Matt Damon in space

Rating: 7/10 (2 December 2013)

District 9 was a brilliant film and so a tough act to follow up. Elysium is visually and stylistically very similar to D9, but with a different story. The plot strongly reminded me of Battle Angel with influences from other scifi pop culture like Terminator, Mass Effect etc. The VFX are incredibly well done and very believable. The cinematography is mainly hand-held which gives you more the feeling that you're there and makes it feel more dynamic. Casting Matt Damon as the lead seems a bit odd, and although he doesn't do a bad job he feels a bit out of place. They also asked Eminem for the lead part but that would definitely have been worse. Jodie Foster plays the heavy but she has a British-like accent and she does seem to overact a little bit. Sharlto Copley on the other hand was well cast as the lunatic merc. So to round up, I found it a very enjoyable film and it was about what I expected but the plot could have been fleshed out a bit better, the characters seems a bit flat and the film lacks heart for lack of a better term. His next film 'Chappie' will be a scifi comedy with a robot in the lead and will be loosely based on his 2003 short Tetra Vaal. Jackman, Weaver, Copley and Dev Patel have already been confirmed as cast so this should be interesting :)