"The Sprawl"

Rating: 10/10 (7 April 2014)

Neill Blomkamp shows us again his world of parallels, and uses a William Gibsonish approach this time.
A small "Ringworld"ǂ - "Elysium" orbits the earth, where all of the richest people live in pleasure and luxury - And without ever getting sick.
But on earth, it is a scene from "Skinner's Room" (The short story by William Gibson about "The Sprawl"), where civilization has no place to go but up and over itself. The World is policed by Robots, and this is the world "Max" (Matt Damon) grew up in. All his life he has tried to save up enough money to buy a ticket to Elysium, but he himself has succumbed to the fact that this is basically impossible.
But the company where Max works, who make the robots, is the same company that built Elysium. And things are not quite as pleasant as they seem up there, "Delacourt" (Jodie Foster in a great character role) wants unparalleled Martial Powers as the head of Security for the whole habitat. And she sets her aims much higher than just enforcing the "No People from Earth Allowed" policy.
Helping her enforce this is Sharlto Copley as "Kruger" looking particularly old, he is the one called on to perform any and all unscrupulous acts.
Mainly the point of this film is that One Piece of Information can either make the world worse, or make it better for all citizens, not just Elysium. And this information falls to Max, it takes him a while to understand just what he needs to do with it- and as much as he wants to save his own life, he has had a responsibility thrust upon him that he alone becomes uniquely capable of making happen- With the help of a Hacker named Spider.
This film shares the Bleak landscapes of District 9 and also Sharlto Copley who is as great a villain as he was a geek in D9, and the only real Threat to Max being able to do what he needs to do. His South Africa heritage comes out well here, along with his two sidekicks.
The side-story here is between Max and "Frey" (Alice Braga), as she gets caught up in the mess as well, but this is just more motivation for Max to do what he needs to do- So as Max had a fairly selfish motive at the beginning of the film (Survive) it becomes more than that.
Niell is a great world maker, although I really would not want to live in his vision of the world which has Elysium floating over it.
But overall there is the hope that we can prevent it from ever becoming that way.
ǂ - "Ringworld" is a series of books by Larry Niven about a huge habitat orbiting a star 200 light years from Earth, a habitat that is equivalent to the surface of 30 million Earth-Type Worlds, built by a race called Pak. Elysium is a mere fragment of that size, but it's internal surface is very reminiscent of Ringworld.