District 9

[Hdale85]

Anyone else excited about this movie? It looks quite good although somewhat similar to Transformers it kind of looks much more grown up though. I may take a trip to the theater to see this one.

[joetama]

I've seen about 5 advertisements for it... Every time I see one I get more excited. I really hope it is as awesome as the previews.

[Hdale85]

You and me both! I hate being let down lol.

[Chris D]

me too, I like what I've seen of previews!

[David Meek]

Yes, it looks like a cross between Alien Nation and Transformers. And, having Peter Jackson involved - even as a producer - can't hurt.

[George Bellefontaine]

Definitely one to watch for.

[Hdale85]

I believe next Monday my brother and I are going to see this. I'm not sure we can make it over the weekend as I work so we'll have to see.

[Azeke]

It has a 100% rating at Rottentomatoes. I'm taking off a half-day just to beat the crowds.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[George Bellefontaine]

It seems when Rotten Tomatoes gives a bad score to movies, I end up liking them and the opposite seems to happen when they give a good rating to movies. But I am pretty taken by the trailers I've seen thus far and have a gut feeling this will be a winner.

[Azeke]

I concur with you George on how Rottentomates rates movies. Therefore, I will see District 9 this weekend and let you know my personal thoughts. I certainly like Peter Jackson's approach to theater.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[june]

hello all,

B-/C+ i didn't love it but glad i saw it. will not buy the bluray but i will rent it.
we need a new alien concept. this blended in the tv series V also.

[Chris D]

Really, "V"? I remember that. Was good stuff.

[David Meek]

District 9 took the US box-office title this weekend with an opening gross of $37 million. :T

[Hdale85]

Well this movie was not what I expected at all. It was still quite good though and it felt as though they were trying to build up the story for a sequel mostly.

[M.Roberts8]

I thought it was good. Looking forward to a sequel. I made an effort to avoid trailers after the first one I saw seems as the release date gets closer they tend to reveal more and more and then I end up disappointed. Not many sci-fi movies interest me these days not that there are allot of them. This one was good.

[Hdale85]

Yeah any movie I really want to see I avoid trailers for.

[numberoneoppa]

Not what I expected either. Much better, in fact. Can't wait for District 10.

[George Bellefontaine]

My Blu-ray player is eagerly awaiting District 9.

[Azeke]

It was enjoyable and engrossing, a very unique kind of Alien movie. I think you will enjoy it George. I rate it a 9.2 out of 10, but that's just me.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[David Meek]

Is there a release date yet? All I've been able to scrounge up on the 'Net is mid- or late-December.

[George Bellefontaine]

Hi-def Digest is saying Fall/Winter which could mean anything from today to the first day of Winter, December 21. I got a feeling we'll see it sometime in November. Hope so, anyway.

[Azeke]

Official release date: December 29, 2009, but I am sure you all know that by now.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[Hdale85]

Yeah it's already pre-ordered on BD for me.

[bigburner]

I watched this film on DVD last night. I don't watch a lot of films but I've been a sucker for sci-fi films ever seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at the theatre when it was released in New Zealand when I was about 11 years old.

What starts as an interesting premise degenerates into the usual shoot-em-up rubbish beloved by directors and audiences alike. The interesting premise, which is built around the analogy of humans treating aliens in the same way that whites treated blacks in apartheid-era South Africa, had plenty of potential but was never developed, presumably because the audience that wants shoot-em-up doesn't want subtlety or intellectual rigour.

There are so many unanswered questions about the aliens that the film simply lacks credibility. For example, I couldn't understand why a race of beings that had the advanced technology to travel to Earth from another galaxy was so damn stupid and unable to help themselves on Earth. There are plenty of other examples but that gives you a clue. Suspension of disbelief is all very well but there has to be a minimum level of credibility.

The picture quality and the graphics (i.e. the aliens) are pretty impressive. Well I was impressed but as I said earlier I don't watch many films. However I want more than just presentation, I want CONTENT too. On the positive side there were some funny moments. I wonder if they were supposed to be funny?

2001: A Space Odyssey has nothing to fear. I spent hundreds of hours thinking about that film during the months after I saw it. District 9 is a walk away and forget it film. Sorry Peter. We still love you though.

Nigel.

[numberoneoppa]

I couldn't understand why a race of beings that had the advanced technology to travel to Earth from another galaxy was so damn stupid and unable to help themselves on Earth.

They needed to find scraps from their own devices in order to gather energy to resolve said helplessness. I thought the explanation in the movie was satisfactory.

I liked it more than 2001. :P

[M.Roberts8]

I couldn't understand why a race of beings that had the advanced technology to travel to Earth from another galaxy was so damn stupid and unable to help themselves on Earth

They actually describe most of them as being the "workers" who aren't really motivated nor are they very independent with regards to thinking. More of a worker bee. With the exception of the main prawn who seems to be some sort of mechanic or engineer.

[Chris D]

Just rented this from Blockbuster. I'd say that I liked it almost as much as I was hoping I would, and much more than I feared, given a couple of the lukewarm reviews I've read.

It was violent--some of it was gratuitous, but I looked at it in the context of the social theme. I do think there were some plot ideas that weren't completely explained. Some didn't have to be explained, leaving some mystery, but others didn't quite seem to add up. I wouldn't describe any of them as gaping faults.

Okay, the issue of the social theme: I tend to really appreciate movies that explore these kind of issues. By far, my favorite episode of "The Outer Limits" is one where humans are fighting aliens, and are told they have to take a daily drug, kind of like a vaccine against alien stuff. One soldier doesn't take the drug, and starts seeing the enemy as humans. The suprise end reveal is that the enemy really IS human, and the leaders had been making the soldiers take the drug so they could dehumanize the enemy. The rogue soldier is killed in the final scene by the enemy human, and the last shot is through the enemy's eyes, who perceives the rogue soldier also as an alien--the enemy had also been drugging their soldiers.

Similar themes in "Starship Troopers", both the original movie and the book. (most excellent--you all HAVE read the book, right?) Come to think of it, aspects also in Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" series. (another book that's a MUST read) Too often, people justify war, genocide, violence, racism, etc, by dehumanizing a group of people and saying they are not worthy of respect, life, or whatever. Note that as depicted in "Hotel Rwanda", one oppressing ethnic group refers to the others as "cockroaches". Also note that Aparthied southern Africa was not all about whites on blacks, but also blacks on blacks. I don't just automatically capitulate when these themes are put into TV and movies, but when there's at least some thought put into it, I think they're worthy topics to really think upon. We as humans owe it to ourselves to preserve our humanity, own up to our faults and past mistakes, and seek to be better in the future.

Still at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'll give it 4 stars, and although I'm not going to clamor for District 10, I'll definitely watch it if it's ever made.

[Chris D]

Actually, come to think of it, here's one plot hole I didn't understand: Why did the smart alien work for years to collect the black fluid as fuel needed to fly the craft, supposedly the only way to get up to the mother ship, when later the CHILD ALIEN is able to just flip a couple switches, activate the mother ship, and suck them up into it?

[David Meek]

Good question. Anyone?

[George Bellefontaine]

Good question. Anyone?

Heh, heh, me thinks the director goofed. :lol:

[numberoneoppa]

Good question. Anyone?

The fluid was already in place.

[Chris D]

The fluid was already in place.

Huh?

[Chris D]

While posting my rating, I came across Roger Ebert's review. Should be no secret that I really respect him as a critic and knowledge base of many things. He had some really interesting insight to add that I didn't know about South Africa.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/REVIEWS/908129987/1023

District 9


/ / / August 13, 2009

by Roger Ebert

I suppose there’s no reason the first alien race to reach the Earth shouldn’t look like what the cat threw up. After all, they love to eat cat food. The alien beings in “District 9,” nicknamed “prawns” because they look like a cross between lobsters and grasshoppers, arrive in a space ship that hovers over Johannesburg. Found inside, huddled together and starving to death, are the aliens, who benefit from a humanitarian impulse to relocate them to a location on the ground.

Here they become not welcomed but feared, and their camp turns into a prison. Fearing alien attacks, humans demand they be resettled far from town, and a clueless bureaucrat named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is placed in charge of this task. The creatures are not eager to move. A private security force, headed by van der Merwe, moves in with armored vehicles and flame-throwers to encourage them, and van der Merwe cheerfully destroys houses full of their young.


Who are these aliens? Where did they come from? How did their ship apparently run out of power (except what’s necessary to levitate its massive tonnage?). No one asks: They’re here, we don’t like them, get them out of town. There doesn’t seem to be a lot to like. In appearance, they’re loathsome, in behavior disgusting and evoke so little sympathy that killing one is like — why, like dropping a 7-foot lobster into boiling water.

This science-fiction fable, directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter (“The Lord of the Rings”) Jackson, takes the form of a mockumentary about van der Merwe’s relocation campaign, his infection by an alien virus, his own refuge in District 9 and his partnership with the only alien who behaves intelligently and reveals, dare we say, human emotions. This alien, named Christopher Johnson — yes, Christopher Johnson — has a secret workspace where he prepares to return to the mothership and help his people.

Much of the plot involves the obsession of the private security firm in learning the secret of the alien weapons, which humans cannot operate. Curiously, none of these weapons seem superior to those of the humans and aren’t used to much effect by the aliens in their own defense. Never mind. After van der Merwe grows a lobster claw in place of a hand, he can operate the weapons, and thus becomes the quarry of both the security company and the Nigerian gangsters, who exploit the aliens by selling them cat food. All of this is presented very seriously.

The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title “District 9” evokes Cape Town’s historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero’s name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets.

Certainly this van der Merwe isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree. Wearing a sweater vest over a short-sleeve shirt, he walks up to alien shanties and asks them to sign a relocation consent form. He has little sense of caution, which is why he finds himself in his eventual predicament. What Neill Blomkamp somehow does is make Christopher Johnson and his son, Little CJ, sympathetic despite appearances. This is achieved by giving them, but no other aliens, human body language, and little CJ even gets big wet eyes, like E.T.

“District 9” does a lot of things right, including giving us aliens to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship need be angelic, octopod or stainless steel. They are certainly alien, all right. It is also a seamless merger of the mockumentary and special effects (the aliens are CGI). And there’s a harsh parable here about the alienation and treatment of refugees.

But the third act is disappointing, involving standard shoot-out action. No attempt is made to resolve the situation, and if that’s a happy ending, I’ve seen happier. Despite its creativity, the movie remains space opera and avoids the higher realms of science-fiction.

I’ll be interested to see if general audiences go for these aliens. I said they’re loathsome and disgusting, and I don’t think that’s just me. The movie mentions Nigerian prostitutes servicing the aliens, but wisely refrains from entertaining us with this spectacle.

[mgrabow]

I was dissapointed in the movie... Parts in trailer that were not even in the movie... I hate when they do that.

[dan87951]

I thought this was a fresh idea and a very good movie. I can't wait for the next one!

[Blindamood]

OK...finally watched this last night on blu-ray. To Chris D's question above, yes, they had already found the fluid and put it back in place; so, no big goof as far as I can tell.

My big question is: If the aliens had all of those amazing weapons that only they could use, why didn't they just take over instead of living in squalor for so long? Were they all just stupid prawns, as suspected?

[Hdale85]

Maybe they didn't want to start a war.

[Chris D]

I took it as that the aliens that landed in their ship were the working class, the sick, infirm, and elderly in their race. May not have been educated in the alien technology, and lacked organizational skills to unify their group to accomplish things, or stand up for themselves. The one exception was Christopher, who laid low and blended in with his kind, not letting anyone know that he was educated and skilled for whatever reason. There's an untold story there, as to who he really was, and why he did that.