Elysium a trip you might want to re-think

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2013)

Elysium was easily my most hyped up movie for the summer. Neil Blomkamp came into the scene a few years ago with the amazing film district 9, so Elysium has been long anticipated. So the question is does it live up to all the hype and can it reach the level that district 9 did? Unfortunately the answer is no. Unlike District 9 the story here is a very simple one, with no real sense of political/controversial undertones, and that is a shame because Elysium's plot is perfect for this. Instead we get a very generic story with no real surprises and unfortunately Blomkamp decided to play it safe here. Now Elysium is not an awful movie by any means, in fact it's good but it the problem here is that it's weighted down by it's simplicity. The camera-work and soundtrack also hurt Elysium in a sense that the sound and music are almost non existent, and the camera work looks like it was filmed to be in 3d but then they opted out making it seem almost like a video game. Matt Damon brings in a decent performance but it is Sharlto Copley here who steals the show with his role as the villain. It's going to be a big year for sci-fi films but i would highly recommend watching the unrated sci-fi film oblivion over this. Elysium ends up playing it safe and becoming generic with no real surprises. There is a grand setting here but they never take advantage of that fact. Hopefully Blomkamp can get back on track with his next film, but i do expect great things to come from him in the near future. While not awful, Elysium proves to be somewhat of a disappointment. Rating : 6 out of 10