Elysium - movie review

I went to see Elysium - at 10.10pm show - because I wanted to see Matt Damon in this role. After all I had seen him with his bald head for many months quite a while back.  Unfortunately, I felt the movie missed its mark. It did not emotionally engage me.

The story line should have.  The poor in future earth trying to get to the 'land of milk and honey' Elysium, (the international space station 100,000 times larger with a landscape like prosperous L.A.  The aspirations of the poor, to get where all illness is miraculously healed, so you don't get old, you don't get sick, you live this wondrous life. Or at least a few do.

The rest, well they live in an overpopulated, crime-ridden, rubble-covered Earth (filmed in a garbage dump in Mexico where a couple of thousand people actually do live).  Matt is Max who receives an overdose of radiation and then is made into a machine-man, who downloads a program into his head, and he needs to get to Elysium (which is heavily guarded - blowing unauthorized transports out of the sky).

The movie sets up as to how Max gets radiated, made into a machine-man, and how he gets to Elysium. Of course there is the emotional quotient as well. His childhood friend has a little girl who is dying and needs what Elysium has in order to get well.

There is some good support actors with Jodie Foster playing the going for power in Elysium, Sharlto Copley as the 'bad, bad guy', Alice Braga as Max's childhood friend grown up. Also Diego Luna, Wagner Moura and William Fichtner (he seems to be popping up a lot - still love his Crossing Lines TV show). 

I'm not sure what makes this movie miss the mark, but for all the guns, the fighting, the human heart tugging, it did not touch me, or my friend who came with me. We both sat at the end and said, what's not right with this movie. I was disappointed.  I like action movies, I like movies which have human heart strings, but somehow the director Neil Blomkamp missed the mark.  Mind you, I was one of the many who did not overly enjoy District 9, so should have known.   I understand I'm not alone in my estimation of this movie.  I'm disappointed in that, because Matt Damon deserves a better movie.
2 out of 5  (the lowest I think I've given maybe ever, but for a long long time.).

PS  Neil Blomkamp is south African, and I delighted in seeing the South African Flag on the side of Sharlto Copley's air transport plus he spoke with his South African accent.  Look for the flag if you go see this movie.  My friend missed it but you don't want to as it brought a smile to my face.