I love District 9 and I have a rock hard throbbing boner for Chappie, but even for apologists (like me), Elysium was at least a bit of a misfire. And Neill Blomkamp himself is the first to admit it.
As he told Uproxx‘s own Mike Ryan:
“The thing that bothers me is if I feel like I f*cked it up.” […] I feel like, ultimately, the story is not the right story. I still think the satirical idea of a ring, filled with rich people, hovering above the impoverished Earth, is an awesome idea. I love it so much, I almost want to go back and do it correctly. But I just think the script wasn’t… I just didn’t make a good enough film is ultimately what it is. I feel like I executed all of the stuff that could be executed, like costume and set design and special effects very well. But, ultimately, it was all resting on a somewhat not totally formed skeletal system, so the script just wasn’t there; the story wasn’t fully there.”
That’s a very candid, earnest answer to a question about a film that didn’t live up to expectations. For the record, I thought it was good overall, even if a lot of it didn’t quite pan out. And I’d still like an explanation for how he let Jodie Foster do whatever the hell accent she was attempting in that film.