*** Official DISTRICT 9 Discussion Thread

I'm hoping there's a midnight showing in my neighborhood

The current TV commercial gives away one nice action beat.

An actual good movie; best action movie of the summer.

SUGOD District 9 Discussion

So it is similar to Cloverfield's shaky camera?

Not even close in my mind. The majority of the shaky cam in District 9 is the news footage (which would probably be how the footage would look if a camera man was in that position) rather than a constant shake throughout the movie like Cloverfield (which, in its defense, was supposed to be shot by a random guy with a video camera rather than a pro).

The shaky cam really doesn't come into play.  You will see it from time to time, but the whole movie is not shot this way.

The special effects in the movie are incredible. 

For those who have seen it, can you see a part two coming from this???  I know I can.

From the Review thread: 

There are no guns this awesome in Halo (well, maybe the Needler).  And I am glad Halo got the canx, because this is a good film without having to tie into a brand.  That said, great opening, and I hope Blomkamp sticks to his guns.  He seems to recognize (based on an interview via the Onion AV Club) that studio control is proportional to budget.  And he can clearly make things happen with $30M.

Anyways, the mechsuit is about the coolest thing I've seen this summer, except for Sienna Miller.

As I was leaving the theater, I ran into a friend who asked me about the movie. I was speechless and didn't know how to describe it. It is definitely one of the best movies  I have seen this year. I think people will either love it or hate it though.

The movie was filmed with the "shaky cam" but, it gave me the feel that I was actually there watching the events unfold. The integration between the actors and the computer generated effects was seamless and very believable. The main thing I liked about this movie is I could not predict the story line. I really got the impression that the characters did not know what was going to happen next and were, as in real life, making it up as they went along.

One thing that I thought was interesting is how misunderstood the two cultures were to each other. The aliens with their weapons and technology could easily have take over earth, but it seemed that they were a little oblivious to human traits like power over each other. They seemed to apply force or violence only when needed and then it was more annoying to them than anger or hate. I think that is why they were so easily kept in camp. I don't think they knew they were being repressed.

I think a part 2 would be interesting if the ship came back in 3 years. Would it be a rescue mission or revenge? It doesn't seem in their nature to be violent. I could see a part two easily, and also a good online video game.

I'll be honest, the hilarious Zombieland trailer was my favorite part of the movie. I also loved the really inventive alien guns and the world established in the first twenty minutes or so. Everything else felt muddled to me; the apartheid parallels are undermined by the seemingly real evidence that the leadership class of prawn, including Christopher Johnson and his kid, actually are an order above the working class schlubs that mostly sit around eating cat food. I guess it could just be a difference of perception or education, but the film certainly didn't take great pains to differentiate the prawn outside of those two. The casual cruelty and selfishness underneath Wikus Van De Merwe's happy-go-lucky Murray Hewitt-esque personality was the most effective parallel to the genuine South African history.

Did anyone else notice that the camera footage of the initial months of the mothership hovering over Johannesburg was dated 1985? That does indeed hint that this movie depicts an alternate history, rather than a speculative future.

D9 caught me completely off guard. I'd only seen the original teaser trailer, and that was a couple of months ago. Everything about the movie was completely unexpected, and I was immersed in it.

As noted in the review thread, this is not as good as Children of Men, but it approaches it.

What impressed me was the lack of villains. The sympathies were clearly communicated, but the "bad" guys were rational, believable, realistic. Whether it was human rights activists picketing for better living conditions, the weariness of the general population over 1M "person" refuge camp, or the callously practical behaviors of the military-industrial complex, I accepted each person as acting sensibly. And that, were it real, they would have significant supporters, whether it's "prawn rights" groups or support vivisection research of non-humans.

Not my favorite movie this year, but it's the most memorable so far.

I think the aliens showed up in 1982, and most of the "current" day footage of Wickus was in 2010, not sure about the footage from the interview segments after Christopher made his escape.

Saw this last night and found it to be remarkable.  I honestly don't want to see a sequal, though...sometimes having questions go unanswered is fine.  I mean, if they did come back in three years they would essentially vaporize Earth as their tech is just that much more advanced.  Sure, they could make a movie where humans finally figure out their tech (in 3 years given that they didn't in over 20?) but it wouldn't be as interesting.  What was interesting was the horrible parallels to aparteid S. Africa (and Nazi Germany to go a bit further with experiments on live subjects, concentration camps to follow slums, etc.).  Unless a similar take on things would be available for a sequel (would Wilkus's character become a Nelson Mandella sort of person?  I can't see it and it would take away from the simple sad beautiful moment at the end).  Leave well enough alone.  :-)

I think we should be really happy if someone continues to give him $30 million every year to make another cool and original film without tying it to some pre-existing property.  
 
The friend I went with made a fun comment...he said Neil B. found the way to make the stereotypical "precocious-kid-who-saves-everyone" character fun and not cloying...just make him an alien.

you're crazy, this film blew away children of men in every way. flawless

I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone.  Points for originality and story, but the execution was pretty poor.  The script itself consisted mostly of fu*k (or "fook" as it was pronounced) and its myriad variations. Can't anyone write dialogue for an action film without every other word being an expletive? Didn't care for the documentary feel and all the shaky cam work, didn't like the lead actor, and didn't really give a crap what happened to any of the characters. Everyone was so unlikeable, from the MNU folks, to the terror gangs, to the prawns themselves, that I kept hoping they'd all vaporize each other. Only Christopher and his son were moderately likeable and I'm glad they were able to get away.

I also wish writers would remember how how to write an ending.  It seems like all the major films these days just end, with no kind of closure at all.

The audience I was with didn't seem too thrilled by the film, so I'm curious as to how word of mouth may affect business.

According to last week's EW article, some of the dialogue was imrprovised on the spot, supposedly to take advantage of Copley's improvisational skills.  As far as the cursing, not a big deal, if I were in Wickus's spot, I'd be cussing up a storm as well.

Let me know when Blomkamp pulls off a 9-minute long extended steady-cam shot like the one in the final act in "Children of Men", and then we can talk. Plus "CoM" was much better in terms of developing thematic storylines, and characters and their motivations throughout its running time.

I think I liked the film better than you did, but this would be my summary as well. The way District 9 was conceptualized and presented was the best part of the film. The rest felt like a muddled mix of reheated sci-fi concepts, social commentary, and action set pieces. It never coalesced into something with a driving force behind it.

I agree completely. I felt Children of Men was robbed of several Oscars, the type of science fiction that never lost track of the human element.

Meanwhile Wickus is a jackass for most of the movie, and the prawn are too thinly drawn to for the allegorical element to really take off. It's more interesting than a lot of the films about aliens, but looking back to a visual anthropology class in college none of the pieces are really new either. Ethnographic studies with extraterrestrials swapped out for a human exotic Other is clever but not revolutionary feeling in the way Children of Men was. Doesn't mean I think the people who love District 9 are wrong; just means that Children of Men has a lot more to chew on.

Saw this over the weekend and I thought it was pretty good. It was definitely refreshing to see something that didn't have its origins in an earlier movie, TV show, comic book, video game, etc. I also liked the social commentary that was integral to the movie.

That said, I hate shaky cams. It's no way to tell a story, if you ask me. So the movie loses points for an over-reliance on what is becoming a very tired and dated contrivance.

My other complaint is that the violence was pervasive and too much like a video game. I disliked seeing characters onscreen get zapped and explode into little bits of flesh and blood. It cheapens the human experience, IMO.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't comment on the awful previews that were in front of the movie. We saw  five of them, each one darker and more sadistic than the others. Law Abiding Citizen, Sorority Row, Zombieland, Legion and Saw VI all look like the worst pieces of nonsense; nothing but grim visions and nightmarish images (although Zombieland appears to have a sense of humor). But I was really struck by the relentless cinematic sadism.

I'd give District 9 three out of four stars. I'd see a sequel (which seems inevitable) but would hope that it gains some maturity by losing the shaky cam and truly excessive violence.

Same here: all previews were the next crop of horror / gore movies. It was a miserable 10 minutes waiting for the movie to start.




I always enjoy your analyses, Adam. And here I agree, yet that was a strong element of District 9's fascination, for me: it didn't have a clean-cut, prawn-loving hero who was horribly tricked into becoming a prawn by the black-hat, mustache-twirling villains. Nor was it Twilight Zone where we root for the racist to become what he hates and get his comeuppance. Wickus was an ass, but he was believable and sympathetic. He was the middle ground; he didn't hate the prawns but he didn't like them living in Jo'berg. Much of his behavior to the camera, I took as the pompous over-gesturing someone like him would make when he finds himself with both too much responsibility and an audience that he's unaccustomed to.

Wickus not being likeable kept me somewhat emotionally detached, but it also added to the fascination of this novel telling.

I really hope this discussion doesn't become some sort of "contest" between District 9 and Children of Men, both of which are (IMO) very fine and technically proficient films but so different that a comparison isn't particularly revealing (again, IMO). I don't think of COM as "science fiction", because the technology and the life forms are all recognizable; it's the society that has taken a different direction. District 9 comes straight out of the monster movie/alien invasion genre.

I don't agree with most of the criticisms of District 9 listed above, but these things are a matter of taste. I will say that I loved having Wikus Van De Merwe as a protagonist, because he's so unlikely: a bureaucrat, really a nobody, certainly the last guy anyone would expect to "go rogue". That's what makes it so interesting when, from his point of view, MNU turns on him -- because, from MNU's point of view, they're just reassigning him to a different use.

Just saw this movie and I thought it was fantastic. 

I was a bit confused by the end though.  How was it that they were never able to just fly their ship off at anytime before?  They got the fluid to power the drop ship, but the main ship seemed fully functional and just took off as soon as someone was aboard.  Why were they stuck there in the first place?  From what the movie itself presented, there was absolutely nothing wrong with their ship.

I did love the flying pig

The Pig Gun ruled!
 

I think the point was that they had a landing ship but lacked the fuel to get back for it in addition to the knowhow for the most part.  Chrisopher Jones (daddy of the year if you ask me!) said that it took them 2 decades to get what they needed to make the fuel to get up to the ship...they couldn't even power it up sufficiently to automate the ship like the kid did.  They hooked up tons of computers and what not but never enough juice to do the big move.

I think it was horrible to think they sat under their ship for decades with their people becoming mad and addicted to cat food with constant intrusion by MNU agents that tear up anything resembling weapons or gear.  

I agree...no comparing COM and DISTRICT 9.  Two different animals, both fantastic at what they did.

Language: I work in corrections and this movie language was tame comparitively.  :-)  Just depends on the point of view of the viewer, I suppose.

Re: Why humans didn't tear ship apart to study:  I thought of this while watching, actually.  My thought was you have a gigantic piece of hardware floating up above millions of people.  What if you accidentally press the "off" button?  Whoops....lots of dead civies.  Same with tearing it up.  I am sure they searched it...they had a horde of their tech at MNU offices but they lacked the ability to use it or make it backwards compatible.  

I think the sequel should be another of the director's short films...aliens return, turn Earth to ash, go home.  :-)

 

Early on it was noted that the control mechanism for the ship fell off and was never recovered. This was the mini-ship Christopher had hidden under his shack.

Ahhh, I remember that, but thought that it was just one of the 'theories' that the people were throwing about as to what the purpose of the Aliens were.

CGI has finally arrived.
I know its been around awhile, but in the past couple years its REALLY been impressive. I noticed this around the time Hellboy2 came out. Although everyone was in awe of Gollum, I found Gollum, Star wars, alot of CGI to not be so satisfactory. Alot of jerky unnatural movements, contrast problems, etc

But the FX in this movie were flawless. Perfect and flawless. No more fake CGI character interacting with human counterparts,everything blended together perfectly. Its worth seeing this on a big screen simply for the visual spectacle alone. Suprisingly my G/F convinced me to go see this. I thought the first 20 minutes were the best part, but enjoyed the film. Little humor throughout, but biggest laugh from me was the smear campaign picture that was braodcast in the fast food joint. And loved the son.

A real commentary on human nature.Not only in dealing with the alien race, but also watching Wilkus change while trying to survive. The film changed in away I wasnt expecting, but its a solid scifi movie.

Why question would be, why not beam the aliens up after getting the mothership operational again.

That wasn't a "beam up" like in Star Trek. It was a gravity manipulation device. It grabbed everything; hence the rocks going up. And it seemed specific to the control console bringing it directly to its docking location.

It could well be that using that device on living creatures would be impossible, ineffective, and even fatal.

Or it might be just a plot contrivance to get Christopher to leave his people behind.

Or might have worked specifically for the command module since it was able to detach from the mothership.

Was just a thought.

Well I don't think the FX were flawless, some of the shots of the aliens interacting with the environment didn't look quite real. But considering the budget for this movie the effects are darn near miraculous.

I thoroughly enjoyed D9, especially once the expository stuff at the beginning was done and we got to the meat of the story.

Even if it's not, the technology was shown as being limited to what is directly underneath the portal and rather slow speedwise. Considering that the South African forces were positively pummeling the mothership with rockets at the time, and Christopher was slowly bleeding to death, it made perfect sense for him to get the heck out of Dodge while he could.