The 99% Solution

To judge by the movies, 2154 will be a crucial year for U.S. space discovery--it's when Avatar is set--but a lousy time to be stuck on Planet Earth. In the 2154 of Elysium, writer-director Neill Blomkamp's first film since his beyond-cool sci-fi parable District 9, the wealthy have fled to a luxurious satellite--the Elysium of the title--to pursue lives of chic indolence, and Los Angeles has become an ugly crime lab for Latino thugs and a few lowlife Anglos. One of the latter, Max (Matt Damon), gets a radiation overdose that can be cured only on Elysium. To reach the satellite,...