Shallow

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2013)

The year is 2154. Mankind has been split in two. The rich live on a pristine space station called Elysium, where sickness, disease and even aging has been stopped by modern science, while the poor are left to suffer and die on what is left of the earth. Matt Damon is Max, a hard-working ex-con who is accidentally exposed to a lethal amount of radiation. With only 5-days to live, Max will do whatever it takes to get to Elysium in order to save his life.
Writer/director Neill Blomkamp re-teams with Sharlto Copley after their 2009 break-out hit, District 9. It's hard not to compare Elysium to District 9. When you do, you can't help but be disappointed with Elysium, as it isn't anywhere near as groundbreaking or original. It looks and feels just like a sequel but isn't. We want to like Elysium because it's Neill Blomkamp but really, it's not anything special. If it wasn't directed by Blomkamp, we would have passed it off as a wannabe District 9. Really it's just another mediocre and predictable sci-fi action thriller.
While Matt Damon is miscast or just way too nice of a guy to be playing an ex-con, Sharlto Copley's villain keeps things interesting but in the end, there's just not enough of him. And that sums up the film itself. It never goes far enough, leaving it feeling shallow.