Neill Blomkamp: I didn't get Elysium right

Neill Blomkamp's third full feature film as director, Chappie, arrives in cinemas this Friday. The film features Sharlto Copley, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman, and it follows the huge success that Blomkamp enjoyed withDistrict 9, and the not quite so much success he had with Elysium.

Chatting to Uproxx, Blomkamp has been looking back at Elysium, and told the site that "any frustration I feel with Elysiumis with myself." In specific reference to whether he feels under extra pressure because his first film did so well, and then his second underperformed, Blomkamp said that he didn''t, but added "the thing that bothers me is if I feel like I fucked it up".

So is that how he feels about Elysium? "A little bit," he admitted.

"I feel like, ultimately, the story is not the right story," he said. "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," he said.

Asked when he first realised that Elysiumwasn't quite working, he said that "I don't remember. I think, on some level, you probably innately know. The problem with me is I get so caught up in concepts and ideas," but he added that "as a director, I could have done better."

We seem to like Elysiummore than its director does, but it's interesting to hear Blomkamp be so candid about problems with the film. And, in truth, it's far from a perfect movie.

Blomkamp, of course, moves ontoAlien 5 next, which will reunite him with Sigourney Weaver. We suspect he'll be working ultra-hard to nail the story of that one...

Uproxx.