“Elysium: The Art of the Film” Book Review

The front cover.  You can’t tell from this photo, but the Elysium words are embossed with a metallic tint that looks great.

Recently I received a copy of Elysium: The Art of the Film to review.

I really dug into it and when I saw the actual movie was almost a little sad, because the movie didn’t quite live up to the conceptual ideas presented in the book. That said, if you liked the movie, then you are going to absolutely love the art book.

The surgery scene in the movie was nowhere near as cool as in the book

Written by Mark Salisbury with a foreword by Neill Blomkamp, Elysium: The Art of The Film is pretty in-depth.   It is presented in the form of a coffee table book and comes in at around 180 pages.  The book covers designing the movies version of earth, Favela, the parole office, the factory, robots, the arms dealer named Spider, tattoos, surgery, the exo-suit, vehicles, Carlyle’s shuttle, weapons, and the Raven.  The book then uses the second half to go in-depth on Elysium itself, describing the Torus, some of the logo designs, deportation, the control room, and Kruger.

Each of these sections are filled with concept art, some pictures from the set, and very detailed descriptions of the design process.  This book is a designer and a film makers dream come true.  Some sections are accompanied with comments from the actors themselves and the crew behind the film.

I was really pleased to see all the different ideas that didn’t make it into the movie.  It’s crazy to see how radically different the movie could have been if they had chosen one design over another.  The book has a great assortment of mechs that didn’t even make the movie at all.  A lot of hard work goes into a movie at the pre-production phase and this book really shows it.

The book is filled with great design concepts like this

Just imagine if the movie had designed the robots to look like the one in the middle. It would have been a different movie.

The back cover

Another cool treat is that some of the art is designed by Syd Mead, the legendary sci-fi artist behind Aliens, Blade Runner, Tron, and Short Circuit (Johnny 5 is alive! Haha).

Elysium: The Art of the Film retails for 26.99$ and if you are a sci-fi lover, an art lover, or a fan of Elysium then I recommend you pick it up.  Your friends will love comparing it to the movie if you keep it out on a coffee table for them to flip through.

Johnny Townsend

Staff Writer

koala@ihogeek.com