A frustrating disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (12 February 2015)

"Elysium" puts forth a future in which the rich have taken to outer space to live in disease-free comfort while society's dregs wallow in Earth's hellish remains. The protagonist is sick and needs one of those cure-all med bays that only service the upper-crust (MacGuffin for the win!). Does Blomkamp do anything with this? No, he just wants to blow stuff up and shoot big gins. I wouldn't even call this liberal propaganda because it's all there so Matt Damon can go Bourne on everyone and kick some ass. And even when he does change the system, it's a hollow victory. Any world-building is all in service to the run-and-gun latter half. The bad guys here (heartless CEO Fichtner, evil politician Foster with that absurd accent, low-rent sociopath Copley) are awful, not at all fleshed out. This is an eyesore with noise standing in for excitement.
5/10