Elysium hits all the themes of a cyberpunk movie. It has high-tech low-lifes, it has corporations in total control, it has a massive inequality gap, it has technology leading to dehumanization. But what it doesn't have, is neon-lit rainy streets at night.
Cyberpunk as a genre has themes that don't rely on visuals and yet so many cyberpunk stories use the 80s aesthetic as a short-hand for "cyberpunk". I think this makes the cyberpunk "look" feel dated even though its themes aren't actually stuck in the 80s.
This video does a great job of breaking down where cyberpunk came from. It was a product of the 1980s. Specifically (in America), the cultural fears of rising crime rates, removing regulations on corporations, and the rising influence of Japan. These were things people worried about in the 1980s and cyberpunk was able to tap into those fears by taking them to the extreme. And while some of those fears were well-founded (removing regulations on corporations), not all aspects of them remained timeless.
Elysium replaces the cultural fears of the 1980s with the cultural fears of the 2010s. Climate change, access to health care, increasing wealth gap. These things are now taken to the extreme while still following the cyberpunk template. I wish more stories were able to separate the 1980s aesthetic from the themes of cyberpunk. The themes of the genre are still relevant today even if the "look" has become dated.
If you haven't seen it, here's a trailer. And it's currently streaming on Netflix.
I've canceled all my streaming services except Apple TV (so far…) Nearly everything I actually liked got pulled after at best 2 seasons, and they've all hiked prices because apparently executives felt they weren't getting paid enough. HBO was the last to go after they axed Our Flag Means Death.
Apple's still getting my money because For All Mankind has had a great run, Ted Lasso was great, Foundation has been decent although different from the books, Silo hasn't gotten canceled yet, and now there's that new WW II bomber series that's seemed pretty good based on a couple of episodes. They did axe Hello Tomorrow! which I liked although apparently people mostly didn't, and so far that's the only show I've liked that they've killed off prematurely.
Join us in Homelab. Jellyfin + the *darrs.
I'll never pay a subscription ever again for streaming, they had their chance.. things are worse than cable was