Elysium: Brazilian actors give a special touch

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2014)

Written by: Neill Blomkamp Directed by: Neill Blomkamp Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley Running time: 109 min. Country: USA
Elysium (2013, the new film by Neil Blomkamp , known for his success with the movie District 9, shows the extreme separation of social classes that the human being can endure.
The film is set in the year 2159, when Earth suffers from being depleted of natural resources, destroyed by technology and overpopulated. It is the planet where only the poor and decaying humans live to serve as labor for the rich who live in Elysium, a space station designed to be the perfect environment where all citizens have the right to use a machine, this exclusive world, healing any kind of disease or infirmity.
The action begins when Max (Matt Damon) suffers an accident and is infected by radiation. His boss, a citizen of Elysium, does not care about his situation and he will have only five more days to live. The only way to survive he would go to Elysium to use the cure machine. For this he asks Spider for help, the character played by Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, who was handpicked by the director after seeing his performance in "Tropa de Elite" 1 and 2 movies.
Spider is working illegally trying to send sick people from Earth to be cured in Elysium. He accepts to send Max to one of their trips if he helps him to reconfigure the system of Elysium,transforming all Earth citizens in official citizens of Elysium, giving everyone equal rights. Clearly the leaders of the space station did not like this plan, starting a hunt for communists that gives a special touch to the film.
And talking about special touch, again Alice Braga makes all the difference in an American cast. The Brazilian plays Frey Santiago, a childhood friend of Max's, who he is in love with. Frey has a daughter with leukemia, and fights alongside Max to save them both.
Merging science fiction, social criticism, sustainability and romance, Elysium is a great movie for those who like a lot of action and a well tied plot at the same time. Not to mention the special effects and the technological equipment that give the characters futuristic and painful elements, such as the steel exoskeleton that is deployed to the body of the protagonist for him to fight with police robots that would be lethal to any unprepared human.