Elysium (August 9, 2013) R

The giant space-station Elysium orbiting earth
(Photo taken from wired.com)

Starring:
Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, True Grit, The Bourne Identity)
Sharlto Copley (District 9, The A-Team)
Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver, Panic Room, Flightplan)
Alice Braga (I Am Legend, Repo Men, Predators)

Directed by: Neill Blomkamp (District 9)

Once again Microsoft is kicking itself in its own butt HARD for not working with Neil Blomkamp to make a Halo movie.  This movie was a bloody, gritty, hard-shooting middle finger to Microsoft.  Blatantly and hilariously.  I love it.

Matt Damon as Max
(Photo taken from magazine.foxnews.com)

Read my blog, how often have I referenced the director of the films I review?

Matt Damon plays the ex-con gone factory-employee who is quickly thrust from a dead-end but steady industrial job to dying.  Radiation overdose, "In five days you will die," said the robot EMT who treated Damon's character Max.

And Max is appropriately named because he no longer gets his five-day death sentence that he decides to bring the pain to the people who sentenced him by going after Elysium--the halo-shaped off-world luxury space station where the rich, famous, and powerful live in a world separated by thousands of miles from earth and its burned-over poverty.

Sharlto Copley delivered as always with his debut antagonist role of Kruger, the ruthless and over-the-top sleeper agent who lives on earth, but serves at the mercy of the powerful President and the Defense Secretary (Foster).

I don't wanna give away too much, but as I was watching Copley all I thought was, "The next Joker...?!?!"  I don't know any other actor who could follow up Heath Ledger's portrayal of the iconic Batman villain.

Sharlto Copley for Joker.  Let's make signs.

Sharlto Copley as Kruger
(Photo taken from fansshare.com)

If you like District 9; you'll LOVE Elysium.

If you like smart action movies; you'll LOVE Elysium.

If you like Elysium; you should LOVE Elysium.

Factoid: Blomkamp worked with Weta Workshop--the same special effects company who did District 9, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit trilogy.