Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013)

7/10
Given some of the criticism I've heard about it, I was expecting worse. In reality, it was pretty good. At the very least, I was entertained, and I didn't find Blomkamp's social commentary too heavy-handed. It was a little goofy at times, and there were some issues with the tone - in the early-going it felt entirely too mechanical, and then tried to make up for lost time by pouring on the cheese, which was unnecessary. Jodie Foster's performance can best be described as 'distracting' (what was the point in giving her a weird French accent?). Sharlto Copley was excellent and Matt Damon was reliable as ever. It wasn't quite the revelation District 9 was but I guess Blomkamp set the bar too high for himself with that one. Elysium is still a pretty respectable follow-up performance.

District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, Peter Robert Gerber & Simon Hansen, 2009)

9/10
Really, really great...subverted my expectations at just about every turn. The lead actor was great in a complex role, the movie made you feel empathy for the alien characters without relying on worn-out tropes (especially in the case of the infant alien), the half-documentary/half-action aspect is handled very smoothly and never feels like a gimmick (same for the occasional snippets from news outlets, security cameras, etc), and the movie's messages about intolerance, apartheid, etc are made intelligently and without bludgeoning the viewer over the head. And it was probably one of the most aggressively pessimistic portrayals of humanity that I've seen from a "blockbuster" type picture in forever. Neill Blomkamp is definitely going to be a name to watch (and hopefully he'll handle the alluded-to sequel, which seems inevitable at this point...could be disastrous in the hands of anyone else).