Very enjoyable, but not perfect.

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2013)

The plot is...actually fairly simplistic. The rich live on a space station with super-technology that enables them to live 100% healthy lives for hundreds of years, while the poor live on a diseased and polluted Earth struggling daily to get by. Max suffers a serious injury that will leave him dead in under a week unless he can get to the super medical facilities on Elysium so he makes a deal with a gangster, and ends up holding the key to re-addressing balance to humanity. There's a couple of sub-plots here and there, including Max's childhood friend and the Elysium secretary of defense attempting to stage a coup, but by the halfway mark all the threads have merged together into a simple action movie; get to Elysium, kill the bad guy, heal humanity. It's not particularly taxing, but it's an engaging and interesting storyline that'll have you hooked from beginning to end, with a few unpredictable turns here and there.
Naturally Blomkamp has injected a fair dose of politics into the movie, highlighting the gulf of disconnect between the rich and the poor. He also has a stab at the state of healthcare in some countries (of course I can't say it's that bad in every country as the UK has pretty good healthcare) by pointing out the elitism of Elysium's healthcare beds that can heal any and all ills a human being might have by simply re-atomising them. All-in-all though, while the messages are there, they're not as strong or focal as they were in District 9, and really most the themes are exactly the same. A simple case of 'been there, done that'.
The acting quality was a bit all over the place I have to admit. Matt Damon, Alice Braga and William Fichtner all played their parts well, but were maybe a bit too hampered by being under- developed. Literally the only solid development any of the characters get is a couple of flashbacks to Max and Frey as children, and a nun giving Max a locket with a picture of the Earth inside. They're not just cardboard cut-outs either. While they're underdeveloped, there's still enough in them to make them engaging enough. I just feel a little more could've been done. Jodie Foster was unfortunately a huge disappointment. This is a far cry from her Oscar- nominated performances. She just looked awkward and like she was trying too hard, and she had a weird accent. I think she was trying to sound French, but she just failed and it became really distracting. Sharlto Copley on the other hand was unsurprisingly brilliant. He really seemed to tap into the mindset of such a disturbed sociopath and he ate up every scene with his creepiness. He was also a badass with a beard, a katana, and some sort of energy shield. The villain-of-the-year award goes to Copley's Kruger!
The CGI was absolutely amazing, which again is hardly surprising coming from Blomkamp. There's a huge attention to detail paid to the shuttles and Elysium itself, both visually and thematically. One example being how Elysium is completely open to space, it's own atmosphere maintained by it's inherent gravitational pull from it's spin. It's a really great concept that probably isn't as unfeasible as you might think. Another thing I noticed was how the shuttle of John Carlyle, an Elysium citizen, is meant to be a Bugati. It had the sleek lines and curves of the Veyron, and had the standard red and black colour scheme, and even had a Bugati badge on the back. Being a Bugati Veyron fan, I liked that touch.
The movie is also remarkably gory. I did not expect that all. It's not filled with gore, but what little of it there is really milks everything it can. One of the weapons Kruger uses literally blows people apart on the spot, so you get body parts flying all over the place, and there's one scene where a guy gets his face blown apart by a grenade, and then has it reconstructed in all it's gory detail via the super healthcare beds on Elysium. It's gruesome stuff. Oh, and of course Max's surgery to have the exoskeleton attached is not for the faint of heart. Elysium doesn't like you to imagine anything, it would rather show you.
It's not all perfect though. The second half, and the climax in particular, lost it's way. I know Kruger is meant to be an unhinged guy, but his snap once on Elysium just came out of nowhere without any real explanation. To make it worse the inhabitants of Elysium just seem to bend- over and take it; a rogue special agent going crazy as well as a group of illegal's trying to muscle in. Where's the Elysium enforcer's in all of this? Why don't they get involved? The first half seems to make a big thing of the robot police force, but by the second half they're almost completely forgotten.
I feel I could compare Elysium to Dark Knight Rises, where the first two-thirds of the movie are fantastic, the big climax is a real letdown full of plot holes, and the closing scenes go back to brilliance to close everything up with an emotional edge. And it really is an emotional edge from Elysium. I actually started to well up, not only at how sad it was, but how happy it was too. It was a somewhat predictable ending, but yes, I was almost brought to happy-tears. While Elysium wasn't perfect, I can't say it was a disappointment as I definitely enjoyed myself. I give it a very good 8/10, but only just.