Review - Elysium (2013)

Starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley.

Directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Synopsis: In the year 2154, two classes of people exist; the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a mission that will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

These are my thoughts on Elysium in bullet style. The movie sucked and is the most disappointing movie of my summer. A poor sophomore effort from the director, after a brilliant District 9.

• Elysium begins with one of the most cheesiest openings for a sci-fi flick. Here we see a young Max being reassured by a nun at his orphanage that he is very special and will do something special one day. Like seriously? CORNY!

• I swear to god this movie's script was written by toddlers. Each line muttered by the characters was cringe worthy and stupid. Why does everybody in Elysium have a different accent?! Ugh. I could not understand what the characters were saying sometimes.

• Elysium's premise isn't something I haven't seen before in previous movies. The plot is so predictable, not to mention poorly developed. The writers were confused as to whether the story should focus Max (Matt Damon), Frey (Alice Braga) or Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) at some points and it showed. The movie explores topics like social class, wealth, immigration, health care but the overall execution was so poor, along with the film's shitty script. 

• Elysium's only strength lies in its visuals. That is the only aspect worth talking about. The visuals, especially that of the space station Elysium looked gorgeous. There were some real impressive shots and sadly it was all wasted.

• Elysium is boring; it is flat from start to finish. It showed no potential. None. Not even the action sequences are worth talking about. Nothing. This was a 1 hour and 40 minutes snooze fest. I thought the exoskeleton and other sci-fi elements of the film would be put to good use and deliver some thrilling fights and action but apparently we were not worthy of this. All the best action bits are shown in the trailer.

• I did not care about any of these characters; I actually felt sorry for them. I'm a huge fan of Matt Damon and even though he is the good guy in this film -- he was pretty unlikable just like everyone else. Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley were the villains and yes they sucked, especially Jodie. Frey and her daughter Matilda (Emma Tremblay) were just plugged into the story for plugging sake - I think this movie should have focused a little more on them. The other characters are laughable. This whole movie was a joke.

Rating: 3/10