First footage from Elysium revealed

"I feel like I belong in there , as a fan," smiled District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to a buzzing crowd in Comic-Con 's Hall H today.

"I try to be as honest as I can as a filmmaker and the idea of launching footage at Comic-Con is an honest thing, and I'm OK with it"

Blomkamp, whose debut premiered footage in 2009, explained "the theme is about wealth discrepancy" before revealing seven minutes of gritty, violent, expansive and explosive footage to the waiting masses.

Elysium imagines the world of 2154, a world of disease, poverty, pollution and vast over population.

In desperation the wealthy few have established a new off-planet world - a place where there's no war, no sickness or depravity.

"And you're not invited" - reads the opening titles.

Cut to Matt Damon, bald and brawny fighting his way through slums regulated by violent police droids, not a million miles from the backdrops of District 9 .

Damon's incarcerated after a run-in with the droids and after an accident is exposed to extreme levels of radiation.

Does it turn him into a superhero?

It does not.

In fact it leaves him with just five days to live and no other option than to find a way to enter the off-world idyll of Elysium at all costs.

We see Damon become embroiled in the world of crime, infiltrating the isolated affluence of William Fichtner's sharp suited rich guy, and Jodie Foster's hard nosed government official.

We're treated to glimpses of Fichtner in his private space ship as well as the glimmering white surfaces of Elysium. Alice Braga features as a woman with a sick kid, and Damon himself, as well as turning total badass, gets tricked out with some serious mecha.

Most intriguing perhaps is Sharlto Copley's maniac villain, a bearded bounty hunter, an exile of Elysium perhaps, out for blood.

Overall impressions are that this'll have a political undercurrent to match District 9 , with budget-busting visuals, and an impressive cast.

Elysium opens 1 March 2013