SonyGet ready for District 9 cranked up to 11.
Director Neill Blomkamp brought seven low-res minutes of Elysium to Comic-Con today—the first footage ever seen of the shrouded-in-secrecy sci-fi thriller.
First of all, Blomkamp described the rough cut as a work in progress, saying, "I imagine it will look extremely cool" when it's finished.
But, guess what? It looks "extremely cool" already.
Touching on many of the same themes as District 9—racism, class warfare, immigration politics, etc.—Elysium stars Matt Damon as one of the poor schmucks who lives on Earth while the elite and powerful party it up on the planet of Elysium, where everyone is healthy, wealthy and...corrupt!
When a radiation accident leaves ex-convict Damon with five days to live, he sets his mind on getting to Elysium, which is governed by an icy Jodie Foster and where they have the technology to save him. The "simple" plan starts with him having robotic chips and various cyborg-reminiscent pieces implanted in his body so that he can get at the contents of a visiting politician's brain—aka, pull off a "data heist."
Everything goes violently awry and Damon ends up in a stolen spacecraft headed for Elysium, the fate of humanity on Earth suddenly in his hands.
"It was pretty clear what was driving the guy, once the accident at the factory happens," Damon explained. "Suddenly he has to go back to this life he's turned his back on, this criminal past...He has no choice.
"The film has that kind of momentum behind it, that kind of desperation."