YMMV / Elysium

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Delacourt refuse medical aid for her Slit Throat because of a sudden Heel Realization, or rather as an act of cowardice to avoid the massive legal clusterfuck she certainly would've faced otherwise? Given her ruthlessly calculating but selectively caring nature, both explanations are possible.
  • Maybe Kruger planned on ending Delacourt's "Die of your illness or we'll kill you" policy and the only reason why he didn't do a full Heel–Face Turn and fought Max is that he thought Max could become the new Secretary of Defense and couldn't stand someone other than him being in power?
• Anvilicious: Impoverished, Spanish-speaking citizens of Earth trying to illegally immigrate to a space station owned by the English/French-speaking 1%? Bonus points for name-dropping the Department of Homeland Security. This film is a none too subtle allegory regarding illegal immigration, universal healthcare, and the Occupy movements.
• Catharsis Factor: Kruger is introduced to us as a rapist and spends most of the runtime being a violent, unhinged piece of shit, so watching him get his face mashed by a grenade, and later his entire body, is bound to raise at least a few smiles.
• Complete Monster: Agent C.M. Kruger is first introduced shooting down refugee ships full of men, women, and children. We are then informed of his history of human rights violations, a reputation he proceeds to live up to. He kills Max's allies and then when he tracks him to the home of his old friend Frey, he threatens and beats her in front of her daughter, mocking the latter to close her eyes as he claims he hates to commit violence in front of kids, before attempting to molest Frey. After Frey scorns him, he declares he'll make sure her daughter is never healed. When he's chastised for his failures by his superior Secretary of Defense Jessica Delacourt, Kruger simply murders her and then declares he'll take over Elysium itself to give it the ruler it deserves.
• Creepy Awesome: Kruger, overlapping with Crazy Is Cool when he's not doing anything too gruesome. For instance, he prefers barbecuing chicken and ribs with his katana.
• Draco in Leather Pants: It's rare for a nigh-inhumane bastard to receive this treatment. However, Sharlto Copley's superlative performance as the Ax-Crazy Kruger makes this villain the runaway favorite for most viewers.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Spider, whose fast-talking antics and his determination as a badass make him very charismatic.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Yes, all the people on Earth are now considered to be "citizens" and now they have free healthcare. It still doesn't solve the overpopulation that led to this situation in the first place and in fact will only make it much worse, since more people will live longer and space is even more limited on the station than on Earth. Furthermore, there might not be enough medpods for everyone.
• Evil Is Cool: Kruger and his cohorts sport some pretty cool toys, armor and general badassery.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Matt Damon spends the film desperate to get into space. In The New '10s he would do two movies in which he needs to be rescued from there.
• Love to Hate: Kruger once again thanks to his display of sheer badassery and Sharlto Copley's darkly charismatic performance.
• Narm: Spider changing the status of all Earth citizens to be legal citizens of Elysium by literally backspacing the word "ILLEGAL" and typing in the word "LEGAL" in what appears to be a UNIX command line is a little bit goofy.
• Presumed Flop: The film is often talked about as though it were a critical flop and Box Office Bomb. The film was fairly profitable - with nearly a $300 million worldwide gross and most reviews felt it was merely fine as opposed to bad.
• Questionable Casting: As the years have gone on Matt Damon's casting is seen as a bit of a sore spot. The film is a thinly-veiled allegory for illegal immigration and, rather than having a Latino actor play Max (whose surname is Da Costa), they go for a White Male Lead. While there are of course white Latinos, Matt Damon is not. This gives some of the story a bit of a 'white savior' narrative. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't the first choice, and only got cast after Watkin Tudor Jones and Eminem turned it down.
• So Okay, It's Average: There are some truly stunning visual effects and the film touches on some interesting world-building - not to mention having a movie with several prominent Latino characters. But the story is considered to be a little too underdeveloped to be anything great.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Julio, whose relationship with Max can serve as a foil to him, but he is quickly replaced by Spider.

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