| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Montgomery |
Posted - 08/24/2009 : 22:17:57
Finally saw it this past weekend. Still thinking about it. Brilliant. Why is there not already a topic thread on this? Or is there and I just haven't found it?
Let's discuss.
EM :) |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| AC |
Posted - 09/19/2010 : 18:43:37
My wife and I watched this movie recently after PVR'ing it off the Movie Channel. I had to talk her into seeing it, but we were both blown away by it. Having read this thread, I can agree with many of the critiques and flaws but it's hard to get past the monumental achievement of a fairly inexperienced director (who made the original short in Canada, I should point out!!) to put such a slick piece together. And Sharlto Copley in his first feature film?! Unbelievably good. As a former actor, I remain astonished with his technical skill.
What's the sequel, do you think? I figured it would be 'District 10' about the new camp they move the prawns to and Christopher's promised return, but Copley and Blomkamp have suggested it will be a prequel about the prawns' arrival. |
| Chris C |
Posted - 09/19/2010 : 18:12:45
Finally got to see this last night.
WOW, what a movie. It really kept us riveted from first to last. Never mind the odd plot holes, cliches, etc as discussed previously, this has some interesting comparisons and contrasts to Avatar in the "Humans vs Aliens" genre.
District 9 provides a huge comment on the human condition and our reaction to things that we don't know and/or understand. It also gives us an interesting sideways look at apartheid and how the recent South Africa might have reacted in a situation like this. Remember that the Prawns arrived on Earth in 1982, while apartheid was still in force. The biggest parallel to draw with Avatar is the "humans siding with the aliens" theme.
One negative for me was the slightly clunky (at times) aliens. I guess that the budget on this was not as big as those thrown at other similar movies, but the effects were still impressive.
Avatar did it for me on a visual level, but ultimately District 9 is the one I will see again at some time in the future. |
| randall |
Posted - 12/26/2009 : 18:12:43
A beautiful job. Leaving the documentary format [which helped get rid of a ton of exposition] felt ragged because they kept it hand-held even while we were becoming omniscient observers. That's a contemporary [and getting to be overused] device even in fiction, but everything else -- the lighting, the sound design -- made a clean break. They should have planted sticks while the aliens were dripping their fluid into the canister, and done some slow push-ins to help us adjust.
As with AVATAR, I find comparisons with other movies a distraction from some well-earned achievements. And at least this was an original spin on First Contact. Just setting it in J'burg, and not mentioning anything else about SA, was a masterstroke.
Great stuff. What else you got, Mr. Hotshot Director? |
| boydegg |
Posted - 10/10/2009 : 15:32:27
My wife and I have just got back from seeing it. We both thought it kicked ass.
Lots of flavours of other films there. Amazing effects and amazing acting. The story and pace kept us gripped right til the end.
Can't wait for the sequel.
Anyone who still hasn't seen it, I recommend you see it while it's still in the cinema.
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| silly |
Posted - 09/30/2009 : 20:38:36
Because I'm alwayst thinking of FWFR, I just found this and had to share.
"Prawny," the quicker picker upper. |
| Montgomery |
Posted - 09/15/2009 : 20:44:29
quote:
Originally posted by silly
Did you notice the similarities between what MNU did and the local Warlord?
Only one is government sanctioned and the other is voodoo.
Perhaps in the 20 years, they DID look over the mothership and kept hitting dead ends. That's a long time for weapons inspectors, er, scientists to look and not find anything, though.
Hey, we're only human. 
EM :) |
| silly |
Posted - 09/14/2009 : 18:02:18
Did you notice the similarities between what MNU did and the local Warlord?
Only one is government sanctioned and the other is voodoo.
Perhaps in the 20 years, they DID look over the mothership and kept hitting dead ends. That's a long time for weapons inspectors, er, scientists to look and not find anything, though. |
| Montgomery |
Posted - 09/14/2009 : 17:54:57
quote:
Originally posted by lamhasuas
Above all I couldn�t understand why the mothership wasn�t crawling with scientists trying to figure out the technology. Apart from the MNU & a bunch of Nigerian gangsters, mankind seemed uninterested in the aliens as lifeforms or their technology.
The government was experimenting on the aliens and was trying to figure out how to work the weaponry as well. Good question about them not messing with the mothership, though.
EM :)
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| silly |
Posted - 09/11/2009 : 19:25:58
One of my favorite parts is that it doesn't try to explain everything. There is no guy in a white lab coat trying to give us details on what happened to him, there's only sketchy details about what has happened in the last twenty years and how the various players came to be involved.
It tells one man's story, actually just a few rather eventful days in his life.
Big fans of Star Trek and Star Wars probably dislike this movie because it doesn't explain enough.  |
| ci�nas |
Posted - 09/11/2009 : 12:12:27
I thought it was excellent � brilliantly filmed & engaging throughout. I would say that clich�s are inevitable in any sci fi movie nowadays, & there were a laudably small number of them in D9. And a Sith Efrican movie satirising apartheid so cleverly? Bravo!
It did require a great deal of suspension of disbelief but the goodwill it generates & its fast pace help to keep quibbles at bay as you watch, or at any rate as I watched. Some questions, after all, didn�t need to be answered other than by saying: hey, they�re aliens.
But I was aware of the faux documentary approach failing after a while; I wondered why ailing aliens were transported from the mothership to the township without years of rigorous tests preceding the move; I was bemused by the lack of logic in the metamorphosis of Copley into an alien; & so on. Above all I couldn�t understand why the mothership wasn�t crawling with scientists trying to figure out the technology. Apart from the MNU & a bunch of Nigerian gangsters, mankind seemed uninterested in the aliens as lifeforms or their technology.
But what the hell. The real test of movies for me is their staying power in the mind, & I know this one will be with me for a long time.
Incidentally, my pending review in effect contains a reference to Alien Nation (88), but nobody here or elsewhere seems to be mentioning the thematic parallels...
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| silly |
Posted - 09/09/2009 : 21:35:58
I'm going to see it again tonite, I hope
Edit: Still loved it. Caught lots of details that I missed the first time.
Wonderful commentary on human nature, and how we collectively choose to treat 'outsiders.'
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| Montgomery |
Posted - 09/09/2009 : 20:41:19
quote:
Originally posted by silly
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
I was also a bit perplexed about a race of aliens who are subservient and meek but simultaneously are taller and stronger than their persecutors, probably more intelligent, not to mention far more technologically advanced and have weapons of extreme destruction at their disposal. If they are peace loving species then why the weapons in the first place, and if the weapons are available (hidden away in District 9) why aren't they using them? I didn't take much for a couple of them to do some bare handed dismembering late in the film. With millions of them couldn't they actually obliterate the humans?
Anyway - loved the slop and grime and body horror- certainly owes a debt to Cronenberg with all the vomit and body parts falling off.
That's part of what I loved about it - it makes you wonder WHY. Humans would naturally think - we've got the guns and numbers, we ain't takin' it anymore - but perhaps another race doesn't have the same motivation? The fact that they seemed happy to scavenge our scraps and live in shacks says something, I guess.
Perhaps these aliens are closer to Ghandi than Genghis Khan?
The documentary stuff didn't bother me much. After enduring Cloverfield...
SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going to yellow the type.
I haven't been checking in on this thread like I should have. And now I have a lot to answer about.
Well -- the thought about it not staying a documentary style throughout. I think that is a valid concern, but it really didn't bother me while I was watching it. I believe the short it was based on did stay in the interview/documentary format. Here it is, if it hasn't been posted before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgtbEdqVsk
When it went to full length, obviously the more extensive plot didn't fit into that format. It is an error, but I think a very acceptable error, considering how entertaining the movie was in whole. I'd rather take, didn't stay with the documentary format, but was really exciting to watch -- than stayed with the documentary format, but was so limited it wasn't as good.
Then -- the question about why didn't the aliens just use their greater weaponry and blow us humans back to the 17th Century? Well, I thought that was set up pretty nicely. When the aliens were taken off of the ship (and remember it's after 2 months, I think, of the ship just hovering and mankind not knowing what to make of it) the drone aliens they found were malnourished. They were confused. Their natural leaders had died. So, we helpful humans gathered them up and put them into camps. (I think this part is so believable it's scary, because that's just what we do with masses of people who need our help. -- or who frighten us -- Basically incarcerate them.)
Then, the extremely hungry and docile, because they are drones and don't really think for themselves, aliens traded in their weaponry for food -- cat food (hilarious) or disgusting cuts of meat from the Slumlords. After that, the weaponry was with the Slumlords (or the government), both trying to figure out how to work it. So, a rising up by the aliens was not as possible as it might have seemed to be.
Doesn't seem like many of the other aliens knew where that main module (that was the steering mechanism for the whole ship apparently) was. So, they would have continued to try to get along on planet earth, not try to start a war. Only Christopher Johnson has the incentive to try to get out, and would need to use force to do it.
I love that we are having such detailed discussions of this movie. Just proves how original and thought-provoking it is, stereotypes aside. I don't usually like them, but when the story is good, I'm willing to put up with a few of those as well.
EM :)
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| silly |
Posted - 09/07/2009 : 21:00:32
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
I was also a bit perplexed about a race of aliens who are subservient and meek but simultaneously are taller and stronger than their persecutors, probably more intelligent, not to mention far more technologically advanced and have weapons of extreme destruction at their disposal. If they are peace loving species then why the weapons in the first place, and if the weapons are available (hidden away in District 9) why aren't they using them? I didn't take much for a couple of them to do some bare handed dismembering late in the film. With millions of them couldn't they actually obliterate the humans?
Anyway - loved the slop and grime and body horror- certainly owes a debt to Cronenberg with all the vomit and body parts falling off.
That's part of what I loved about it - it makes you wonder WHY. Humans would naturally think - we've got the guns and numbers, we ain't takin' it anymore - but perhaps another race doesn't have the same motivation? The fact that they seemed happy to scavenge our scraps and live in shacks says something, I guess.
Perhaps these aliens are closer to Ghandi than Genghis Khan?
The documentary stuff didn't bother me much. After enduring Cloverfield... |
| benj clews |
Posted - 09/07/2009 : 15:46:59
quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
I think a much larger concern is the documentary style that eventually fades away. That honestly bothers the living hell out of me. I was constantly wondering who was filming this and how, even after it became clear that they had pretty much given up on that conceit. The documentary thing keeps things moving at a brisk pace, but it's also distracting as hell.
Yeah, this bothered me immensely too and the fact so many people seem to be pointing it out implies it wasn't handled too well. It's kind of like this film wanted to be Cloverfield but there was too much parallel story for it to work purely that way.
I was trying to think about how they could have managed this in a less slap-dash manner and the best I could think was to have 'Actor Reconstruction's or talking heads recounting the backstory in amongst the interviews and 'actual' footage. Still, even then, how anyone would know the alien side of the story is a major stumbling block. Either that or give the alien pilot dude a camera (that was later recovered), which actually sounds bonkers now I've typed it out.
Still, real shame this- it was a romping film, but a flawed concept perhaps  |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 09/07/2009 : 15:32:11
"But I've read a few reviews of this and almost everyone is panning it. "
Buh? It's the most rapturously received movie of the summer! Anywhere that disliked it has had hordes of rabid fanboys descend on them in outrage! |
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