Another Big-Budget Faliure

Rating: 2/10 (12 August 2013)

One of the most hyped movies of the summer, I personally was looking forward to this movie being a big fan of District 9, however we see first hand in Elysium how big studios can ruin great ideas.
First of all, the world that they try to introduce to you is sloppy and full of plot holes, that I guess they just assume the viewers will ignore. This, combined with cliché after cliché just gets old really fast. "The orphan who was meant for something more", "The man with only 5 days to live" , "The mother just trying to help her sick daughter", for being an original story, very little was original at all.
Matt Damon's performance was OK at best. The movie felt like it was trying to EPIC at every turn. Damon really wasn't given too many lines to add much depth to his character --- Think: classic hero.
Foster's performance was by far the worst of the movie though. She plays a power hungry defense secretary. We get no back story with her, and her whole plot line seems rushed.
As far as positive's go, the cinematography was decent (although not as good as District 9). They did push the boundaries with some interesting camera movements during fight scenes, even that felt like an afterthought though, instead of being a living part of the movie. The robots were again smartly portrayed.
All in All I would put this up there with the John Carter's, and Lone Ranger's of the world. Still baffled how studios let this kind of stuff hit the market. Everyone is too concerned with nailing target audiences instead of making truly great cinema.