District 9

I watched this film a couple of days ago having found a good quality torrent available. First impressions were a little odd and the camera work was somewhat off putting set from a manually handled news reporter POV. Once you are over that (but later ask what happened to the camera man as the style of the film continues that way without him!) you are fine and the story begins to set in.

An alien mothership ‘lands’ above the city of Johannesburg (RSA) 28 years prior to present day and a lack of fuel prevents the craft and its inhabitants continuing about their business. The humans accept the newcomers as refugees in a contained landmass, but as there is apparently no progress in there no progress in finding an adequate fuel source their short term stay becomes a permanent one and the living confinements become slums. 28 years on, to the present day it is questioned why they are actually unable to leave. There is a great deal more to it than not being able to source the correct fuel.

The film itself is not just a sci-fi thriller involving aliens, nice weaponry and a huge mothership. There is a deep seated significance in its setting. South Africa is well known for its racial divides (the apartheid) and this film plays heavily upon that. It questions human desire, human morality, greed and intolerance of differences. A further more appealing sub plotline surrounds the ongoing expression of love between the lead and his wife.

Difficult to give too much detail about what happens in the film without spoiling it so it just worth recommending it to anyone who has not seen it as a weekend priority if you have a friend or partner to go with.

Would love to hear (spoiler sensitive) comments from anyone else who has watched this film.

I haven’t seen it yet, but my friends who have tell me it’s really good!
I’ve been wanting to, but haven’t had the time!

also, I heard that this was Peter Jackson’s take on what would’ve been the *ugh* Halo -what people see in this game and Master Chef is beyond me- movie!

I saw this yesterday, and I was so happy with what I was given. I really want to see it again though 🙂

My favorite film of the year so far. Solid story, and a lead character that’s actually believable in the bizarre situation. It’s challenging to the audience, as he doesn’t fit any standard archetype. He’s fickle, contradictory, sometimes overly self serving – just like any actual living person. Aside from all of that I thought it was very well put together, from the effects down to the pacing and editing. It’s very impressive, especially considering the budget. Put it up against some of the mega budget blockbusters and you have to wonder what the hell those guys do with all the cash.

I declare it the best movie of the year.

i finally just saw it a few hours ago……i gotta say, "impressive".

it was well paced, the prawns looked pretty cool, the little kid character wasn’t annoying (which is all too common in genre films), the main character developed at a believable pace and it pretty much stuck to it’s point without trailing off on some silly subplot.

although the meaning behind it was nothing new to the sci-fi genre, it was still entertaining and believable enough to make me want to see it again.

all in all, i found it to be one of the better films i’ve seen in the theaters this year.

i was disappointed honestly.

the way people were raving about it i was expecting something on the level of children of men.

they opened with the pseudo-documentary style thing then dropped it randomly, i don’t see why they used it in the first place. the first third of the movie was promising and interesting. the second had way too many things that were just brushed over, and the third doesn’t resolve much, it’s just a bunch of drawn out action sequences.

considering it’s a very, very transparent allegory for race, i’m surprised people weren’t offended by a lot of it. it’s one thing when the "documentary" part paints the aliens in a negative light; it honestly should have been there. but once the main character is spending time among them, it should have reversed that sort of thing. it honestly just made it worse.

you don’t make a movie as an allusion to racial segregation and then paint the "others" as violent, mindless drones that are of no significance.

Just came back from watching it, and I’m still not sure what to think. To me, the entire look and feel of the movie was very similar to Oddworld, if that makes any sense. As I said, I’m still not sure what to think. I was never bored, though.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be able to gather my thoughts.

i was disappointed honestly.

the way people were raving about it i was expecting something on the level of children of men.

they opened with the pseudo-documentary style thing then dropped it randomly, i don’t see why they used it in the first place. the first third of the movie was promising and interesting. the second had way too many things that were just brushed over, and the third doesn’t resolve much, it’s just a bunch of drawn out action sequences.

considering it’s a very, very transparent allegory for race, i’m surprised people weren’t offended by a lot of it. it’s one thing of the documentary paints the aliens in a negative light; it honestly should have been there. but once the main character is spending time among them, it should have reversed that sort of thing. it honestly just made it worse.

you don’t make a movie as an allusion to racial segregation and then paint the "others" as violent, mindless drones that are of no significance.

This quoted for truth. District 9 was overrated and pretty much sucks.

It’s an interesting docudrama to start, though the latter half is filled with summer blockbuster violence.

I wouldn’t go so far as being disappointed or calling it sucky, but it is not the cerebral flick people make it out to be. It actually reminds me of Half-Life 2 in reverse sort of.

The first half was great imo. Wikus is a very believable everyman type of protagonist and the documentary-ish style that frames his virtues and teases his deep flaws got my attention. The way friends and co-workers reminisce about his then-mysterious fall had me thinking the guy would be the next Hitler or something. Kind of a Last King of Scotland feeling. All the build up was there: the entitlement of humanity, the extortion of aliens who refused to sign, the dissociation and devaluing of alien life compared to human life (the scene where he makes jokes while the alien infants are destroyed is chilling). And as he must deal with the increasingly belligerent residents of D9, you can see the chinks in his carefully maintained persona begin to show.

Then it went somewhere else entirely after I got back from the bathroom. Wikus gets alien juice in his face and all of a sudden it’s just another summer film. Instead of a chronicle the movie jumps to framing Wikus as the underling hero against the big bad with amusing, but totally mindless violence. And while his "turn" was well done (loved the scenes where they capture and ‘study’ him) I thought it was totally contrary to what had been built up so far. So now I’m supposed to like this asshole? Perhaps not. To the actor’s credit, Wikus remains an incredibly unworthy hero. He’s still cowardly, selfish, and self-involved. So when he makes one selfless decision to save Christopher from certain death it’s all the more welcome.

But overall I thought the second half was very weak, predictable, and almost entirely divergent from what I saw in the first half.

Went to see it last night. It was an okay movie, didn’t live up to the hype though.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I think this is easily the best movie of the year. Its hyper documentary style and its execution sets it apart from most films in the genre. Most movies either go all teary eyed "OMG, so beautiful" or "OMG, the world is ending" when it comes to the day we make contact. Here, it skips right over this and shows an unfortunate, but equally likely possibility; we mistreat the aliens every chance we get. the movie made me quite sad because when the day comes, I think District 9 may be right on the money in many ways.

I like how the camera doesn’t do this grandiose close up of when the aliens are first seen. The style also reflects quite a bit of careful reflection on the director’s part. The "commentators" have a lot to talk about from increases in crime, human rights violations, legal accusations, and the greatest term ever, "interspecies prostitution."

The aliens aren’t mindless or wannabe criminals or killing machines, nor are they angels. The director explained it was because he imagined them having a society similar to that of ants and bees. Consequently, their criminal behavior is often the result of a lack of direction from a queen so to speak.

The movie is without question a certain parallel to racism. Even the aliens are speaking with a dialect similar to that of an African country. Its a good thing the movie doesn’t dwell on this and why the movie ultimately soars where many other genre movies fall a bit short. The movie is not truly about lessons on prejudice, shady corporations, making the first contact, etc, but a hunter now becoming the hunted.

Saw it twice in theaters, and will be getting it on DVD.

I thought it was quite good, even if the second half is a little by the books. I wouldn’t call it great though, and certainly not the best movie of the year. Inglorious Basterds takes that honor from the films I’ve seen at least.

Amazing Movie!
IMO the order of movies for this past summer was:

1) District 9
2) Inglourious Basterds
3) Star Trek
(Yeah, I know a blockbuster should not get the 3rd place treatment, but it was damn good.)

Honorable Mention: Away We Go