I mostly liked it.  Yeah, Blomkamp hits some of his themes hard, I don't know what the heck Jodie Foster is trying to do with her accent, and there is some real weapons-grade stupid in the last act of the script.  It's also a fairly well-realized world with a nicely restrained performance by Matt Damon and some pretty great action.  I respect that he goes the "future weapons blow people up into a pulpy mess" route rather than thinking about the PG-13.

I wasn't the biggest fan of DISTRICT 9. In fact, it was very very very overrated. Still, D9 had a clever premise and it delivered enough on a modest budget that one could look forward to Writer-Director Neill Blomkamp's follow-up. ELYSIUM has quadruple the budget, Oscar talent in Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and, again, a decent germ of an idea (basically the rich folks in METROPOLIS living not underground, but, in an orbiting spaceship a la WALL-E). But, ELYSIUM is just a big mess.

What message it has is buried under its garbled storyline. It mixes social commentary, with a undernourished romance and then devolves into a dystopian ROAD WARRIOR type action film (complete with an often mad hero (Damon) who's even named 'Max' for Mel's sake!). Speaking of Gibson. His most fervent Hollywood defender, Jodie Foster, turns in perhaps her worst ever performance as the secretary of defense in full Maggie Thatcher/Hillary Clinton mode (with a bizarre accent that could be a hybid of both women!). Damon does better, but, not nearly enough to save the movie. His personal predicament will remind noir film fans of the 1950's D.O.A.. The "exciting" action sequences have camerawork so shaky at times I thought the projection booth having an earthquake. I did like the lived-in look of the earth scenes and Elysium is a decently mounted contrast (if highly questionable in being feasible).

There are huge plot holes and unconvincing science all about. We are to believe that all these millionaires and billionaires (and by then, trillionaires) entrust their safety in their nirvana like world from the poor huddled masses below not by some space shield or fleets of space-cruisers, but, by hired mercenaries ON THE EARTH? And, the ultimate technological way in which the earth is to be saved is as ridiculous as any concocted since Jeff Goldblum hacked the aliens with a mid-90s-era laptop in INDEPENDENCE DAY! And, just about the only human interest story in the film is that hoariest of cliches - the sick child! What?! Blomkamp couldn't figure out how to incorporate a cute puppy as well?

I give Blomkamp credit for trying to instill his science fiction films with some substance, but, he needs better writers to fuel his ambitions.


P.S. Ed is such an easy grader.