Foster Has Rarely Been This Underused.

Rating: 5/10 (1 September 2015)

Elysium (2013): Dir: Neill Blomkamp / Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga, Sharlto Copley, William Fichtner: Futuristic science fiction film about hope. Elysium is a space station that resembles a ferris wheel. It looks like a human paradise that homes high profile rich types. The poor live on earth and are under rule by robots constructed to prevent these people from getting to Elysium. Matt Damon plays Max, an ex-convict working in a factory that manufactures these robots. When Max comes into contact with radiation he needs to get to Elysium where healing beds can cure him. Director Neill Blomkamp made the acclaim District 9 and here he presents what can play as a double billing. The screenplay is effective until its hokey climax that is centred around action and robots that have more personality than most of the characters. Damon fares well as someone whose life is on a time line and he sacrifices all in order to break the barrier between Elysium and earth. Jodie Foster is a surprise disappointment as this head official determined to keep Elysium for the upper class. Alice Braga is cardboard as Max's childhood friend now a doctor whose daughter has cancer. She will be dragged along by this tyrant savage played by Sharlto Copley who follows orders by Foster. William Fichtner also has a laughable role as a CEO authority figure to create a program to override Elysium's computer. It might have been nice had the film concentrated more on the wonderful image of life created on Elysium as oppose to subduing itself to violence and an excuse to have two high powered individuals duke it out. Score: 5 ½ / 10