Below average on all accounts

Rating: 4/10 (8 August 2013)

Elysium is such a massively underwhelming movie.
The action scenes are just way below the bar that's already been set by action movies of 2013 and 2012. What action there is is ruined by a shaky camera and blatantly poor choreographing. It tries to make up for this by being a "LOOK AT ALL THIS COOL FUTURE STUFF" movie with robots, magic healing stations, "futuristic" weaponry, and the tired dystopian theme.
As a science fiction movie it's just awful. There's a plot hole every 15 minutes, issues that are never addressed, and terrible writing altogether. The science part is never in any way explained — this would be better billed as a science fantasy film. It makes absolutely no effort to be anything other than another cheesy "sci-fi" film to throw in the bin along with After Earth It takes after District 9 in that it's trying to be a social commentary but falls flat on its face so hard it's almost amusing.
The "message" of the film is like any other film being released lately: being socially privileged is wrong. It's yet another film that sets out to make you feel shameful for living in a first world country for no other reason than the fact that it seems to sell really well lately.
Honestly, I give it a 4/10 meaning it wasn't quite painful to watch, but it was pretty difficult to enjoy. The humor (at least I HOPE it was intended as humor) kept me from outright leaving the theatre and that's really all it has going for it in my opinion.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie. It just means it's way below average. If you haven't seen much sci-fi and you don't want to think too hard (and in fact staunchly refuse to pick it apart) then it's a fantastic movie for you otherwise, don't bother.