Not bad but...

Rating: 6/10 (3 December 2013)

Elysium reminded me of the "boat people" wanting to come to Australia. Or refugees from any war-torn country or persecuted group fleeing to a more "civilized" society. But this is an aside..
Of course it's science-fiction and as a devotee I had high hopes as always. Elysium as a high-tech paradise-in-the-sky for the Uber-Rich certainly had the right framework for some excellent SF. Especially with the District 9 background and clear similarities between both movies.
Promising SF movies often degenerate into horror-fests, Prometheus and Sunshine are a good examples. This one didn't "go bad" like that, but I certainly found the strong violence, and the frequent bad-language (the F-word) very off-putting. I think the movie could have succeeded without these being used to such extremes, the plot and setting were interesting enough in their own right without these "spoilers".
The only technical objection I could raise was with the "magic machine" which could heal almost any ill. Clearly essential to the story and while one doubts that such a thing could ever exist, suspension of belief rules and one can only surmise that it might someday be possible, though not in this millennium..
6/10