South African director Neill Blomkamp once again conjures up the beautiful filth, in what must be something akin to Steve Jobs’ worst nightmare.

Just looking at the sheer grittiness of LA’s futuristic urban ghetto is enough to make you need to shower after, and yet Elysium never feels overzealous in its faux-vérité execution.

Beautifully choreographed Damon/Kawasaki fight sequences occasionally suffer from inconsistent camerawork and editing patterns, often creating more of a flesh ‘n’ steel montage than a fluid understanding of just who the hell you’re looking at.

Nevertheless, despite an entirely unnecessary, unrequited childhood romance-type-thing, Elysium can only be faulted, perhaps, by its disappointingly shallow rich = bad, upstairs/downstairs metaphor.

All in all, watch it for the grime, listen to it for the accents (Foster’s is hilarious).

Rich people live in space so that poor people don’t make them feel bad.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley & Alice Braga

DIRECTOR: Neill Blomkamp

WRITERS: Neill Blomkamp

SYNOPSIS: A former car thief must reach a utopian society to cure himself of radiation poisoning following an industrial accident.