Looks great, liked Damon, too many stereotypes, wrong focus

Rating: 6/10 (27 November 2013)

I liked District 9, it had a quirkiness that's lacking in this film. Elysium's visuals are stunning, and well thought out, but the concept is rife with South African sensitivities. The elite are shallow or downright evil, the military types are brutish, and the only people with any spark of goodness are the downtrodden.
The movie starts with the premise that earth is massively over-populated, shows it, then veers immediately into a simplistic poor versus rich theme. At no time is any thought given to the basic issue of overpopulation or what it did to the planet and what could be done about it, it's just somehow the wealthy and powerful's fault.
And I don't know how it works in South Africa, but there's a rich history of philanthropy in the U.S. At any rate, the director needs to pull his head out of wherever it's stuck and balance the equation. At least if he wants interesting movies.
Matt Damon was very good, as were most of the actors given a chance to be. There was little to no development of the Elysium-side characters so it was hard to care one way or the other about them. In the end that made it difficult to care one way or the other about the movie.