Elysium (2013)

Time to bring this average rating up. Rather enjoyed Elysium. If you have William Fichtner, you're half way there already. A good second feature and follow up to District 9. As a pair, they show where Blomkamps interests lie in sci fi storytelling...fighting oppression.

Flawed, flawed, flawed. It could have been so much better, but idiotic clichés integrated in the script made it flawed. I didn't expect it to be any good, it was just worse than expected.

Agreed, Elysium ain't anything award-worthy. Anticipate all-consuming action, annoying Afrikaaner accents, and an admittedly anemic apologue. But Blomkamp's bold and brand-new bearing betters the bulk of our boring battlefield blockbusters.

I was expecting a flawed movie. What I got was a self-indulgent piece of shit where every scene was shot as it if was the most important film ever made. I can just picture a coked-out Blomkamp writing the script and thinking how incredible and epic it was all going to be.

I loved District 9, and had great expectations for this movie. I was disappointed. The setup is great, the characters are good, but the glue isn't there. Too much time spent on action, not enough on bringing emotions. A great action movie nonetheless.

In a story like this, you need to exit the theaters feeling empathy for the characters, and revolted against the injustice of their condition. Too bad we got to spend more time with the special-effect guys than the actors. Go rewatch District 9 instead, you'll have a better time.

Disappointing in the same way Prometheus was disappointing. Everything looked great -- the robots, the gadgets, the rich people space station -- but a logical, half-way meaningful story? Forget about it. Too much exoskeleton, not enough character development.