"Elysium"

It's the year 2154, and while the fortunate few and wealthy live in a utopia on a space habitat, called Elysium; the unfortunate many of earth are left to live in overcrowded cities with disease and oppression. Max Da Costa, a former car thief and now a parolee, works as a part of an assembly line for the military company Armadyne Corp.; who creates the robots that are now the Earth's law enforcement. When Max is exposed to a lethal amount of radiation at work; he is only given 5 days to live. There is; however, one way for Max to be cured, and that way is to get to Elysium. There they have healing technologies called Med-bay's; which the people of Earth can only dream of. There is only one problem.... Elysium doesn't allow for any immigrants from Earth to enter their perfect utopia.

     Directed by Neil Blomkamp; this movie stars Matt Damon as Max Da Costa, Jodie Foster as Defense Secretary Delacourt, Sharlto Copley as Agent C.M. Kruger, and Wagner Moura as Spider. I thought this was a great SciFi film; good story line, good acting, and explosions! The director Neil Blomkamp is really good at these dystopian Science Fiction/ Thriller movies.

     While I really liked this film; it did remind me a lot of Neil Blomkamp's film District 9 which was released in 2009. Both were set in an impoverished setting; both main characters start out as self-serving, but end up sacrificing everything to help those in need. Also both governments are wacko; one controlled by a defense contractor and the other by a power hungry Defense Secretary.  Sharlto Copley, a great South African actor, stars in both films as well. I really liked both films, but I couldn't help but notice the similarities. That said there are certain parts of each of the films which added a unique aspect to what Blomkamp thinks of our world now and of our future.

     If you haven't seen this movie, I would definitely suggest that you do, especially if you're Science/Fiction fanatic like me! I would give Elysium a 7 out 10 stars! Follow me on Twitter and check back here next Sunday for my next blog post!

Peace,
Jake