Elysium
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 9, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
17
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 22, 2013
Nothing in the movie matches the fascination of its premise and its opening 10 minutes: the undisturbed status quo is mesmeric. Once the narrative grinds into gear, however, the film's distinctive quality is lost. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 8, 2013
Although the pulp energy that Blomkamp brings to this material makes it consistently watchable, the film doesn't feel as singular as we would have hoped. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 8, 2013
This is a messy, poorly structured film, riddled with plot holes and lacking any kind of satisfying conclusion. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith PhippsAug 8, 2013
For all its simple politics, clanging dialogue, and underwritten roles—only Damon’s natural, and deepening, ability to suggest unspoken disappointment gives his character dimension—Elysium works, though never as well as it should. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 7, 2013
Unfortunately, Elysium devolves. It doesn’t address the ramifications of making everyone healthy for eternity, or what it is on Earth they’re making or digging up that fuels whatever economy is left on the space station. For such a well thought-out premise, there’s not a mention of how capitalism works in this futureworld. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherAug 6, 2013
This perfectly alright actioner will entertain newcomers, while leaving Blomkamp fans in a holding pattern until his next project. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearAug 6, 2013
Hollywood loves these apocalypse-soon stories, however, because they function as blank canvases for ruin porn, and if nothing else, Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium gives us the realistically trashed tomorrow we suspect we deserve. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 6, 2013
Granted, Elysium could be more clever as it goes about its business. This is smart sci-fi, but it's not as smart as it could have been -- or as many "District 9" fans were probably hoping it would be. Read full review
59
Film.comWilliam GossAug 2, 2013
Frankly, Elysium is a bit of a liberal’s wet dream: the good guys want accessible healthcare, while the bad guys want to do away with undocumented immigrants. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 9, 2013
Blomkamp overdoes even his best effects. (I would have welcomed more vistas of Elysium to break up the grungefest.) If Elysium is an example of how recession-era Hollywood intends to dramatize the rift between the haves and the have-nots, let’s hope the studios don’t also bring back Smell-O-Rama. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 6, 2013
With Elysium, the director proves that he still has one hand on the X-Box controller; maybe he should give the allegories a rest already and just get back in the game. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 8, 2013
The action is bludgeoning. When Max gets pummeled by fists and lethal objects, we get pummeled by light and noise and rock-'em-sock-'em editing. No shrimp, though. As a narrative, "District 9" wasn't particularly original, either — in the end it was a standard conversion melodrama. But everything is better with shrimp. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 8, 2013
Kudos to Blomkamp for not shying away from social issues in his films, but here the execution doesn’t live to the intentions. Read full review
50
ObserverMatthew KasselAug 6, 2013
While the movie may not, in the end, be so effective in tapping into our current class anxieties, that hardly seems to matter. Like a trip to Elysium, it’s a wild ride. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 7, 2013
Ultimately, Elysium ends up with explosions, running gun battles, and summer non-blockbuster tedium. The outcome is never in question, and while Blomkamp has proven himself to be a master of sci-fi social commentary in the past, this dull wheel in the sky just lands with a resounding thud. Read full review
40
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekAug 5, 2013
Damon is as buff as ever, maybe even more so... But watching him lumber through Elysium's bramble of lofty ideals is no damn fun. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 1, 2013
All the interest and good will built up by the sharply conceived preliminaries is washed away in a succession of scenes that feel crushingly routine and generic, not to mentioned guided by ideological urges. Read full review
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