Elysium, while it was not necessarily bad, was a bit disappointing. The special effects in this film look great, from the violence, to Elysium itself. However, the story is not so great. The plot is decent at best, and the character development is very underdone. The relationships between characters were barley explored, and the characters seemed to have next to no emotion. The felt like, in a sense, machines. In my opinion, the best part of the movie by far was Sharlto Copley's Kruger. At the end of the day, the movie was OK, and if you have nothing else to watch, then give it a go. But, I wouldn't be in a rush to see this one.

Elysium is a very intense blend of raw gritty suffering and hightech scifi action. Next to classics like Aliens and Blade Runner it is the most dark and realistic form of scifi I have witnessed in decades. This movie shreds every social cohesion in society on earth, just to satisfy the needs for profit of the few sadistic rich on an artificial planet called Elysium.Still gasping for breath after I just watched it. It is one hell of an intense rollercoaster ride. No time for breathers. Photography and soundtrack are thunderous and excellent. The acting is right in your face and real. The characters are humbling and in a constant state of panic ridden pain. Not a popcorn movie although it can be easily mistaken for one because of all the violence. But the violence isnt heroic hollywoodstyle. The violence is mean and there is no typical happy hollywood ending either, although the climax is heartwarming and joyous in a certain way.Director Neil Blomkamp's earlier District9 was also immersed in hideous inequality, just as Elysium is. The suffering of the poor is never portrayed however for cheap thrill effects, on the contrary, the all too realistic depiction of inequality is used as a source of righteous outrage to conquer the oppressing evil forces. "Elysium" is both a heinous and glorious struggle between good and bad in which Matt Damon is the chosen one to defend the rights of the people on earth. In Elysium Matt Damon is like Superman on crack: a righteous skeleton fighting machine against his will, battling a wicked dictatorship.Is a new scifi classic born with Elysium? Time will tell. The story is too depressing, realistic and dark to gain mass popularity. But it is certainly among my all time favorite scifi movies. Seen it over 5 times now and I will certainly enjoy more viewings!

The general idea of a society on a satellite, while Earth is in shatters, is interesting, though not very original. The corruption of such society, again, interesting. The protagonist, small-time criminal who tries to redeem himself, yet nobody is helping him (quite the contrary), also interesting. There are other lesser interesting pieces.But, the pieces don't bond well, if at all. It's just jumbled up together in some hope it will all work out. But it doesn't.Casting is a major issue. Matt Damon is wrong for this. He's not a great actor, but, if cast well, he's OK. But, when cast bad, like here, he's _bad_. Jody Foster, quite similar, actually. She might be a somewhat better actress, but, she too is prone to miscasting. It's not that she's the "main bad guy", she's actually great at playing The Bitch. But, not this kind of Bitch. The other "main bad guy" is trying to be scary, but fails and I couldn't understand half of the things he said.Bottom line, pass this one. There are much better SciFi movies, including some with similar ideas.

Movie lacks protagonist, side characters, plot, logic... need more? My patience.