We're doomed... again

Elysium (15)
Running time 109 minutes
Rating:***
With the population of the Earth set to go above 10 billion souls in a frighteningly short time, sci-fi filmmakers have been working out the options that may well already be exercising the minds of our world leaders.
Some films have gone down the “deadly disease that kills most people and turns the rest into zombies” route (World War Z), while others have us dying out as a result of a global catastrophe (The Road). Another recent idea had one day of authorised ritual killing taking place to weed out the undesirables (The Purge).
Elysium, however, adopts the “all the rich people scoot off to an artificial Eden in space while the rest of us cough our lungs out here” scenario, which, while obviously a flight of fancy, has just enough nasty human feeling in it to make you think.
Max, played by Matt Damon, is an ordinary guy who grew up in the fetid slum that is most of Earth, eking out a living making robot policeman that keep control of the restless masses, who in turn spend their lives looking up at the sky where the giant space station that is the world of the rich, circles mockingly above.
He suffers a fatal dose of radiation at work (no Health and Safety here), realises he has nothing to lose and so decides to join some rebel types, who kidnap one of the bosses, Carlyle (William Fichner) and drain his mind of useful data.
This is not what the fairly ruthless people on the space station want to hear and that very nice Jodie Foster (playing a baddie for once) gets her pet South African mercenary, Kruger (Sharlo Copley), to kill everyone in sight.
For those with sensitive hearing should be warned now that Elysium is a very noisy film indeed, both musically and explosion-wise. There is also something funny going on with Jodie Foster’s voice, which sounds dubbed.
The plot and the acting is accomplished, and the special effects top-class, although the strength enhancement rig that Max uses to give him a chance against the robot cops does have the look of motor accessories outlet about it.
However, perhaps Elysium’s greatest strength is the glimpse of reality in the attitudes of the people portrayed. The rich are without remorse, enjoying their many privileges at the expense of others, while desperate to prevent more climbing the ladder after them. The poor are violent, angry, and brutal, and want all the privileges of the rich that they can lay their hands on.
Answers to the problem of increasing world population, decreasing natural resources and the ruthless nature of human beings on a postcard please... Oh, and make it quick.