Sinking Ship: Liberals Pile on 'Elysium'

It’s no secret conservatives don’t applaud the socialist messages clumsily embedded in Matt Damon’s Elysium.

The sci-fi parable, which opened to weaker than expected box office results and could downright flop in its second weekend, embraces open boarders, universal health care and class warfare.

Turns out even liberals aren’t enamored with its ham-fisted sermonizing.

NPR’s Linda Homes slams the rickety storytelling meant to push its far left agenda.

There’s a sharp distinction between the care that seems to have gone into building this world — imperfectly, but thoughtfully, to create a sort of alive, defiant allegorical space in which to make an argument — and the care that went into the story and the characters.

Think Progress says the movie fails its prime progressive directive–it doesn’t speak Truth to Power effectively.

But Elysium falls apart the more you think about it — and fails in its mission to speak truth to power — because of its inability to explain a simple question: why is health care scarce on Earth in the world of Elysium?

The liberal humor outlet The Onion is equally dismissive of the effort.

Elysium feeds off of lingering traces of Occupy outrage, but its fantasy rewiring of the rigged financial system hinges on a technological MacGuffin, not an actual transformation of society. Blomkamp’s interests clearly lie elsewhere, with big guns and bigger spacecrafts–a reminder that District 9, which announced his arrival as a purveyor of “intelligent” sci-fi, grew from the ashes of a Halo movie. With Elysium, the director proves that he still has one hand on the X-Box controller; maybe he should give the allegories a rest already and just get back in the game.