District 9

[PrototypeRaptor]

You have seen Sunshine, I hope?

That movie was made by John Murphy's soundtrack.

Too bad it failed at the box office...

Also, another thought just occurred to me: did anyone else get lots of HL2 references in District 9?

I know it came from the Halo movie remnants, but it seemed to me a lot of the weapons, effects, and even the "feel" was very...Valve....

[Robotaki]

I know it came from the Halo movie remnants, but it seemed to me a lot of the weapons, effects, and even the "feel" was very...Valve....

RESPONSE SPOILER:

The whole thing involving a slightly nerdy protagonist using alien weaponry to blow up things struck a very "Half-Life" note with me. I also oddly felt some similarity to Ratchet and Clank commercials during those times Wikus was using the alien weapons. i.e. Tesla cannon, a "reverse" Vacuum Gun. Oh, and the title? District 9 ---- City 17. yea.

lolz at LuckyXIII's ending spoiler.

[Salluz]

My friend said that it was racist. Well, can't argue, but see, the white man was trying to control the aliens and experiment on them; the thug Nigerians were barbaric. I won't lie, when the women were prostituting w/ aliens, I couldn't help but think "racist" and I'm not even a conspiracy theorist.

[SynthesizedStampede]

Ah, so saw it yesterday as planned and wow, I have to say that all the descriptions are pretty spot on. A lot of stuff goes on in the movie, and it really kept me on the edge of my seat for a long time. Love the buildup to the "main problem" though, despite it being foreshadowed and whatnot.

I think what I really loved most however was that it always kept me guessing - I like movies that do that. There are times when a movie can be predictable and it really loses momentum if you figure out what's going to happen before it actually happens, but the movie just kept coming with things I didn't expect (not COMPLETE AND UBER plot-twists, just to make things clear), but there were so many choices that could have been taken.

All in all it was a great movie and for awhile after the movie me and my friends could only describe it as "weird" because we couldn't put our finger on a lot of stuff haha.

[PrototypeRaptor]

My friend said that it was racist. Well, can't argue, but see, the white man was trying to control the aliens and experiment on them; the thug Nigerians were barbaric. I won't lie, when the women were prostituting w/ aliens, I couldn't help butt think "racist" and I'm not even a conspiracy theorist.

The movie was not racist. Of course the thug Nigerians were barbaric - you just said they were thugs, no?

If anything I felt the movie had too many obvious, slap-you-in-the-face "RACISM IS BAD, GUISE" motifs going on. There were some allusions I felt could have been directed more subtly by Michael Bay.

[The Womb]

I thought the movie was very well done.

Saying that though I had a really hard time connecting with the protagonist, He was just too much of a narcissistic jerk for me to really care about him. I really didn't feel apart of the action and wasn't really pulling for anyone. In a similar vein I thought the whole "The human race is just a gigantic pile of douche bags" thing was layered on a little thick, it was too obvious that they where trying to get you to side with the prawns over the human race. That and a review in the globe and mail totally gave away like 1/2 of the story line which was kinda gay.

But like I said it wasn't a bad movie by any stretch, and I can see how most people would love this movie.

[SynthesizedStampede]

Saying that though I had a really hard time connecting with the protagonist, He was just too much of a narcissistic jerk for me to really care about him.

Yeah, I agree, but at the same time I felt that the movie took the classic "coward into hero" formula, and did something good with it. I mean at that "point" when a person usually snaps and finds courage in themselves to do that certain action that makes them courageous, there are usually people there to witness it you know? But what I liked was how the only person who was there to witness the protagonist's courage were the aliens themself, of whom didn't really "matter" to the protagonist at all. And the one person who benefited most from his courage wasn't there to preach about it to the rest of the human beings. I don't know it was sort of like a "pure courage" to me, in that nobody was there to witness all that he did, and yet he did a crapload.

[Cottus and Gyes]

Saw it, don't recommend paying to see this. Animation was well done, cinematography was well done, protagonist was well acted, plot took too long to start and was mediocre, and was okay at best.

My brief two cents.

[Salluz]

The movie was not racist. Of course the thug Nigerians were barbaric - you just said they were thugs, no?

That's why I kept watching.

If anything I felt the movie had too many obvious, slap-you-in-the-face "RACISM IS BAD, GUISE" motifs going on. There were some allusions I felt could have been directed more subtly by Michael Bay.

Agreed.

[big giant circles]

I really enjoyed it! Weaponry, art direction and CG acting were all brilliant, and I really dug the way the story was framed. Sound and music were ok but I didn't hear too many sounds that were particularly memorable, especially weapon sounds. Which is kind of a shame since there's so much you can do with them, especially considering how clearly videogame-derived they were. Similarly the music fit perfectly but didn't have particularly memorable cues, save for one subtle but interesting reveal cue I won't spoil.

Speaking of SPOILERS:

The most interesting part about the storytelling is how open-ended it was, and how it didn't bother filling in all the blanks. They never explain how the prawns and humans can understand each other, they don't go into much detail about how they got a million of them off the ship or how they were able to relocate them, not much explanation of the experiments before Wikus, and obviously the cliffhanger ending. Most importantly, they never explain about how and why they showed up in the first place, leaving open a host of theories which I hope are NOT explained in any kind of a sequel, which I also kinda hope doesn't happen.

But personally my guess is that it was actually a prison ship of some kind, which was eventually overrun by the prisoners themselves; hence the need to land, internal ship damage without visible exterior damage, and starving inhabitants. If I had to I'd guess Christopher was a crew member, hence his knowledge of the technology, his outfit, relative sentience in general, etc.

A more crackpot theory would be to say that the prawns are actually distantly-evolved relatives to humans, somehow transformed and interchangeable via that fluid. Maybe some humans were harvested, transformed and transported ages ago (think Stargate), who knows. I just like the fact that it's completely open to interpretation

/SPOILERS

Oh, and there's social commentary. Not as interesting as the individual characters' psychology and dynamics, but if you feel like getting beaten over the head then help yourself, it's there.

Oh man, I'm glad you said this Will. I was thinking the same thing. SPOILERS: I thought because of this it was awesome in a lot of the same sense that made Cloverfield awesome to me, in that if this were *real*, then we wouldn't be given every detail and explanation. And it leaves far more open to imagination and speculation. And speaking of which, I really like what you've presented on that front--makes a lot of sense to me!

Also, yeah, I thought it had several Half-life-ish moments in it. Namely the gravity gun shooting a pig. If ONLY they had used a toilet somewhere in there as well Plus, his battle-outfit in general sort of reminded me of DOG.

I think Cerrax's post was a really effective and fair review from all standpoints. For me, I think I'm leaning a bit more on the fanboy-side of the fence. I thought it was a refreshing and unique story. Or perhaps maybe the execution was, seeing as I didn't think the visual fx were over the top (except for all the gratuitous shots of people getting blown apart/evaporated/disintegrated

Aight, so the verdict, is: this has probably been my favorite movie of 2009 so far.

.

--I think they *might* have got a little too enthusiastic about showing that. And I really liked that the movie had a bunch of no-name actors. I was so happy that I didn't have to see Johnny Depp or Nicolas Cage, etc at some point. Not that I don't like them, but it seems much more realistic to have a bunch of people you don't really know of.

[The Damned]

Here's the original short that District 9 is based upon.

As for the movie, I think it was a very interesting premise, and they pulled it off rather well. The teaser trailer made me all giddy and excited, but the second trailer, where they started showing powersuits and robots... that made me concerned. I feared that it was going to end up being another over-the-top action movie, and in the vein of Transformers.

Thank god that didn't happen.

In the end, it was a pleasant surprise overall.

[Alexis]

All in all it was a great movie and for awhile after the movie me and my friends could only describe it as "weird" because we couldn't put our finger on a lot of stuff haha.

One of the friends I saw it with described it as "squishy". I thought it was a pretty accurate description.

So in retrospect, I feel like the previews for this movie gave a lot away. The first preview (well the first one I saw) was perfect. It started out like a documentary, and didn't mention the aliens at all. It just showed the people saying that "they" needed to leave. Eventually, it said "They are not human" and it showed the spaceship, and that was the end of the preview. I think that's really all I needed to see before hand. They started showing different previews after that, some of which included stuff that happened in the movie that I think is pretty sploiler-ish. There's a commercial where they show Wikus being sprayed by the fluid, which doesn't give a lot away, but you knew it was coming in the movie. And they also showed the alien-robot machine that Wikus was in catching the rocket. Kinda spoiled that moment for me. Had I not seen that before hand, that would have been a helluva a lot cooler.

Also, I was waiting the entire movie to see the scene they showed in the previews where they are interviewing an alien, and he is saying that "we just want to go home". It never happened. That kind of annoyed me.

[Strike911]

Also, I was waiting the entire movie to see the scene they showed in the previews where they are interviewing an alien, and he is saying that "we just want to go home". It never happened. That kind of annoyed me.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one too.

Yeah, I kind of wish they didn't show the robot in the trailers. Seeing some of the things it could pull off was really cool.

[audio fidelity]

best movie i've seen in a long time - just loved it

[Black Mage]

Just got back from the movie. It's was pretty good, eventually. It does take a while to get into the meat of the movie, though. I actually saw four or five people walk out in the first fifteen minutes. I even considered following them, but decided to give it a chance and see what developed. I'm glad I stayed, because it does improve. The documentary format in the beginning got old for me, and fast.

[spoilers]

But personally my guess is that it was actually a prison ship of some kind, which was eventually overrun by the prisoners themselves; hence the need to land, internal ship damage without visible exterior damage, and starving inhabitants. If I had to I'd guess Christopher was a crew member, hence his knowledge of the technology, his outfit, relative sentience in general, etc.

I'm not sold on this. They did mention in the film that they were workers; ones who followed orders and were without a command structure on Earth. I'm guessing that they were a labor caste, like in an ant colony. And Christopher was a higher-up in that hierarchy.

[/spoilers]

[big giant circles]

It does take a while to get into the meat of the movie, though. I actually saw four or five people walk out in the first fifteen minutes

Geez, that's awful. I thought the setup was vital to building sympathy/empathy with the characters, as well as helping you feel invested in/engulfed by the movie in general.

If those people walked out on a movie like District 9, I think I'd hate to see the kinds of movies they might consider worth staying for.

[Alexis]

Geez, that's awful. I thought the setup was vital to building sympathy/empathy with the characters, as well as helping you feel invested in/engulfed by the movie in general.

If those people walked out on a movie like District 9, I think I'd hate to see the kinds of movies they might consider worth staying for.

Agreed. I think the slower pacing at the beginning was fine. I don't think I could have handled it if they jumped right into all of the action right away. That movie is intense enough as it is. No need to ramp it up right at the beginning.

I also really liked the documentary style. It gave it a much more realistic feeling at the beginning. Later on it got weird when they kind of stopped the documentary cameras and just focused on Team Wikus/Christopher for awhile, but they came back to it at the end.

[Jenz Drake]

I'm glad audio fidelity dragged Jordan and I to go see District 9. haha Knowing I freaked out at Cloverfield (I hated that movie), I was skeptical about District 9. I was actually really impressed with the film. I never knew going to see an amazing movie at the movie theater would be better then going to a waterpark.

[3Sparrow]

I just had a friend of mine attempt to draw parallels between Shaun of the Dead and District 9.

Advice?

[Broadcast Bowsette]

I liked District 9 quite a lot. I wasn't really sure where it was going at first, but I still liked the slow build up at the start, made it feel more like a documentary or goofy news story until they started talking about 'after,' and you were kinda like "He did what? Did I miss something?" And then things get juicy.

Edit: BGC if you wanna go see Dist 9 again hollah at me <3 <3 <3

[LuckyXIII]

I just had a friend of mine attempt to draw parallels between Shaun of the Dead and District 9.

Advice?

Well, just take a look at the protagonists of each movie and look at how each develops in their respective film. Of course, in Shaun of the Dead (SPOILER)it's his friend who turns into the zombie rather than Shaun, whereas in District 9 it's Wikus himself who turns into an alien. (END SPOILER) Other than that, yeah, there's the violence and gore, dealing with unpredictable, hence, scary creatures. Sure - there can be some parallels drawn.

[BooDidley7]

You know, it's funny that Sunshine has come up in this thread, because my reaction to D9 is kinda similar.

I thought the first half of Sunshine was potentially great, then the film turned into a boring, almost by the numbers, 'monster on a spaceship' flick.

D9 is better, but it felt like the first act was setting up a better movie. I don't want to spoil anything, but it felt like a bigger story was there and not just defaulting to a fugitive/buddy action movie, which it kinda degraded to.

Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, and certainly worlds better than TF2 or Terminator Salvation. It actually aspires to tell a story, it has developed characters who we kinda care about, and it's made by someone has an appreciation for filmmaking and continuity.

Again though, it just felt like the first act was setting a smarter, deeper, more unique story.

And yes, it was quick, but there was a pig-launcher weapon used.

[Cottus and Gyes]

I disagree, I thought Terminator: Salvation was a really well done movie (especially compared to District 9)... it was the looping factor between T1 and T2. If you exclude T3, Salvation had little to no plot holes.

District 9 felt like the story was incomplete in my eyes. They picked the lesser of the plethora of plot choices, and it shows. It is a very linear movie and makes me wonder (because Peter Jackson had his name on the movie) if they really had to cut down the movie to fit in theaters or they plan on making a sequel to it.

[BooDidley7]

I disagree, I thought Terminator: Salvation was a really well done movie (especially compared to District 9)... it was the looping factor between T1 and T2. If you exclude T3, Salvation had little to no plot holes.

Little to no plot holes? Are you kidding me? Sorry man, but the protagonist's entire journey is virtually a plot hole.

Referencing T1 and T2 is not the same as making a good, or even passable film.

[big giant circles]

Little to no plot holes? Are you kidding me? Sorry man, but the protagonist's entire journey is virtually a plot hole.

Referencing T1 and T2 is not the same as making a good, or even passable film.

Foreals. I mean, to each their own, that's fine if you liked Salvation. For me, it was stupid. It didn't catch the spirit of the Terminator series at all (Hell, even T3 managed to do that on some level). I think perhaps the scenery was the only comparable thing in Salvation and D9.