Elysium < District 9

This past week I finally got around to seeing Elysium, a new film directed by Neill Blomkamp who was the director of District 9. I had been very excited to see what Blomkamp had done with this film because District 9 is on my list of favorite movies. I really enjoyed District 9 because I felt that it brought something new and different to the table and it was something that I hadn’t really seen before. I was expecting something like District 9, but after seeing Elysium I was a left feeling a little let down. Now don’t get me wrong, Elysium was a fine movie—packed with action and Matt Damon being tough and rugged. It had a great feeling of continued suspense and uncertainty, I never was able to guess the entire ending (which was a major plus for me), and Elysium (the space station) was breathtakingly beautiful. I thought that the acting, especially by Sharlto Copley who played Agent C.M. Kruger, was fantastic. Who wouldn’t be afraid of him?

And for those of you who know District 9, you might remember Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe, a total 360 character change from Agent Kruger.

Besides that, I just felt like it was just another movie. It addressed the topics of immigration, but I just felt like that had been done before. I didn’t feel the characters of the movie change or grow throughout the movie. There was almost too much action for that change to happen. It was always going, going, going without much introspection. District 9 really got my hopes up for this movie, but Elysium just didn’t pack that raw and unexpected punch that District 9 accomplished.