This is correct. It's Afrikaans.
District 9
- Thread starter noodlehair
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss three 1-1 draws.
The first got us knocked out of the FA Cup, the next puts us in a good position in our Round of 16 Europa League game, and the latest was an actual decent performance against Arsenal at Old Trafford.
All hopes for the season now rest on the Europa League - does Amorim have the squad to win it?
This is correct. It's Afrikaans.
Actually I thought the funniest bit wasthe magazine cover with Wikus fornicating with a Prawn. Did anyone else notice that it was the alien that had his face blurred out?
I wanna see this again.
I had to print screen it!
Hahahahahahaha!! Classic
I just finished watching it, and to be honest I thought it was pretty fantastic. I rarely get very involved in movies, but I found myself really caring as it went along, and dreading the pessimistic ending scenarios I cooked up in my head half-way through it (pessimist at heart).
When he knocked Christopher out, I was about as despaired as I can get watching a movie. At that point I was pretty sure it would end in a complete disaster.
I think this sums up what a lot of people have said, as far fetched as the film is in a way it's completely believable and that's credit to the actors and producer.
Watched it last night and it was ok. After all the rave reviews it was getting on here I was expecting an epic masterpiece, but for me it was just a good film. Not even the best film released this year in my opinion, though maybe I went in with my expectations too high.
Re your spoiler:
When do movies ever end in a disaster? I would have been more impressed if it had to be honest, but it just took the same old 'everything works out in the end' direction. Nothing controversial about the film at all really, which was disappointing. It didn't even attempt to explore any back story to the aliens, they just turned up one day in S.Africa so the government gave them some land.
Also for a film that is supposed to tackle the controversial issue of apartheid and racial segregation, they did a fantastic job of making every Nigerian a shady, voodoo loving savage. The quarantining was a joke, Wickus basically just strolled in to the camp when he needed to hide. Good job these aliens don't carry any sort of diseases deadly to humans. Though no doubt if they did our scientists would no all about it, what with all the research they did on the massive spaceship. Good job they didn't just leave it there untouched, because that would have been foolish...oh wait.
And what the feck was Johnson planning on doing when he got back on board the ship? Flying off for help? Are you telling me a ship that sophisticated and advanced doesn't have any sort of long distance communications or distress signals? Not too mention the speed with which aliens and humans managed to learn each others languages, guess they must have had some sort of inter species Rosetta stone to hand. The whole thing just seemed so illogical and unbelievable from start to finish.
If they wanted to make a film on class and colour segregation in South Africa then maybe they should have actually gave credence to the people who actually suffered from apartheid instead of playing to the Nigerian stereotype that was found in literally every black character in the film. If they wanted to make a sci-fi, maybe they should have focused a bit more on the back story of the aliens landing on earth instead of just having the audience taking it for granted that aliens suddenly turned up in South Africa and nobody really batted an eye lid. after all it's only the biggest even in human history, why wouldn't we plonk them in concentration camps and leave this mile long spaceship untouched in our atmosphere?
Also for a film that is supposed to tackle the controversial issue of apartheid and racial segregation, they did a fantastic job of making every Nigerian a shady, voodoo loving savage. The quarantining was a joke, Wickus basically just strolled in to the camp when he needed to hide. Good job these aliens don't carry any sort of diseases deadly to humans. Though no doubt if they did our scientists would no all about it, what with all the research they did on the massive spaceship. Good job they didn't just leave it there untouched, because that would have been foolish...oh wait.
And what the feck was Johnson planning on doing when he got back on board the ship? Flying off for help? Are you telling me a ship that sophisticated and advanced doesn't have any sort of long distance communications or distress signals? Not too mention the speed with which aliens and humans managed to learn each others languages, guess they must have had some sort of inter species Rosetta stone to hand. The whole thing just seemed so illogical and unbelievable from start to finish.
If they wanted to make a film on class and colour segregation in South Africa then maybe they should have actually gave credence to the people who actually suffered from apartheid instead of playing to the Nigerian stereotype that was found in literally every black character in the film. If they wanted to make a sci-fi, maybe they should have focused a bit more on the back story of the aliens landing on earth instead of just having the audience taking it for granted that aliens suddenly turned up in South Africa and nobody really batted an eye lid. after all it's only the biggest even in human history, why wouldn't we plonk them in concentration camps and leave this mile long spaceship untouched in our atmosphere?
The aliens had been here for around 30 years, ample time to be multilingual let alone learn english. Your other points are mostly fair, but you've probably over analysed things. I started doing that and then realised that I wasn't enjoying films as much as other people.
Now I check my brain at the door and if a film turns out to be intelligent it's a nice surprise.
Now I check my brain at the door and if a film turns out to be intelligent it's a nice surprise.
Well to be honest everyone was giving it 9's and 10's and it has too many illogical plot holes for me to give it that high a rating. I just find it odd that everyone on here was rating it so highly, it was nowhere near what I expected from reading peoples reviews on here
It was far from a "happy" ending.
Wikus turned into an alien, lost his wife, and was reduced to making crappy looking model flowers and leaving them on her doorstep. The aliens continue to be abused and live in poverty, and Christopher Johnson ends up flying back to his home planet in utter distress, possibly to return one day and wipe humanity from the face of the earth.
There's lots of stuff that didn't really add up, but that wasn't the point of the film. At least I didn't think. The messages were there, and there were some pretty clever symbolic scenes/moments in there too. Though it did get sidetracked towards the end with the whole people being exloped by super-alien-death-ray thing.
I didn't understand the point in the Nigerians, to be honest. Didn't seem to fit with the restof the film at all, and they served no real purpose to the plot
Wikus turned into an alien, lost his wife, and was reduced to making crappy looking model flowers and leaving them on her doorstep. The aliens continue to be abused and live in poverty, and Christopher Johnson ends up flying back to his home planet in utter distress, possibly to return one day and wipe humanity from the face of the earth.
There's lots of stuff that didn't really add up, but that wasn't the point of the film. At least I didn't think. The messages were there, and there were some pretty clever symbolic scenes/moments in there too. Though it did get sidetracked towards the end with the whole people being exloped by super-alien-death-ray thing.
I didn't understand the point in the Nigerians, to be honest. Didn't seem to fit with the restof the film at all, and they served no real purpose to the plot
I think you'll find there was one voice of sanity in this thread
I'd agree with most of your points in the previous post.
the film didn't really have a happy ending as such but the blatant leaving it open for a sequel (which if made I can guarantee will be shite) means you kind of write the happy ending yourself.
Incidentally, I remember reading in one of the threads you're off to uni this year, you taking a film course by any chance?
How do you figure everything worked out in the end? Wikus ends up a prawn separated from his wife. Christopher is off to get reinforcements, what that bodes for the human race when he returns with a whole battalion of heavily armed aliens is sequel fodder. The remaining prawns are in District 10 which Wikus calls a concentration camp.
The Nigerians are poorly fleshed out, so is the Merc captain, they both targets for bullets.
An area large enough for 1.5 million beings will not be easily patrolled, even areas as small as prisons have drugs smuggled into them, I don't see the problem in him getting in.
How do you know they didn't research the ship? It's been 20 years since they arrived in the film universe, one of the first things they'd have learned was the alien technology only works for the aliens, whats left to research? There could still be researchers on the ship, it could be part of the plot of ta sequel.
Faster then light travel does not necessarily mean the Prawn have faster then light communication, hence the need for the trip. Language? Again 20 years on earth.
The voice over at the start mentions that the world was watching, hence why the humanitarian effort was made to bring them down to earth. What started a refugee camp became something more permanent, humans are living in conditions much like that which is half the point
The Nigerians are poorly fleshed out, so is the Merc captain, they both targets for bullets.
An area large enough for 1.5 million beings will not be easily patrolled, even areas as small as prisons have drugs smuggled into them, I don't see the problem in him getting in.
How do you know they didn't research the ship? It's been 20 years since they arrived in the film universe, one of the first things they'd have learned was the alien technology only works for the aliens, whats left to research? There could still be researchers on the ship, it could be part of the plot of ta sequel.
Faster then light travel does not necessarily mean the Prawn have faster then light communication, hence the need for the trip. Language? Again 20 years on earth.
The voice over at the start mentions that the world was watching, hence why the humanitarian effort was made to bring them down to earth. What started a refugee camp became something more permanent, humans are living in conditions much like that which is half the point
From the questions you raise I get the idea it's not the film you wanted to see, you want a different plot, different ideas explored within the same setting.
Remember that this movie almost started out as 'Halo' before the plug was pulled by the studio and therefore had to be changed till it evolved into District 9. People expecting some kind of hidden message or uber plot are going to be disappointed from a movie that is essentially a comedy sci-fi based on a video game
I'm not sure how accurate that is, though. They were originally going to do a Halo movie, but they had problems with financing. It would be faulty to assume that it inherited the traits from the Halo movie that was put on hold. What could it be? It's not like the Halo movie would be anything like District 9, story wise, and it's not like they'd already made the CGI.
Why is everyone so sure that there's going to be a sequel? Sure, it left itself slightly open-ended, but you people are talking like it's been confirmed or something.
For what it's worth, I doubt they'll make a second.
For what it's worth, I doubt they'll make a second.
I dont see how they can make a sequel without ruining the franchise, I mean whats the plot going to be based around?
Christopher's return would be the obvious start of a second film.
I'm thought that the connection was just that when Halo fell through Jackson felt sorry for the director so he gave him this project instead?
This is correct. Jackson liked the guy so much he asked him to stay on after the Halo film fell through to work on Blomkamp's film.
Thought it was a pretty enjoyable film, the first half was engaging and the second was good old fashioned, people exploding fun. The two friends I went to see it with didn't seem impressed though.
They said that if the aliens were stronger than humans and had people-exploding weapons, then why were they being opressed and living in slums in the first place? I thought the movie made it quite clear that the prawns were just the drones, and it explicitly said that they followed orders because of that.
If Christopher had spent 20 years gathering up a small amount of fuel to fit into that small canister, then how come there's still enough to fuel the ship after it gets sprayed in Wikus' face? I also thought it was a bit of a stretch that Wikus would go from knocking Chris out and stealing his space ship to the whole 'you go on without me' shtick.
Also, is Christopher's space ship the thing that falls out of the mothership at the beginning of the film?
If Christopher had spent 20 years gathering up a small amount of fuel to fit into that small canister, then how come there's still enough to fuel the ship after it gets sprayed in Wikus' face? I also thought it was a bit of a stretch that Wikus would go from knocking Chris out and stealing his space ship to the whole 'you go on without me' shtick.
Also, is Christopher's space ship the thing that falls out of the mothership at the beginning of the film?
im pretty sure that the design of the prawn was based around the Halo aliens. Also the weaponry
well yes, but any Halo gamer will spot the obvious similarities
my main point is that the movie was not intended to be some super uber serious plot, people should enjoy it for what it is; a sci-fi dark comedy
I think a second film would probably ruin the first somewhat. I mean, there's not really anywhere to go with it, other than Christopher returning, and there being a mass war fest, or worse, two hours of peace negotiations, or something shite to that effect.
The ending worked in that it left it open to interpretation as to what you think should happen next. If they make a second film it immediately fecks up the ending to the first.
Well I was only expecting a fantastic plot due to the fact everyone was raving about it and proclaiming all these hidden subtleties. If it was supposed to be some sort of casuistic, recondite way of tackling the issues of apartheid then it failed miserably in my eyes. If you look at it with the view that it is just another alien film with a bit of a difference, and really there are no majorly deep ethical significances behind it all, then yeah it was a decent sci-fi flick. Had a bit of a slow start and few and far between action scenes, but was still a good film.
I wasnt aware this movie was even supposed to deal with these issues. Dont know who brought that up in the first place. I always thought the movie was based on HALO and therefore I got just what I was expecting- good sci-fi entertainment.
It's based on the real life events that took place in District 6 in Cape Town, even down to the segregation and forced removal of tens of thousands of blacks and muslims that occupied the 'slum' area. The whole are was evicted, bulldozed and turned in to a whites only area during apartheid
I thought it was a right cocktease of a movie:
- big parallel with District 9/Soweto but where does that go...
- big Blade Runnerish issue about the humanity of aliens/robots but where does that go...
...into a big fok off shoot 'em up.
- big parallel with District 9/Soweto but where does that go...
- big Blade Runnerish issue about the humanity of aliens/robots but where does that go...
...into a big fok off shoot 'em up.
For the love of God, people, this movie was NOT based on Halo. Blomkamp was originally on board for a Halo movie, but then it got pulled, so Jackson had him make this instead. To assume that there was any link at all is ridiculous, particularly given that any shots filmed or creative license used in regards to the Halo movie is Microsoft's, not Blomkamp's, and so when he left the project and Beattie took over he couldn't bring it with him.
This film was made from scratch, and based off a much shorter film that Blomkamp made previously. Any relation to Halo is done purely because Blomkamp clearly likes aliens and guns, not because they converted what they'd already made.
Oh, and if you watched this and didn't see the clear references to Apartheid then you didn't watch it properly. I'm not saying that they were subtle and amazing, but they were definitely there.
This film was made from scratch, and based off a much shorter film that Blomkamp made previously. Any relation to Halo is done purely because Blomkamp clearly likes aliens and guns, not because they converted what they'd already made.
Oh, and if you watched this and didn't see the clear references to Apartheid then you didn't watch it properly. I'm not saying that they were subtle and amazing, but they were definitely there.
Oh, I meant to say, anyone who has watched Flight of the Conchords, did Wikus remind you of Murray?
Heh yeah he was certainly similar to him in some ways
I hope they don't, but unfortunately I think it's going to be successful enough that Hollywood and some big name director (Michael Bay
) will buy the rights and 'finish off the story'. As we all know, Hollywood doesn't want any unfinished business or unanswered questions, that may actually force people to use their brains as they are watching the movie. Can't have that now.If there is a sequel, I just hope that they keep the same production team.
I think you'll find there was one voice of sanity in this thread
I'd agree with most of your points in the previous post.
the film didn't really have a happy ending as such but the blatant leaving it open for a sequel (which if made I can guarantee will be shite) means you kind of write the happy ending yourself.
Incidentally, I remember reading in one of the threads you're off to uni this year, you taking a film course by any chance?
Sorry just seen this. Nah English Lit, I'm not really that passionate about films, at least not enough to do a course on them. Though I do enjoy films, of all shapes and sizes. To be honest it's only the last few weeks and months I have started watching many films- mainly because I have run out of books to read!
Ahahah, yeah... My thoughts exactly, at times.
Decent film... not as good as I hoped...
Some thoughts...
I wanted accounting for how they understood each other, as the sounds they made were so absurdly different to what we know as language... and surely their conceptualisation is different as well?
And why did that Nigerian wheel chair gangsta need his arm... not to mention the United Forces or whatever the feck that organisation was called? In order to use the weapons and technology, wouldn't any Shrimp's arm do?
I wanted accounting for how they understood each other, as the sounds they made were so absurdly different to what we know as language... and surely their conceptualisation is different as well?
And why did that Nigerian wheel chair gangsta need his arm... not to mention the United Forces or whatever the feck that organisation was called? In order to use the weapons and technology, wouldn't any Shrimp's arm do?
The Nigerian guy is shown eating a Shrimp's arm with that crazy woman, and obviously nothing happened, so he reckoned that Wikus arm would work if he ate it because it was a 'perfect mix' of Shrimp/Human DNA. MNU needed Wikus for the same 'perfect mix' reason, they wanted a way for humans to use the weapons so they needed his organs and stuff for experiments.
The Nigerian bloke believed that he would gain the ability to use the guns by eating the arm and by using all that witchcraft bullshit. He was basically just off his tits. The organisation wanted to harvest the DNA of the human/prawn person so they could eventually find a way to use the guns and make shit loads of money.
As for the communication thing, i always wondered that.
As for the communication thing, i always wondered that.
I half expected Jonah Takalua to come out during the film and help out Wickes.
I see I spoke too soon, praps.
No way. He's a ranga sir
I have got the screener on my server. So if you are .....
On the language note, I just assumed that it was because Wickus was half alien by that point and was thus understanding them. Prior to that we seem fairly incapable of talking to each other - the prawns just tended to swear and when Wickus was talking to Christopher for the first time he didn't seem to really know what he was talking about.