ELYSIUM

I gave this movie an 8 or even an 8.5 during the first third or so of its length but after that it became predictable and non-exciting and was too heavy-handed with its message and the rating went down to a 7. (Bill gave the entire movie an 8.)

The director of Elysium also did District 9 which was a 10+. And just like in that one, this movie has a 'surface' story and then an underlying commentary on a social ill. In Elysium  the story  is about the people living on a burnt out and polluted planet trying to get to the beautiful clean and sparkly and colorful OTHER planet. The real story is the have not's, the struggling folk, the almost poor, the people with no health care and the 1%.

Matt Damon is a have not and he's trying to get to Elysium which is the home of the beautiful people. Elysium's director is Jodie Foster whose acting skills are wasted in this film. Her role was miniscule and she had terrible dialogue. Her accent was unknowable; a strange mixture of french, british, stilted and abrupt and Johnny Depp-ish.

The acting was good and the special effects were alright but after the tense and original and exciting beginning and middle, it descended into the usual fights between good and evil and bad and good. The only difference in movies when there are  prolonged battles is the type of weapon used. And the ending was pathetic and tried too hard and failed miserably at its message of "never forget where you've come from."