Elysium

Dir: Neill Blomkamp

2013

****

I'm not sure how much longer Neill Blomkamp can deny that his films aren't about segregation but I'm not sure why he has to answer anyway, as it's seems perfectly obvious that District 9 and Elysium are and what is wrong with that? The sad truth is that any film maker who makes political statements in their work will come under pressure of scrutiny and judged on a level that is often unfair. I wonder whether it is this political talk that was responsible for the fact Elysium was critically panned on release or because it is essentially the same story as District 9 albeit without the cool looking Aliens. It's not perfect and no, it's not as good as District 9 but when reviewing it purely on its own merit I can't really knock it. The idea is sound and the effects are amazing, the sudo-science let it down as do some of the performances but on the whole I think it has been unfairly overlooked as one of 2013's better films.