Elysium

Elysium.

Elysium stars Matt Damon in the sci-fi action film directed by Neill Blomkamp. This is Blomkamp's second film, the first being 2009's District 9 which was a pretty good sci-fi movie so I was excited to see what he could do with a bigger budget and bigger stars. Jodie Foster is in this but she's not at the same time, she doesn't have a ton of screen time and I think anyone more or less could have played her character. Matt Damon kills it as Max who is forced to travel from Earth to Elysium in order to save his life. Elysium doesn't have a completely original story but it's captivating and Blomkamp does a great job into sucking you in to the not so futuristic world where Earth is a dump and Elysium is where only the rich thrive.

There's really only one word to describe this movie: badass. The action scenes are done beautifully with some of the kills being absolutely beautiful. Matt Damon once he becomes all half-cyborg looks awesome, like a modern-day Terminator or Robo-Cop. Solid acting all around, I'm glad things fell through with Eminem because knowing his previous performances I couldn't see him in the role of Max at all. The film also tackles some social issues such as healthcare, overpopulation, immigration/emigration and class warfare. The score of the film is actually quite good, it plays off of the dark tones of the visuals and compliments it with equally as dark music,

SPOILER. I don't normally do spoilers but this one is worth talking about. I'm very happy that Blomkamp went the more realistic route with the ending instead of the traditional "happy" route in killing Max. As the movie progresses you begin to realize that there really is no realistic way for the movie to end happily for him and I'm glad the director had the balls to do it.
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Overall: It's a great sci-fi movie that leans a little too much into science-reality instead of fiction. It's dark, well acted and incredibly well directed. After District 9 and now Elysium I'm really excited to see what Blomkamp has for us next. Elysium is straight awesome.

Rating: 4/5, Well Worth a Full Price Ticket and I Will Buy it On DVD.