Elysium

Elysium (2013) was Neill Blomkamp's second film after District 9 and expectations were very high. They were not met. It is 2159. The wealthy live on an orbital station called Elysium, where machines cure any illness in minutes. Everyone else is on a wrecked Earth. Max takes a fatal dose of radiation and has five days. Getting up there is his only option. The premise is strong and the allegory could not be more explicit: access to healthcare, migration, borders. That explicitness is the problem. Blomkamp states the idea once and then turns to action, and the second half becomes a standard chase. The documentary texture and the humour of District 9 are absent. The design work still holds up: worn out robots, a dust covered Mexico City, an Elysium that is clean and empty. Sharlto Copley as the mercenary is the liveliest thing in it. Jodie Foster's accent became a talking point of its own. Good for: science fiction action, dystopia, and social allegory. Less good for: the violence is hard and bloody. Anyone wanting a subtle political film will not find it. This one says its message at volume.