Simplistic Allegory

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2013)

While a entertaining movie the movie is clearly a allegory for the for U.S. and Mexico. The people left on Earth spoke Spanish (even Matt Damon)and wanted to "cross the border" so they could get better health care and a better life in the rich and non-Spanish speaking Elysium world. Jodie Foster plays the politician wanting to keep the illegals out at all costs. Our politicians complain all the time about Mexicans coming to the U.S to get free health care and education for their children and of course want to keep them from that and even send them back to Mexico. Jodie Foster did this movie and played the one dimensional character because she wanted to send this message. The majority of the people that like this movie would not really consider giving free health care to immigrants or suddenly allow illegal immigrants to become citizens so they can have the benefits of U.S. It is an interesting movie in that the director pushes this theme very strongly and gives it to us in the form of an action movie. The movie falls apart at the end by giving us a fairy tale ending where some hospital ships come down to heal the millions or billions of people living on Earth. The allegory again is that the U.S. spends billions on war and billions on border patrols and not for sending hospital ships to countries that could use some free health care and education.