10 Movies Everyone Wanted To Love (But Nobody Did)
7. Elysium
After District 9 - a rare sci-fi film to receive a Best Picture nomination - hype was through the damn stratosphere for Neill Blomkamp's next sci-fi action flick, Elysium.
Yet despite touting a tantalising premise, superb visual effects, and a game Matt Damon, Elysium fell far short of Blomkamp's mesmerising debut.
Though never less than entertaining - except perhaps for whatever the hell Jodie Foster was attempting with that accent - as a thinking man's action film its critiques of class warfare and American healthcare just felt too on-the-nose and broad-minded compared to District 9's inspired apartheid allegory.
There's never any doubt where the story is going, the characters are uninteresting archetypes, the world-building is weirdly underwhelming, and it's full of dramatic cliches.
It's still pretty as hell, touts some fun action, and Sharlto Copley's manic performance is a giddy delight, but Elysium ultimately provided a depressingly early indication that Blomkamp might sadly be a one-hit wonder.