Not quite Elysium

Elysium is not a bad film.

It has many of the elements that made me really enjoy District 9 (Neill Blomkamp's earlier sci-fi outing). There is the credible near future warfare, the critical social commentary and the lack of aversion from gory or disturbing scenes.

However, it somehow doesn't mesh quite as well as District 9 did. Matt Damon puts in a workmanlike performance but fails to bring the energy or humour to the protagonist's role that Sharlto Copley provided. Copley himself shows his range as a psychotic, Katana-wielding mercenary but the cast generally feels a little lacklustre.

Further the political angle becomes less effective as it becomes more abstracted from real world politics. Elysium imagines a future where the rich-poor divide is enshrined by the evacuation of the elite to an orbital where they live idyllically with the service of robotic soldiers and near perfect medical technology. It is an interesting set up but doesn't feel as fresh or original as District 9's controversial take on Apartheid.

Mix this with a few plot holes (why doesn't the orbital have any defences beyond agents with rocket launchers on Earth?) and superficialities (I'd like to have heard more about life for the super rich - all we see is an ongoing English garden party and some unconvincing political machinations) and it becomes a film that you want to like but which doesn't quite live up to its promise.