Elysium

If you had five days left to live, how would you spend it?

Elysium follows ex-con Max de Costa, a production line worker who is given a death sentence after being exposed to high amount of radiation. While he lives on Earth, which has become a slum since the wealthy had retreated to the space station 'Elysium', he is unable to cure his sickness, but is given the chance to break into the futuristic utopia.

The writing, like Blomkamp's last masterpiece, District 9, is wonderfully fresh. This is the kind of future I really crave to see in a Sci-Fi movie.  The older generation of Sci-Fi felt too sterile and clean, it's nice to see spaceships in the same movie as a grill made out of an oil drum. Incorporating social issues that we face now in this futuristic dystopian world obviously comes naturally to Blomkamp. While District 9 tackled racism and immigration, Elysium looks at class warfare and health care. 

The acting in this movie was fantastic. Matt Damon, as he almost always does, has an amazing performance in this movie. I was a little thrown off by the quasi-french accent Jodie Foster had throughout the movie, but that is a minor detail. The gold star of the day however, goes to Sharlto Copley. I loved this guy as Wikus in District 9, his breakout performance,; and his portrayal of Murdock in the A-Team movie was flawless, but this role was going to be a test as his first villainous role, and like a champ, he knocked it out of the park. I truly believe that Copley is probably one of the most underused actors out there compared to the quality of the performance he gives.

The cinematics is beautiful in this movie. The scenes that cut from the slums of Mexico to the paradise of Elysium are really amazing, going from the dusty, dead, and overcrowded to the pristine opulence is definitely a smart artistic choice to have. My only nitpick that I can find here is that Kruger's ship looks very reminiscent of the alien technology from District 9. I can understand how this happened, as Blomkamp is most likely the one who created the 3D model (his previous job was doing artistic 3D models that decorated the covers and pages of the magazine 'Popular Science'), but I would have liked to see something just slightly different.

Final Judgement:

Too often these days, do we hear the words 'Must See' attached to a movie. I would classify very few movies as a movie that someone "must watch". That being said, Elysium is one of those movies. To be honest this was the movie I was waiting for all summer to see. A perfect blend of creativity, beauty, and raw emotion. Frankly I was worried this movie wouldn't live up to the high expectations I was putting on it, but it blew them away. This is not only worth the ticket price, it may be worth a second ticket just to soak it in again.

Score:★★★★★★★★★★