The Year: 2154. The Setting: Los Angeles, now a sprawling shanty town where life is nasty, brutish and short. The Protagonist: Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), an ordinary man trying to sneak onto the elite man-made space-station Elysium, in order to be treated for radiation poisoning. The Enemy:  Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) and her hardline attitudes towards illegal immigrants and expensive health care. The Metaphor: Unsubtle. The Saving Grace: Director Neill Blomkamp.
South African-born Blomkamp deservedly won critical acclaim for District 9, his South Africa-set commentary on xenophobia and social segregation. Here the target is the United States, and the political monopoly of the one-percenters.
However, the beauty of Blomkamp’s work is that he doesn’t patronise or romanticise the downtrodden. When your situation is horrific, your actions can be too. Damon is brilliant as a man whose goal may be understandable, but whose actions are questionable.
Blomkamp has created a complex, three dimensional world. The movie is a thought-provoking portrait of an over-privileged society that has destroyed Earth and is happy for the most vulnerable to pay the price. It’s fantastic science-fiction about a terrifying tomorrow that, in a way, may already be here.