Expectation not quite fulfilled but still entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2013)

I had rather expected more from Neil Blomkamp's follow up to the brilliant District 9. Elysium basically highlights the difference between two lifestyles, the 'haves' on the Elysium platform and the 'have nots' on a future over crowded Earth.Whilst Elysium has some stunning visuals I thought the dialogue was at times weak. Oh! and why do some actor's have to mumble so much, I had trouble catching a lot of what Matt Damon was saying at times, which doesn't help trying to follow a storyline which is quite complicated, as most Sci-Fi's are. I'm not sure Matt is the right choice for heroic roles. He always strikes me as too nice and cerebral and doesn't really have that killer instinct in his personality that say Jeremy Renner or Russell Crowe have on screen. On the other hand, Sharlto Copley gives us a classic villain that I think will be remembered for a long while. In the tradition of great screen villains he gives the outstanding performance in this movie and it's worth paying the admission price to see him. Jodie Foster is my favourite actress and I know she wanted to be in this movie because I read she admired District 9 so much, something I read, long before she was cast. Jodie, I ask, what was that accent? Elysiumese? or was it supposed to be English? I'm not quite sure but it didn't work for me. I do think her dialogue was a bit weak and she didn't have a lot to work with and perhaps she tried to imbue it with this odd accent, but it comes over as strained and at times she sounds like she chewing her words. Having said that, she's never boring, particularly when she's just sitting still as she often is. Even then, she never just sits there.She has a gift for using inflections in her face, hand movements and what she's saying that somehow makes the most mundane line more interesting to watch. There is a scene near the beginning where Jodie speaks softly in fluent French and in her normal voice and I longed to hear her use it but that was not to be. The Elysium platform is fabulous to look at, I read the designer who worked on Bladerunner designed it and it's superb, very impressive. The fight scenes I found a bit too frantic and confused and at times they seemed a bit clumsily executed although there are certainly plenty of them so if you just want lots of action, this film has that by the bucketful. I just felt it was at the expense of good characterisation and dialogue. A side story involving Alice Braga and her little girl who's ill was a bit wasted I thought as she apparently knew Matt Damon from childhood, but the chemistry was missing for me. All in all, watchable but not very involving.