When released in 2009 Neil Blomkamp's District 9 was a breath of fresh air in a cinema world full of uninventive reboots, remakes and sequels. So fans of the film were pretty excited when Blomkamp announced a return to the sci-fi genre with Elysium, but does the film manage to live up to the hype? Although the film is slightly more generic than District 9 it's a thrilling piece of cinema with fantastic performances from Matt Damon and Sharlto Copley.
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The film takes place in a futuristic Earth which is plagued with disease, and pollution. The richest of Earth's population abandoned Earth and travelled to a utopian space station named Elysium. The movie centres around Max played by Matt Damon. After an accident at work Max is left suffering from radioactive poisoning, which means a ticket to Elysium is the only hope Max has left. To gain this ticket Max has to work as a mercenary and is fitted with a robot nervous system to improve his fighting skills.
Max's story may not be as gripping as Wikus' journey in District 9, however Matt Damon's excellent performance still keeps you hooked. Max is different from most action heroes through his obvious terror at dying, whereas John McLane and Rambo throw themselves into combat without any real worries. This makes the character of Max much more believable. Jodie Foster is decent in the role of Jessica Delacourt, the woman basically running Elysium, but doesn't really add anything to the role. But then we have Sharlto Copley who steals the show. Copley plays Kruger an agent employed by Delacourt to prevent any problems Elysium may have down on Earth. He is a chilling villain for the film and one of the few movie villains of recent films that is quite frightening.
The film does not have all that many action scenes but when there is they are usually plagued with shaky cam problems. It seems to be a common mistake to use this feature in the films I've seen recently, with Kick-Ass 2 being the most blatant offender. Which is quite disappointing because it makes the highly anticipated face-off between Max and Kruger slightly underwhelming. However the action scenes are pretty rare which means it's not such a massive problem in the scheme of things.
The special effects in the film are great, which adds to the highly detailed world Blomkamp has created. This frightening vision of the future feels real and sucks you in to the universe.
Elysium is probably the best film I've seen this Summer, it's thought-provoking story, brilliant performances, and incredibly realised world is enough to warrant your attention.
I give Elysium a 8.5 out of 10
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