Worth a look if just for the cast!

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2013)

I rented Elysium not really knowing what to expect. What I watched was ,at least for me, a pretty interesting film. Science fiction. Hard sci fi actually. In the future,due to overpopulation, society has split into two main groups: The "haves"(wealthy elitists) who live healthy lives in the "heaven" that is called "Elysium" and the "have nots" (everyone else living on an Earth that is bursting due to overpopulation) who live lives of drudgery and slavery (and being bullied by androids) in the "Hell" that Earth has become. This "split" reminded me of "Metropolis" in a way. Jodie Foster (in a heavy role for a change) plays the main baddie who wants to keep Elysium free of unwanted people at any cost (including hiring psycho cyborgs and ordering spacecraft blown away). Matt Damon is also surprisingly interesting as "Max" a man who has spent his entire awful life on Earth yearning to go to Elysium. Lots of awesome special effects and action sequences as well. Many of the sequences are set in full daylight, which is very different and actually adds to their effectiveness IMO. My wife watched it three times. She loved it. Worth picking up.