13 Years Later, Matt Damon's Gritty Sci-Fi Thriller Finds Redemption on Streaming

It is always challenging for a filmmaker who broke through with their debut film to land a second feature, as they will be assessed on whether they lived up to their own hype. Neill Blomkamphad a more difficult time of it than most, considering that his first feature, 2009's District 9 , was a word-of-mouth hit that felt like a completely new spin on the science fiction genre, and earned surprising Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. So expectations were sky-high for his second film, 2013's Elysium,whichpresented a grounded look at a not-so-distant future in which class discrepancies have resulted in mass inequality. Elysium was criticized at the time for being too pointed and obvious in its political criticisms, but the film has held up remarkably well when considering the dramatic changes to the U.S. healthcare system that have occurred within the 13 years since it was released. Now more than ever, Elysium isn’t just an entertaining cyberpunk thriller with appropriately gritty action, but a searing indictment of the consolidation of power in crisis situations.