Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s highly anticipated follow-up to District 9, is hitting theaters on August 9, and it’s already at the top of my watchlist. As part of a massive marketing campaign from Sony, a massive four-minute trailer has landed online, along with a clip revealing just how brutal Elysium’s anti-immigration policies are and a host of new pictures showing star Matt Damon fighting with the aid of a painful-looking exoskeleton, co-star Diego Luna, and one of Elysium’s robot protectors.
The big-budget sci-fi action film explores a future where Earth, destroyed by overpopulation and pollution, is a slum inhabited by the poor 99%, and the very rich live on a luxurious space station called Elysium. When a factory worker (Matt Damon) is riddled with a cancer virus following an industrial accident, his fight to reach Elysium for treatment pits him against Elysium’s ruthless Secretary of Defense (Jodie Foster) and her brutal secret police force, led by Agent Kruger (Distict 9 star Sharlto Copley).
It’s rare that a sci-fi film that takes on such heavy topics as immigration, health care and class inequality attracts the kind of buzz that Elysium has, and it’s still anybody’s guess whether the film will be a hit or viewers will opt out in favor of more mindless fare like 2 Guns, but I’ll certainly first in line when the film hits theaters.
How about you? Does Elysium‘s mix of hard-hitting sci-fi action and political commentary appeal to you? Does Elysium look like a worthy follow-up to its Oscar-nominated predecessor, District 9? And will you be queuing up to see the movie on August 9?
Check out the action-packed trailer, clip and images below.
