Although you'll know how it's going to end pretty much from the start, Elysium is still an OK film, but it did have some problems.....

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2014)

Los Angeles; 2154. Earth as we know it has become over populated and rife with pollution to name but a couple of problems. Those that are wealthy are given the option to live in an idyllic utopian society called Elysium which is situated in Space and has been man made to create a perfect living environment. Those that are poor are forced to endure the dreadful conditions on planet Earth.
Part of the problem for me with this film was the protagonist's motivations; we learn that Max (Matt Damon) wants to get to Elysium so that he can be cured from radiation poisoning (due to the fact that any disease or ailment can be cured on Elysium as long as you are a citizen). With the help of his friend Spider, Max is implanted with DNA which means that he will be registered as a citizen of Elysium meaning he will be able to cure himself once he arrives at Elysium. Spider agrees to assist Max as long as Max gets information from the brain of Armadyne CEO John Carlyle. Max agrees and equipped with an Exo Skeleton to increase his strength and a small team Max sets to work on recovering the information from Carlyle. OK here's the issue; Max is only motivated to go to Elysium when he is told he has 5 days to live and doesn't seem very interested in helping anyone else, he even refuses to help his life long friend's daughter from getting to Elysium (her daughter has leukaemia and she too only has a limited time to live). Whilst, I understand that he was being pursued and was perhaps worried that they would get caught in the crossfire between himself and Kruger, I still found it hard to warm to his character. He only helped them when they all end up being taken to Elysium when Frey and her daughter are captured by Kruger. I thought from the premise (and from the first 5 minutes of the film) that Max would take it upon himself to try to bring 'equality' to Earth and Elysium, sort of as a 'freedom fighter', but he turns things into a personal crusade and seemed very selfish generally as a person. I understand his necessity to help himself, but his cold nature was a problem for me. Considering he's the protagonist, I didn't exactly find him to be a likable person.
Second problem is that the film is called Elysium. OK, so how about we see some of this man made space station called Elysium? Apart from at the very start and a couple of times when space shuttles are crashing into it, what else did we see? I think it would have been nice to perhaps 'see the differences' between Elysium and Earth - when I say 'see' I mean beyond just looking at it - perhaps we could have been introduced to a few characters actually living on Elysium, check out what they got up to, how they lived. This was explored pretty well on Earth, but seemed to be ignored on Elysium. It just felt a little one sided.
Third problem - the camera work; oh it was shocking for the most part. There were a couple of times when I had to look away from the TV. I found it irritating to the point of distraction.
Where Elysium excels is in its visuals and cinematography so from a superficial perspective it's fantastic, but if you scratch beneath the surface it's not quite as pretty. Acting wise, I felt that Copley faired well as the barbaric Agent Kruger and Jodie Foster put in a good turn as Delacourt (Elysium's evil president). The story is predictable and you'll know how it's going to end pretty much from the start, but it's still watchable.
Inevitably, this film will be compared to Blomkamp's other major science fiction film District 9. I'm not going to go into details, but all I'll say is that District 9 was a masterpiece and Elysium is quite a long way off being anywhere near as good as D9. As a stand alone film, it's fairly good, but anyone who has watched this film after D9 is bound to be (at least) slightly disappointed.