Elysium : A Movie with certain sci-fi vision whatever you like it or not

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2013)

First of all I really missed Sharlto Copley's heavy South African accented f-bombs. It is great to hear them again.
That being said lets get on the review. You can point one constant fact about Neill Blomkamp so far. He does not mind about being politically correct , non -offensive , family friendly or child/studio/box office friendly , PG-rated work. In his productions he shares what he thinks with audience , sparing nothing about his vision of where we are or where we are heading , putting effective real life examples or analogies about main themes or subjects of his scripts. You might not agree about him. But he creates a controversy a discussion about issues we can not ignore. That is his strength and what makes his movies so fun , interesting. Not like Disney funded banal and boring comic book stuff which became shallow formulatic and predictable as hell just to make BO profit by trying to appeal everyone and we are forced to watch on screen every year. District 9 ( which was a great piece of work) was about racism , xenophobia and apartheid. It struck hard. Elysium is about massive illegal immigration , health care , social/income inequality we are forced to face more and more each passing day. Blomkamp basically says that we can not afford to ignore them anymore. Though the actions of main protagonist Max DeCosta we are faced with a desperate man driven to desperate means. In 150 years Earth became a gigantic slum , a Barrio from Mexico City. (most of the film was produced there so it is not surprising ) Pollution , over population , automation of certain services and extension of life created a hell on the planet. When Max played by an subdued Matt Damon has a fatal work accident in the plant he was working (did I mention that Work Safety Regulations , Employee Rights , Unions all vanished as well ) that will cause his demise in a few days he goes on a path that will either save him or kill him a few days earlier. Desperate people and their actions. Alice Braga as Frey Max's childhood crush and Wagner Moura as Spider tag along as well.
Then there is Elysium. A huge O'Neill class rotating space station in high orbit of Earth , an orbital habitat , a paradise for humans. A place where extreme pleasure , health care and life can be experienced through technology that was denied to masses. Jodie Foster who emphasizes her detachment from humanity by her fluent speaking French discussion in her first scene then orders shuttles full of immigrants approaching Elysium to be shot down coldly plays Defense Minister of Station Delacourt who oversees tight immigration procedures and makes no one who does not belong to a rich privileged class comes to station. She is OK with this character. But from antagonist types from the movie two other characters over shines her. First company CEO John Carlyle who is played by sharp cold uncompromising straight William Fichtner. The other is great Sharlto Copley who plays a sociopathic , unpredictable creepy South African mercenary / bounty hunter named Kruger. He is basically dealing with dirty work on Earth for Elysium administration.
CGI and other visual effects along with camera work is great in my opinion. Droids are cool and cold without any sense of empathy or emotion. Action is great but not over the top or oh look Green Screen overload type of thing. It is adequate.
What this movies missing I think is overall sharpness or much more uncompromising attitude of District 9. That movie dealt with our world and our society in a much more harsher , "in your face" way. Here Blomkamp seems to take a back step , made Elysium s little more audience friendly maybe probably due to studio pressure. Another disappointment is script's similarity to District 9. Characters , their motivations , sequence of events are all to similar. One might even say that Sharlto Copley called his workmate David James from District 9 and asked him how to act like a crazed mercenary. Still one hell of a movie definitely one to be watched in theater with big screen. 7,5 would be closer to my final rating.