Elysium: The Art of the Film

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  Going through this artbook reminded me of  The Art of District 9 . Director Neill Blomkamp teams up again with his District 9 production designer Phil Ivey and Weta Workshop for the concept art and models. Elysium is no sequel to District 9, but the art does feel like they could have come from the same world, except in Elysium, it's year 2154.The content can be roughly split into two main parts, that on earth and on Elysium. There are designs for the Exo-Suit, robots, spacecrafts, weapons, environments and other concept paintings. Designs for everything that appears on Earth would be more weathered, showing signs of prolong usage, as compared to those on Elysium which are cleaner and sleeker. The contrasting style is interesting.The robot policemen look pretty cool. Designs involving Max and his Exo-Suit can be gruesome because Blomkamp doesn't like to be constrained by PG-13 ratings.For the Elysium, Syd Mead has contributed several pieces of artwork that are in the book. You get to see the detailed sketches and the final renders of Elysium that took 10 months to finish building.Overall, the art is great and there are lots to read about the designs and on how they film certain scenes.It's a fantastic art book companion to the film.(Check out more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

This is a awesome book with really beautiful artworks and the process to achieve them. It is a extremely well edited and printed book with great graphic design identity, just like the "District 9" art book, both of them follows kind like the same mood. Weta art-books are really well done, so I will never think twice buying a Weta Art book again. Just hope the price remain fair for the next ones, and hope they release digital versions as well.The only thing that is not usual is that it also contains some general "making of" information not only about making art information, but it doesn't affect anything, actually it's the opposite... it really adds dept to the notion of what was intended to be achieved with the movie and by extension with its art style.If you like Concept Art, 3D, Sculpt and knows when art it's well done with care, you won't regret buying this.

This was a request which I bought as a gift. It is full of extraordinary artwork and is fascinating. Arrived very fast and in excellent condition, as described. I would buy from the vendor again.

Luego de los excelentes libros de arte de Marvel, este es uno de mis preferidos por todo el detalle que se describe en el, desde las balas y las armas, pasando por los robots, el endoesqueleto, los vehiculos, las naves, terminando en Elysium. Es un viaje fantastico a través de los ojos del Director y Creador de la Pelicula, Neill Blomkamp quien demuestra con todo los relatos transcritos en el libro, el gran compromiso hacia su publico en realizar una pelicula de ciencia ficción sostenible en todos sus puntos, evitando jugar con la inteligencia de los espectadores. Si vieron la pelicula y les agrado, este libro completará su experiencia al complementarla con todos los detalles que muchas veces dejamos pasar por lo acelerado del desarrollo de la pelicula, pero que son parte importante en una pelicula de ciencia ficción.After Marvel's excellent art books, this is one of my favorites for all the detail described in it, from the bullets and the weapons, passing through the robots, the endosqueleton, the vehicles and ships, finishing in Elysium. This is a Fantastic Journey through the eyes of the Director and Creator of the Film, Neil Blomkamp, who shows with all the tells transcribe it in the book, his big commitment to his audience, making a sustainable science fiction film in all respects, avoiding to play with the spectators intelligence. If you watch the movie and like it, this art book will complete your experience fulfilling it with all the details that we almost always let them pass for the fast of the development of the movie, but their are an important part of a Sci-Fi movie.

I've been collecting science fiction movie art books for quite some time now and I must say that this is one of my top books on the shelf. Together with the 'Art of District 9' [the other Neil Blomkamp movie] it's one of the few jewels in its genre. It's a book I can open over and over again without getting tired. Every single time I discover details that slipped my attention before. I might say that this book is even greater than the movie itself.

Great movie and a great book. The book does a great job breaking down how the approached the stages of the movie and the concept art is outstanding. Would definitely recommend it.

Works great! not having a problem. Thanks a lot!

I love the book, great pictures and history.

Elysium is a film that is particularly well-designed and is filled with interesting visual ideas, so it isn't surprising that this book should exist and that it's a great example of what an “art of” book should be.A large-sized hardback, this is typical of Titan's high standard of publishing; beautifully illustrated throughout, mostly in colour, it is split into design concepts for the Earth sequences and the design of Elysium, the torus in space where the elite live.Every aspect of design is covered, from vehicles, costumes and buildings – right down to the graffiti and tattoos. There are drawings, digital and 3D concept work, finished items like weapons and interior sets all supported by stills and behind the scenes shots from the film.An exemplary “art of” book and one admirers of the film will want to have in their library.

Mini review for those who (like me) don't fancy reading a long-winded opinion: A great artbook filled with nice concept art covering places, ships, weapons, tech, clothes, buildings and cities and anything else that needed designing to sell a vision of a futuristic world. The art is great quality and this book is easily of interest to anyone with a love of concept art and science-fiction. Now if you want to read more, read on...This artbook is another fine offering from the creative minds at Weta Workshop. It is packed with design work so that there's hardly any wasted space and the commentary that accompanies this is succinct, insightful, and interesting. This isn't a perfect artbook, in my opinion, because it also includes production photography which I normally hate to see. However, having said that, it isn't so much that it overtakes the art (as some 'art' books have in the past) and you aren't left with the feeling that this isn't really an artbook so this is more of a minor gripe (almost on principle, really) rather than a major detractor.The areas covered in this book are what you would expect for a high concept sci-fi film. There has to be conceptual work for just about everything on the screen and so we're treated to designs for buildings, vehicles, weapons, clothing... everything, basically. And this is nice art. There's a lot of the key art pieces but also a lot of the early, vague, initial concept stuff too which many 'art of' books leave out. I particularly like the concept work for Elysium itself which has been based on the old Torus ring station designs originally created by NASA in the 1970's. Why this nostalgic little touch should please me so much I'm not sure but I find it makes me warm to it all the more. Perhaps seeing the modern designs, drawn with modern techniques, and seeing how closely they resemble those original drawings, appeals to me. Whatever it is, I like it.I'm also a big fan of Aaron Beck's robot designs. Should the world go to hell and a future evil dictatorship should take the obvious step of having a robot police force then I hope they at least have the decency to have Beck design them. Again we can see quite a bit of the design process here so we're not just treated to the finished product, something I appreciate.As with the work done for The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies there is a wealth of detail on offer here. I like that the creators don't just work on what there will be in the future but how people will use (and abuse) it. Graffiti tags, decay, modification unintended by the manufacturer, and retrofitted tech has all be concepted and it adds a wonderful depth to the work on show. It makes the world of Elysium, both Earth and the Station, seem more real and less a science fiction as a grim possibility.I should perhaps note that there are also some pretty grisly pictures contained in the book which have then been backed up with photos of how that played out in the film. Perhaps not best suited to those with a delicate stomach (unless you're comfortable with a stunningly realistic picture of what a man's face looks like after a point-blank blast from a shotgun).So all in all this is a great artbook, packed with fantastic designs and pictures, and well worth a place on any concept-art fan's bookshelf.

The film may have been so-so, but the book is filled with great illustrations showing the creative design process- it's not just another shameless cash-grab of a book filled with screen grabs and finished renders. Well worth buying if you liked the film or enjoy sci-fi artwork in general.

Loads of artwork and information about the film and concepts.

present for my son and he was happy with it