Elysium is a satellite city floating high above the earth below. It is a walled garden , a place for the rich to escape the poverty and crime on Earth, a perfect landscape in the heavens. Back on earth, things have gone out of control, with cities sprawling in all directions and turning into massive slums and people get by, by any means they can. This is the story of Max, an ex criminal who has turned his life around. He has a job in a plant producing and fitting out robots, but when he is inadvertently exposed to a massive dose of radiation and has only five days to live, getting to Elysium and its medical centres becomes his only option.

Matt Damon stars in this sci-fi story of two worlds and the fight to try to get to the perfect land in the heavens. This is the follow up to District 9, for director Neil Blonkamp. District 9 was the story of a race of aliens who arrive on earth, not to conquer, but to survive. They end up living in slums and are treated like second class citizens by the human community. The theme in his latest work is similar to what went before, with the difference in life style between those with and those without.

The vision of the two worlds is created beautifully and the art direction of the technology and worlds of the future is hugely impressive, and the film is worth seeing for that alone. They use a variety of hand held camera styles to move you around this fascinating world and give you brief glimpses into the two very different communities.

Once the premise of the movie has been explained, we are left with the plot itself, and Max’s attempts to get to Elysium.  This is possibly where the movie falls down, as we are expected to accept one too many coincidences and unexplained movements/ motivations of the characters, which mainly happen to move the plot along. The ending is also a little trite, and the movie as a whole deserved better than what we were given. This is not to damn the film, merely to state that what could have been exceptional ends up being a flawed gem. It’s definitely worth seeing, but you’ll end up with a few regrets and a feeling of mild disappointment by the time the titles roll.