Review of Elysium (2013) by Stuart K — 29 Mar 2014

Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, whose big screen debut District 9 (2009) became a big sleeper hit a few years before, here creates a big sci-fi epic, with a much bigger budget than Blomkamp's debut.

But, it is well made and it's a good idea for a film, it's well executed, and it has some great action sequences, and it could be seen as an indictment for how things might turn out on Earth. It is 2154, and Earth has become a squalid dystopia, while the rich and famous have all moved to a massive space station above Earth called Elysium, where no-one has any diseases and they all live in luxury.

Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) is a thief who works in a robot factory, and when he's accidentally exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, and is only given 5 days left to live, he goes to smuggler Spider (Wagner Moura) to get into Elysium.

But, it won't be easy, as Elysian Secretary of Defense Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster) has her own secret agenda, and Max will have deadly mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to deal with as well. It's a great space opera, which owes a lot to the sci-fi films of Paul Verhoeven, (he would be proud of this).

Blomkamp does well on a larger scale, and he gets the best from his cast as well. There's some great set pieces on display here, and it'll be exciting to see what Blomkamp does next.