Wanted to love it, only wound up kinda liking it..

Rating: 7/10 (17 August 2013)

...like everyone else, i came out of DISTRICT 9 absolutely blown away, and dying for the next project to come from this new talent with the name like a James Bond villain..
When the first trailers came for "Elysium" I was excited. Talents like Matt Damon and Jodie Foster were onboard! I was ready to absolutely LOVE this movie..
After having seen it, i must say i was...not necessarily disappointed, but underwhelmed would be a good word to describe it.
Oh there is some good action, but it's not AS good as the action in D9.
The characters are likable enough, but not anywhere near as likable or interesting as the characters in D9.
The movie has tremendous fx, and a great sense of stylistic design, but the movie is very paint by numbers, and actually felt a bit rushed in it's finale.
Too much time spent on the fx, i think, and not enough fleshing out the characterization and the story. Too bad, because this REALLY could have been something special. As it stands, i would call it 'the sophomore slump".