Elysium - by Danny

This is the follow up from the director of District 9. This one is not as good. It's still entertaining, but is nothing more than a bit of sci-fi fun.

Here the poor people all live on an overcrowded Earth, speak Spanish and have tattoos. The lucky few live on a spinning Space Hotel called Elysium, with robot servants and Med Bays that quickly cure any ailment with a laser. They speak French and wear crisp suits.

Matt Damon is an Earth-bound low-life desperate to get to Elysium. Opposed to him are the evil elite of Jodie Foster and William Fichtner, who have been cast specifically for their pale skin and impassive faces. There's also a South African mercenary, who, as I now expect of all South Africans, drinks beer and eats meat and loves killing people for fun, with a sword and a leery grin.

The director isn't too interested in the actual mechanics of the Space Station. This is no Babylon 5. Instead it's just a general metaphor for rich and poor, and gives Matt Damon something to aim for. I enjoyed that to begin with he is motivated by purely selfish reasons, but sadly by the end his childhood sweetheart and her sickly child are competing for his affection.

As well as the driving force of Matt Damon trying to get into space, there's also a plot device of Matt having something important stuck in his head, which everybody wants. It's unclear what is required to get this out of his head, as sometimes people are putting cables in his head, sometimes just being nearby lets them hack in, and once he has lots of cables put down his mouth to extract it.

The plot lines all converge towards the end in a great big pile up co-incidences, and the two Worlds of Earth and Elysium suddenly seem very small. I would have liked a bit more sweeping majesty and slowness, and less plot.

The best parts of the film are where it's hinted what life is like in each habitat, which you only get for a second or two, before the story drives on. For example, at one point the merc Kruger pulls out some sort of forcefield to defend himself from bullets, then puts it away again. There's no introduction or explanation to this, he just does it, and it makes you wonder what sort of other cool stuff they have in the future. In contrast to this, the regenerative power of the Med Bays is laboured from the first scene of the film to the last.

And the ending is ridiculous. Still, overall quite enjoyable. I'll be curious to see if Neill Blomkamp's next film also features apartheid and mech suits.