Meh

Rating: 5/10 (22 August 2013)

Elysium is, in a word, disappointing. After the originality of District 9, I (and most everyone) expected more from Neill Blomkamp. However, it is not quite fair to judge the film based on a comparison to its predecessor. With that in mind, let's be objective.
The two A-listers in Elysium are Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. Damon plays an ex-con named Max, trying to keep his life on the straight and narrow. He has a manufacturing job producing the mechanized police force that keeps everyone on Earth and Elysium in check. Foster is the grim Secretary of Defense of Elysium, a giant space station where all the wealthiest people of Earth have fled. She is in charge of immigration to Elysium, and she has no love of illegals.
Typically, the protagonist is a round character – a character that undergoes a personal transformation. But in Elysium, Max is a flat character – an unchanging character, used as a narrative "prop" for contrast. All of the characters, in fact, are flat, which makes them very hard to feel for or connect with...
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