This movie is essentially the same as District 9

Rating: 3/10 (4 September 2013)

I really wanted to like this movie. The acting was good, the visuals were cool, but the characters were flat. I felt like there was no choice in the movie, either. A good story will present you with a moral dilemma, and allow the audience to choose right and wrong. This movie did nothing of the sort. The people living on Elysium were not shown at all. They were almost backgrounds. You only saw the corrupted people in charge. I find it very hard to swallow that an entire group of people would think exactly alike as if they were one person. Movies with messages like this should have both sides to the story, and there wasn't. And knowing this movie was made by the same person as District 9, it was frustrating. Both movies have the same moral message, and are sci-fi movies. The worst part about these two sci-fi movies with the same message is the fact that they have the same issues with story telling. No view on how "the other side" lives and thinks. This movie was flat, and often dull, and very transparent. I feel this movie thinks too little of its audience and their ability to decode a movie. It hands you what side to choose, and what to feel on a platter and doesn't expect you to think. The overall message is also too in your face. We get it already, both movies are about immigration reform, their isn't much else to them. I think the director should look into making documentaries and stay away from story telling.