's sake.

And the glass breaking thing was ridiculous in that it happened each time following the crash. Nobody ever seemed to be home.

About the power cut, after all the citizens were loaded onto the system, should they not have still required digital barcodes? I mean, how would they have been validated by the machines otherwise?

The biggest stretch for me though was Krugers face being regenerated. The reconstruction itself was fine but there's no way he would have survived the explosion.[/spoiler]

[caitlinmorton]

Not quite what I meant. [spoiler]About the power cut, after all the citizens were loaded onto the system, should they not have still required digital barcodes? I mean, how would they have been validated by the machines otherwise?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]its DNA-based, in theory it wouldn't matter.[/spoiler]

And the film is set in Los Angeles...

[Jayman]

Not quite what I meant. [spoiler]About the power cut, after all the citizens were loaded onto the system, should they not have still required digital barcodes? I mean, how would they have been validated by the machines otherwise?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]its DNA-based, in theory it wouldn't matter.[/spoiler]

I'm sorry, but [spoiler]there's no mention of the med pods working on a DNA level. The barcodes are required to access any of the Elysium facilities. All Spider's program did was upload the citizens of Earth onto the system - they would still need a matching barcode in order for the machine to recognize them. Now if his program had circumvented the authentication routine of the pod then it would have made perfect sense.

You are right about the LA thing though. The movie was merely filmed in Mexico City but meant to depict LA.[/spoiler]

[caitlinmorton]

Not quite what I meant. [spoiler]About the power cut, after all the citizens were loaded onto the system, should they not have still required digital barcodes? I mean, how would they have been validated by the machines otherwise?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]its DNA-based, in theory it wouldn't matter.[/spoiler]

I'm sorry, but [spoiler]there's no mention of the med pods working on a DNA level. The barcodes are required to access any of the Elysium facilities. All Spider's program did was upload the citizens of Earth onto the system - they would still need a matching barcode in order for the machine to recognize them. Now if his program had circumvented the authentication routine of the pod then it would have made perfect sense.

You are right about the LA thing though. The movie was merely filmed in Mexico City but meant to depict LA.[/spoiler]

Actually,
[spoiler]they do mention DNA in relation to the barcodes at one point, i think in spider's lair. it was in passing but it was there. And i believe we are meant to assume that somehow (and this is where I find it a bit farfetched) everyone's DNA is in the system and separated into Earth inhabitants and Elysium citizens, because you see on the screen what what the program does is suddenly make it legal for earth inhabitants to be citizens of elysium. presumably from then on it works on DNA.[/spoiler]

[Jayman]

Actually,
[spoiler]they do mention DNA in relation to the barcodes at one point, i think in spider's lair. it was in passing but it was there. And i believe we are meant to assume that somehow (and this is where I find it a bit farfetched) everyone's DNA is in the system and separated into Earth inhabitants and Elysium citizens, because you see on the screen what what the program does is suddenly make it legal for earth inhabitants to be citizens of elysium. presumably from then on it works on DNA.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]But if the Elysium citizens and the Earth citizens are all on the system right from the get go, that renders the barcode system completely unnecessary...no?[/spoiler]

[elski]

Actually,
[spoiler]they do mention DNA in relation to the barcodes at one point, i think in spider's lair. it was in passing but it was there. And i believe we are meant to assume that somehow (and this is where I find it a bit farfetched) everyone's DNA is in the system and separated into Earth inhabitants and Elysium citizens, because you see on the screen what what the program does is suddenly make it legal for earth inhabitants to be citizens of elysium. presumably from then on it works on DNA.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]But if the Elysium citizens and the Earth citizens are all on the system right from the get go, that renders the barcode system completely unnecessary...no?[/spoiler]

I'm not going to spoiler as I don't think it's a particular spoiler (that's going to affect people that haven't seen it, or make sense) as it's just technicalities

you know the random woman in the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIBtePb-dGY did she have a barcode thing? I just thought it maybe was Spider's way of adding people as an Elysium citizen but couldn't imagine the ones already up there in their 'perfect' world wanting such un unsightly thing on them so the machine can read people without it.

[caitlinmorton]

Elski's right, they never did make clear if Elysium citizens had the barcode or not.

Also, can anyone explain the flowery lines on some of the faces of Elysium citizens. They were by no means unsightly, just kind of weird.

[elski]

They seemed like futuristic kind of tattoos.