An average movie

Oh dear... I really wanted to like this flick... And, indeed, most of it was pretty good but, still, so far, it remains the most disappointing movie I have seen in 2013. I mean, I really liked how it started. Indeed, Blomkamp kept the same visceral visual style he used for 'District 9' and it simply looked pretty terrific. Then, I also enjoyed how they mixed all these languages and different accents, that was a nice touch which was unfortunately undone by the fact that most of the action was taking place only in Los Angeles. The actors were all pretty good, even though Alice Braga basically played the same characters she always plays in all US productions and Jodie Foster seemed to have some fun with her villainous character but she was surprisingly thrown away in the middle of the 3rd act. Eventually once again, Shartlo Copley was the one really stealing the show and I really wonder how his career will further develop. So, what went wrong then? In my opinion, the story was not really strong. I mean, this whole concept has already done before and there was this déjà vu with too many elements coming from 'District 9'. Also, some details just didn't add up. Take the exo-skeleton for example. It was supposed to be bad-ass, to explain that, even though the guy is dying, he still has some super powers to complete his mission. Honestly, it didn't add much to the story and looked pretty ridiculous. Personally, I would have simply replace it by a chip to the back of his head and some super lethal drug giving Damon the same powers. Finally, the whole focus on those med-pods was terribly limiting. Indeed, it is as if the people on Earth only cared for those when there are many other reasons than better medical care explaining why so many people risk their life to illegally cross borders. So, the whole thing did look really good, they created an interesting futuristic world and it was rather entertaining but the story was just too weak for my taste. To conclude, I still think it remains a decent SF feature and it is worth a look but don't expect anything really amazing.

6/10