Planet Earth in the year 2154 is a sorry sight, at least in Los Angeles: everyone is sick and struggling, while robotic guards regularly harass the residents. The wealthy and powerful look down on Earth from the space station Elysium, which is rich with swimming pools and green lawns, and where diseases are cured within seconds. Ex-convict and working-stiff Matt Damon, exposed to radiation on the job (and with only five days left to live), strikes a deal with a low-rent space travel honcho to steal brain matter from one of Elysium's elite in exchange for unauthorized passage to the privileged world. Unfortunately, they choose the wrong citizen, a spineless corporate suit in-cahoots with Elysium's secretary to the president, who is planning a political coup. Plot-heavy science-fiction adventure is, rather surprisingly, easy to follow and moves at a quick clip. Damon gives a solid performance (when he isn't being asked to scream or hobble around in agony), and the costly production looks terrific. Still, the picture does begin to flag after the first half, with character motivations becoming unclear, and everyone acting hysterically or irrationally. I'm also not sure of the purpose of Damon's fate, which seems to go against the central plot function the film is operating on. As the cold-hearted secretary, who thinks nothing of shooting impoverished citizens out of the sky, a miscast Jodie Foster struggles with an underwritten role; I haven't a clue as to who this villainess is, and I'm guessing Foster didn't, either (she's also encumbered by, what I suspect to be, post-production dubbing on her dialogue, which is heavy with a faux-decadent cadence that doesn't work at all). Producer-director-screenwriter Neill Blomkamp's gigantic effort is rather enjoyable overall, although the hopeful ending may strike some as overreaching, even in this context. **1/2 from ****
