I remember Neill Blomkamp stating that he had this screenplay in a drawer...

Rating: 5/10 (7 February 2020)

...and when he had the opportunity to make his next movie, he pulled it out and made this; and it very much feels like a script you write in film school and hope to one day make, but mercifully you outgrow rote sci-fi cliches and pithy and obvious commentary. Elysium is a very very well directed boring piece of dreck. Blomkamp's technical abilities, stunning and seamless VFX and Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley's dedicated performances all serve to elevate what is essentially a eurotrashy scifi B-movie. The world is well realised and the action sequences exciting but there are too many lazy holes in the logic of the world and too many contrivances and awkward machinations to make it a very enjoyable watch.