Take a shot and watch it

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2013)

The movie starts off explaining how the world became overpopulated and how the rich people fled to a place called "Elysium" where you can live for hundreds of years and be cured of any disease or handicap you might come across. Which, lets be honest, if that's how things turn out to be, might be pretty awesome.
There is also a little back story of Matt Damon's character as a child growing up along side a young girl named "Frey". They are the best of friends and it's his promise to one day take them to Elysium.
The cinematography might be the best part of the film. The way the world is portrayed as an overpopulated mess is brilliant in my opinion. A very grimy and dark place to live and you get the feeling no one wants to be there. And then you see Elysium and how beautiful it is. I also liked the way it was designed.
Anyway, back to the story. Damon's character becomes exposed to a severe amount of radiation that will kill him in 5 days. The only way to survive is to get to Elysium. That's when the action begins and we get action sequences which are a bit gruesome but entertaining nonetheless. However, some of those scenes are shot with a hand-held camera so it becomes shaky which I don't like at all. But, it doesn't take away too much from the movie.
Jodie Foster plays the villain who wants all the power of Elysium in her pocket. It doesn't get explained but I'm assuming on Earth, there is no more President or Vice President, etc. But in one scene after Foster's character does something without authority, she gets summoned by the President. So I'm assuming that means all the big authorities live on Elysium. Anyway, she doesn't like the way it's being run and wants to do something about it. It's just, I'm not sure if she was trying for a French/American accent or any accent for that matter, you don't enjoy the movie while she's on screen. But maybe that makes the movie work.
Bottom line for me, if you enjoy science fiction movies, you will enjoy this one. It's an interesting take on what could happen should the earth become overpopulated. It's not as good as Bloomkamp's first movie "Distric 9" but it had me entertained from beginning to end.