This review may contain spoilers.
I remember having like it when I first saw it in the theater.
This second viewing was a bit disappointing. It does have a strong social commentary and I'm guessing that's what made me like it back then, despite the issues
I usually don't focus on the negative part of films, but this one since the opinion changed a bit, I'll list a few of the things I didn't love:
The dialogs are a bit simplistic, non-organic and expositional.
There is a strong social commentary but I also find it a bit too black and white for my taste, just a tiny bit of grey would have made a difference.
The action is executed in a so so way.
Jodie Foster performance is probably the weakest I've seen from her... at times we would think it was an over the top cartoonish Bound villain.
There are a lot of convenient coincidences and some plot holes. There are things like a spaceship crashes and nobody gets (even) hurt. (Note they were bouncing around inside the ship, definitely not wearing seat belts.
A guy gets his face blown up but then they can get him up and running with some cosmetic facial reconstruction.
There is this machine that cures everything... and how come there is not a single one of them on earth?... I mean... buy that point they can't be too expensive to build... plus there were several ships filled with them just sitting there.
When a ship is trying to get into Elysium... they get a guy from earth to shoot some missiles and destroy the ships... I mean... Don't they have a defense anti-missile, anti-plane invasion, system in there?
Well... that's enough about the negatives.
On the positive it's a cool original piece of material with social commentary were the filmmakers built a world. I believe those things are cause for celebration.
I did like the ending, after the big confrontation/fight between Damon and the South African guy. The last minutes were indeed nice and emotional... that's saying a lot, considering I wasn't felling the movie that much until there.
Those are the positives... but I won't be recommending it ... compared the dierctor's first film... it's night and day. Haven't heard much about him lately.
The blue ray has a few extras... so that's cool also.
As always, thank you for reading.