District 9 (2009)

[clovis-man]

Initial critic reviews have been pretty good. Anybody seen it yet? I'm going to try for Monday.

 

[clovis-man]

Saw it today. Not for the squeamish (just a heads up). But it turned out to be pretty good. The lead character (Wickus) really went through some acting somersaults. The "Prawns" were intriguing, but except for the two main characters, were pretty one dimensional. Lots of thrills and spills, so action buffs will be happy. Recommended.

And would you believe that the story line left it open for a sequel? Stay tuned for District 10.

 

[Scifi fan]

What do you mean, not for the squeamish? Lots of blood and gore? I'm not into that.

 

[Blackrook]

Seen it.

The movie is a political message about racial problems in South Africa. I'm not sure what the message is.

The aliens are all of the worker class and they are dumb as rocks. They apparently lost their leadership at some point and they're too stupid to take care of themselves. So Earthlings put the aliens in a refugee camp, where they get free food but very shoddy housing. The aliens are violent so they are segregated from humans behind barbed wire.

If the aliens are supposed to represent black people, then it's a very insulting movie to black people. I can't see any other interpretation though.

 

[dustinzgirl]

They are worker class. I would imagine kind of like ants. Ending has a nice set up for a second flick.

However, most of it is so drawn out and boring that I wish I would have waited for the DVD.

 

[clovis-man]

What do you mean, not for the squeamish? Lots of blood and gore? I'm not into that.

Yeah. You could describe it that way. But there is more to the story than just that. And as far as for whom or what the characters served as metaphors, more than one interpretation could be argued. I could see the planned relocation as looking a great deal like urban efforts to deal with homeless in the U.S. (minus the violence). Saying more about the putative intelligence of the aliens would be loaded with spoilers. Suffice to say, I'd have liked for it to have been more fully explored. But that would have added another 30 minutes to the film, I imagine.

The relationship between Wickus and the one alien imbued by the script as being intelligent was one of the best parts of the tale. Lots of all too human foibles on both sides. OTOH, the army of NMU goons did, in fact, look way too much like the vigilante mobs during the height of the Apartheid unrest.

Still, I found the overall experience to be worthwhile.

 

[_Jack_]

...

My babies - will you have them?

Anyway...

This would be okay if viewed on HBO in a few months, but I kinda wish I had saved my eight bucks. It's not a bad, movie, you know, it's just...gah, you guys know what I'm talking about. It had promise, but it turned into a run-of-the-mill shoot-em-up. Iunno. Solid C.

Directors: No one, I mean no one, likes crazy-realistic-super-shaky camera work. Knock it off.

 

[dustinzgirl]

My babies - will you have them?

Anyway...

This would be okay if viewed on HBO in a few months, but I kinda wish I had saved my eight bucks. It's not a bad, movie, you know, it's just...gah, you guys know what I'm talking about. It had promise, but it turned into a run-of-the-mill shoot-em-up. Iunno. Solid C.

Directors: No one, I mean no one, likes crazy-realistic-super-shaky camera work. Knock it off.

Pfft...get a job jack! Whats up doll? You should make a welcome post.

(jack is my friend, all)

Yeah.....and I have no idea why it was rated R...my ten year old was like OMG mom this is stupid.

I wish I would have went to see G-Force instead.

I really wish it would have only costed eight bucks. It was me and my two boys at 6.50 each, plus medium popcorn, drink, and candy @ 8$ per package. So my total 43.50$ for two hours of boredom.

 

[Michael01]

This thread might be nearly a month old, but I've seen a few previews so far on TV - and I was intrigued immediately just by the few seconds shown. Now, after seeing the trailer, I think this is one I definitely MUST see!

 

[Rodders]

I really like the look of this, but i'll probably wait until it comes out on DVD. Interesting that peoples opinions are so mixed though.

 

[dustinzgirl]

This thread might be nearly a month old, but I've seen a few previews so far on TV - and I was intrigued immediately just by the few seconds shown. Now, after seeing the trailer, I think this is one I definitely MUST see!

Those intriguing few minutes you see on the tele are the only most interesting moments on the whole two hour movie.

 

[Michael01]

Those intriguing few minutes you see on the tele are the only most interesting moments on the whole two hour movie.

Haha! Yes that usually is the case, isn't it?

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Well I liked it. I thought most of it was interesting. And I don't usually like dark depressing movies.

 

[Rodders]

People keep going on about this, yet i've never even heard of, let alone seen districts 1 through 8.

 

[jojajihisc]

Very intense film. I thought if the makers were going for an anti-apartheid message or whatever that it was a secondary consideration and the main focus was on making an original science fiction movie.

 

[Rodders]

Like Moon, this will be one for the DVD collection, but i can already see it being a film that i'll watch several times.

 

[mygoditsraining]

Watched it last night.

Very enjoyable; maybe not as deep or as hard-hitting as the initial viral campaign might have suggested, but still a good watch. It's always nice to have a protagonist who goes through an actual personal journey as part of the story as opposed to the usual popcorn guff where the hero starts off perfect and the story just churns from there onwards.

Also, mech suit catches rocket-propelled grenade. What's not to love?

 

[Wybren]

I liked it. I hadn't heard much of it, but my husband convinced me to see it. While there could have been more done in regards to the aliens IMHO I think the story was good and weird. I thought the end of that army guy was kind of fitting too.

 

[ChrisQ]

I really liked this. I was thinking it was going to be like a Starship Troopers type movie, but it's not. It's so hard to find good sci-fi (or action movies for that matter) where the characters grow and there's a nice arc to their change. Really refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I'm really hoping they don't screw it up with a crappy sequel.

 

[biodroid]

It was definitley not a hollywood type movie and was so well done. The story was well written the SFX were brilliant for the small budget, everything worked well for this movie and deserves all the praise it gets. Go South Africa! And it's great for my country to show that we are just as competitive in the movie industry.