Elysium

 

Writer/Director Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium is a dark view of the future where the one-percenters live in a luxurious space station hovering 19 minutes above Earth, while the masses suffer in squalor on the planet.  Residents of Elysium even have home pods to restore their health whenever needed.  And, only a select few Earthlings get to visit for physical restoration.

Matt Damon plays Max, a former thief, who is trying to go straight with a menial factory job until he gets a lethal dose of radiation and is given 5 days to live.

 

He needs to get to Elysium for a cure, but the only way he can do that is to try to get beyond the defenses of the ruthless Secretary of Defense played by Jodie Foster with delicious evilness.

 

 

 

Sharlto Copley, who played in Blomkamp’s District 9, is, also, a fabulous villain as the Secretary’s go-to man for mayhem.

 

It is not always clear exactly what is going on or why, but the main objectives are clear and the audience is swept along with Max’s efforts to save his life and, ultimately, the lives of his former lover and her daughter.

Elysium is a well-made view of what we would hope our world does not become.  I give it a 3+ out of 5.