Good Effects. That's it.

Rating: 3/10 (2 January 2014)

Elysium could have been a great movie, but it doesn't have an ounce of sense to it.
The effects were very good. The robots looked real, Elysium itself was pretty to look at. Overall, nothing bad at all.
The acting was uniformly good. Even Copely. I really don't know why he gets crap over his performance here. The only one that falters in any way is Jodie Foster with that accent that she can't seem to nail down properly.
The big problem with Elysium is just the incredible stupidity of the story. I won't go into great detail as it's already been done in other posts and reviews, but there are so many unanswered questions and plot holes. Why is the healing bed only available on Elysium? We're never given any reason or purpose for withholding that technology from those on earth. Even if the mega-rich did obtain that tech and segregated themselves into an orbital gated community, we're supposed to believe that they would not allow the poor on earth access to that tech as well, just because? What purpose is there to keeping the poor on earth poor? The rich have their Eden and it's near completely inaccessible to those on earth. Why would they care what goes on down there? The only industry shown was involved in military hardware, so Elysium is obviously not dependent on the poor on earth for its survival. The only reason for the military hardware it sounded like was to keep the poor in line. But why? If the poor had better lives, they wouldn't keep trying to get into Elysium and Elysium wouldn't need the military hardware. It just doesn't make any sense. Also, they have robots capable of mimicking humans. Why wouldn't robots be doing most of the jobs? Why was it needed for Damon to do that job and then get irradiated? THERE ARE ROBOTS! Robots are expensive, yes. But robots could build robots. Robots could mine and create the materials for more robots. As more robots are built for menial or physical labor, costs would plummet because robots don't need a paycheck! Those are just two of many issues (including race/immigration politics) that seem like they were conceptualized by five-year-olds.
With all the story problems, it's evident that this film's purpose is simply to promote class and race warfare. It's so ill thought through that it was either written by idiots or it's that they think their viewers are idiots. I suspect it's a little of both, actually. Blomkamp's District 9 politics, while still obvious, were much less in-your-face and therefore didn't detract much from the entertainment value. It seems he at least had some understanding that others might not agree with him and so kept it relatively toned down. But it must have gone to his head with this one and he conflates success with agreement and so is unrestrained. Matt Damon on the other hand is a leftist tool and has demonstrated an incapacity to think through the idiocy he spouts to its logical conclusion.
Blomkamp is 1 and 1. I'm willing to give him a third try. Matt Damon is a lost cause and I won't pay theater money to see a movie with him as the star. Elysium has some nice images and a couple decent action scenes. The story is irredeemably asinine and childish.