Visually striking, if nothing else, a movie made for cinema

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2013)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In the year 2054, massive over population and massive poverty have left earth a baron, desolate wasteland. The rich and powerful have hop footed it up to a magical new place called Elysium, a paradise where people can live in peace and luxury, at the expense of the hard labour of those down below, such as Max (Matt Damon), a bulky manual worker who gets infected with something nasty after an accident at work. To get the cure he needs, he has no choice but to take on an assignment for renegade Julio (Deigo Luna), in the shape of apprehending smarmy Elysium corporate manager John Carlyle (William Fichtner) and stealing some information from his brain. Delacourt (Jodie Foster), the ice queen ruler of Elysium, can't have this and sends the ruthless Kruger (Sharlito Copley) to deal with him.
Very few directors start off as big names. It's unlikely a major studio, with no track record of their previous box office magic, will grant them a huge budget to start off with, however visionary their ideas may be or however driven they appear to attain perfection. So it's more likely, if they're going to end up making a big name for themselves, that they'll need to get a cult hit on their hands first, a small budget offering that maybe becomes something of a sleeper hit and develops a loyal fan base, even if it's only a small one. And so Neill Blomkamp a few years back, gave us his still memorable District 9, that had the distinction of having impressed none other than Peter Jackson. And if the Lord of the Rings guy loves it, who is anyone else to complain?
Despite having a much bigger budget and consequentially far more publicity, Elysium still hasn't lost the touch Blomkamp gave D9, this time with visually awesome, magnificent special effects that retain the dark, dystopian feel he managed with a much smaller budget. It's a film you need to catch at the cinema, preferably an IMAX, I guess, where you can get the full effect of the stunning spectacles on offer. Of course, aside from these, Elysium suffers in other ways. Naturally, as a post apocalyptic science fiction film, there's the opportunity for some social commentary on how things could turn out and the pros and cons of living in such a world, but the screenplay seems far less concerned with what over population could drive the world to, and instead just getting on with a fairly generic, predictable story that just serves as a catalyst for all the destruction and mayhem that ensues.
The film aims to blow you away with it's scope and vision, and you have a right to expect great things in that department. You can even expect a decent piece of trashy fun to munch some popcorn to. But you'll have to be in a far less demanding mood in terms of the writing, dialogue and anything else that would have given it more substance. ***