[TINY REVIEW] District 9

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:20 am

This movie started with a great setup. A big spaceship straight out of Independence Day comes to Earth, but instead of targeting major population centers and blowing them up, the aliens just hang out over South Africa and look for food.

This leads to a bunch of opportunities to reflect on ISSUES like racism and segregation and Nigerians, and is very well done, told in a mix of documentary-style shaky-camera footage and regular film.

That's the first half, which I thought was great. During the second half, it devolves a little into a buddy/action movie, where the buddies are the lead alien guy and the lead human guy. As far as a buddy/action flick goes, it holds up its end of the bargain, but never reaches the potential promised in the first half.

The inconclusive ending is either very strong or totally lame, depending on whether or not there is a sequel. If there's a sequel, then the ending is merely a blatant ploy to get you to watch the next one. If there is no sequel, then it's a refreshing lack of a gift-wrapped-with-a-bow-on-top finale.

THREE (3) STAR (*) S

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:22 am

Also Jonsey was nice enough to buy tickets and popcorn for savvyraven and I. THANK YOU ICE CREAM JONSEY. SOME DAY WE WILL NOT BE POOR ANYMORE AND CAN GET YOU STUFF.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:39 pm

I saw this last night and ICJ was not nice enough to buy me tickets or even PayPal me some cash to cover some microwave popcorn so instead I downloaded it. And let me tell you, there's nothing like watching 45 minutes of a movie and then figuring out that in the theater, there were probably subtitles. So then I had to go download those and do some voodoo magic and get them to work, and even then each line was displayed twice in duplicate, which I justified by pretending that the Prawn were like Hammerhead from Star Wars and had two mouths, so that's why I had to read each line twice.

About halfway through the movie I was thinking, "man, I should let my 7 year old watch this" and then they got the alien guns working and I changed my mind.

I thought the film was fantastic, btw.

ICJ · Post by **ICJ** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:43 pm

Spoilers for District 9

I guess my problem with the movie is that the protagonist, Wekis or whoever, is an irreedeemable cunt. He never stops being one. He's weak, stupid and stupid.

I don't need to watch a movie to know that some people are small-minded, pathetic cowards. I already know that. I am surrounded by the great majority of them. I am not saying he had to go through a cliche arc of redemption or be an anti-hero. I don't know what I'm saying. It's for the same reason I hated (yet own) the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. I live in a world filled with Winston Smiths, who give up at the end and turn in the only person they care about because they don't like rats. I don't want to be influenced by them lest I become like them in even a small way.

This is a problem with me and not the movie. I bear no ill will to District 9.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:04 pm

ICJ wrote:I guess my problem with the movie is that the protagonist, Wekis or whoever, is an irreedeemable cunt. He never stops being one. He's weak, stupid and stupid.

That's what I liked about him. I don't know about you but I know lots of bosses like that, people who got promoted not because of their stellar work performance, but because they were "so-and-so's son-in-law", or what I've seen even more frequently, they were too stubborn to quit so they got promoted "up and out". Yeah the guy was a jerk and a wimp, and how fitting that someone like that got put in charge of such an important project just because he married the right person.

CO · Post by CO » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:35 pm

I really fucking hated this movie. I hated the entire thing from soup to nuts. Starting with the complete unbelievability of the entire premise that the US and other developed nations would have let this break through alien technology just sit there over a slum in a formerly colonized African "nation". The military industrial complex would have been on this shit like white on rice, not only reverse engineering the tech but enslaving these poor fuck aliens who are the only ones that can use the guns. Every character in this film was some poor imitation of something else in sci fi and also completely undeveloped and unlikeable. The big flaws about the premise go right along with the lameness of the action scenes and convenient omissions of believability to get to their desired plot ending, a setup for a district 10 sequel to be a lame attempt at an independence day. Hopefully it never gets made, luckily IMDB has no mention of a district 10 so far. I saw this pile of crap in the afternoon and people shuffled out in shame for having wasted two hours of a nice afternoon for <i>this</i>.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 4:57 pm

Wow, right up there with 'Spaced Invaders'!

I guess I don't need to see it now.

Must be stupid aliens if they went to Africa to look for food.

THE
MOVE TO WHERE
THE FOOD IS
AAAAAAAAAAAA!
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:21 pm

Are they any more stupid than a race of aliens who invaded Earth and were easily destroyed by water?

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:00 pm

Yeah! You'd think if they could have interstellar travel, or whatever, they could invent an anti-wet suit or something.

THE
SINGING IN THE RAIN
MELTING! MELTING!
WHAT A WORLD!
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:39 pm

The aliens being put into exoskeletons that the army could control would be a logical step, yes.

But the point is that only the aliens and therefore Wenkis could shoot them. The point is that, in turning into an alien, he was more powerful than members of the military.

CO · Post by CO » Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:55 am

The simple fact of the matter is this movie never needed to exist at all. It's already been done way fucking better by Alien Nation, Enemy Mine, V, and a dozen other movies and genres sampled by the committee who wrote this steaming pile.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 8:46 am

CO wrote:It's already been done way fucking better by ... Enemy Mine

It's been a long time since I saw the other two movies/shows you mentioned, but I did see Enemy Mine pretty recently, so I feel comfortable in making this statement:

Enemy Mine did absolutely nothing way fucking better than anything.

co · Post by co » Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:27 am

pinback wrote:Enemy Mine did absolutely nothing way fucking better than anything.

It did the "alien and human mortal enemies become friends thing" first. Although long and boring, at least Enemy Mine was original, had at least b-list actors and a director with a few other real movies under his belt. D9 had none of those things and was just horrible.

ChainGangGuy · Post by **ChainGangGuy** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:09 am

You're long and boring in it!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:37 am

Got chance to see it few weeks ago; didn't realize a discussion was here. District 9 wasn't very good. The <s>guy</s> asshole becoming part alien reminds me of Steve Carell (who I neither liked nor believed in The Forty Year Old Virgin). I agree Enemy Mine did better at a human/alien bonding flick; and for movie about aliens settled into country, Alien Nation was far better than District 9.

Somehow I think this movie was done more for some sort of economic incentive/tax rebate thingy for films made in South Africa, the way movies and TV shows made in New Mexico qualify for credits from the state. As opposed to being done because someone competent actually had a story worth watching to tell.