Another Great Sci-Fi by Neill Blomkamp with a Different Fight of Classes

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2013)

In 2154, the population is divided in two social classes: the wealthy people live in Elysium, a space station with all the resources; the poor people lives in the exhausted Earth.
In Los Angeles, the former car thief Max da Costa (Matt Damon) is on parole and works on an unhealthy factory Armadyne managed by the CEO John Carlyle (William Fichtner). He dreams on saving money to travel to Elysium. Meanwhile the Secretary of Defense of Elysium, Delacourt (Jodie Foster), plots a coup-of-stat against President Patel (Faran Tahir), with the support of Carlyle. He programs a software that can override Elysium's data system and make any change, including the president's name to Delacourt. Carlyle uploads the software to his brain to increase its protection.
Max is exposed to a lethal amount of radiation in Armadyne and has only five more days of life. He seeks out the criminal Spider (Wagner Moura) expecting to travel to Elysium, where he can use a medical chamber called Med-bay that is capable to heal any disease and save his life. Spider tells that if Max steals profitable information, such as bank accounts, from the brain of Carlyle that is on Earth, he would get his ticket to Elysium. Max accepts the proposal without knowing the powerful knowledge in Carlyle's brain. When Delacourt learns that the information she needs to become president was stolen from Carlyle brain, she sends the notorious agent Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to hunt down Max and recover the software at any cost.
"Elysium" is another great sci-fi by Neill Blomkamp, the director and writer of "District 9", with a different fight of classes. The poor people live in Los Angeles, now a big slum, and the rich people lives in Elysium, the Elysian Fields from the Greek Mythology and meaning a place or condition of ideal happiness. Matt Damon is excellent as usual, and Jodie Foster is a perfect villain with a different look, blonde with short hair. The Brazilian Alice Braga is very well-known and this is the international debut of the also Brazilian Wagner Moura.
There are many plot holes, like for example why not shutdown the airspace from Earth permanently unless when Elysium needs to send a shuttle to Earth of vice-versa? Earth is limited to Los Angeles? Why does Elysium need a man to launch missiles to knock-down the spacecrafts with illegal immigrants? Why not keep Med-Bays in the hospitals on Earth is they are so simple and cheap? But the movie entertains and does not give time to think in these holes. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Elysium"