Elysium

WOW!  So, Neill Blomkamp may very well be the best science fiction writer/director since Ridley Scott.  His first feature length film, District 9 was one of the best films of the year and maybe even decade (so far), his sophomore effort Elysium is every bit a follow-up.  While the two films are not connected in terms of story, we can start to get a good sense of Blomkamp's style by looking at the similarities between the two films.  The action scenes in both remind me of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan: gritty, dirty, gory realism.  Blomkamp uses shakey-cam quite a bit, but never enough to make you sick, and he doesn't commit the cardinal sin of shakey-cam which is using it to hide bad directing.  Make no mistake, Elysium is absolutely one hell of an action flick.  Characters get torn apart, people get blown up (and not the cheesy fireball and chunks of scorch blown up either, we're talking concussive blasts shredding people and spraying gore everywhere), one of the major characters even gets his face blown off and we're treated to a nice close-up of the aftermath.  But, it isn't a problem because there are machines which can heal any injury.

The heart of the story is about the separation between Earth and Elysium, a colonized ring world orbiting Earth.  Earth is a desolate planet, full of pollution and decay.  The cities destroyed and overcrowded.  The people tend to have dark skin and speak mostly Spanish, while on Elysium everyone is white and speaks either French or English.  Only Elysium has the magical "cure everything" machines, and the people of Earth often try to illegally access Elysium for the medical care.  Okay, so Blomkamp isn't particularly subtle with the message, but who cares because he HAS A MESSAGE.  So few movies are actually about anything, and while that isn't particularly a bad thing, it's the ones that really know what they want to say that stick with you.

In terms of story we have Matt Damon as Max, an ex thief trying to go straight who lives on Earth, he gets in an accident at the factory he's working at and only has five days to live, so he straps on a robotic exoskeleton and goes to town trying to break into Elysium.  Oh, and Sharlto Copley as Kruger, a deranged mercenary with big sword and a lot of explosives, is trying to stop him.  I'll stop the synopsis there so as to not give too much away but it's safe to say not all is as it seems on Elysium.

This movie has a great story, a very relevant message, and awesome action.  This movie has a freaking cyborg ninja, and it's AWESOME!!!  I cannot say enough how much I liked this movie.  Elysium is probably the best movie of the year, certainly the best of the summer.  GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

9.5/10