Great Visually With Little to Inspire

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2013)

Elysium always promised to be a 'popcorn' movie and with the direction from Neill Blomkamp it would be expected to deliver a similar punch to previous efforts like District 9. Naturally it's easy to see the similarities and the inclusion of Sharlto Copley is a treat as his character Kruger provides a large part of the entertainment.
Like other reviews I also agree that the visual effects are crucial to the entertainment of the film particularly in the slow motion dismemberment shots which are thoroughly enjoyable in a macabre way. The gritty atmosphere is created by Blomkamp by use of the locations a futuristic vision of Los Angeles riddled with disease and poverty on one end of the spectrum and the plush, luxury of the idealistic Elysium on the other.
Yes the storyline is predictable and to be fair it has been attempted on multiple occasions before so the task was always going to be a tough one, but the difference is that this film is truly entertaining, it's got all the elements of action you need, a great attention to detail visually and a motive. In no way will this be a classic and will be forgotten a lot sooner than District 9 but it's a solid effort.
To conclude Elysium is an entertaining 'popcorn' movie using the limited resources of a tired modern sci-fi idea.