District 9

noodlehair

"It's like..."
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I can't decide if this looks like it's going to be shit or not



Looks like it could be one of those films that tries to be about something, but you can't help hoping it'll involve a massive intergalactic war-fest, and then end up being disappointed because it doesn't. Or something like that
 
I think you're about right, from the trailer i'd say it has the potential to be brilliant or it could just be a massive waste of time.

I'd never heard of it before this thread and will probably look to watch it when it does come out!
 
Just saw the trailer on Television, looks like it's got the potential to be a brilliant movie.

Cannot wait to see it.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Just saw the trailer on Television, looks like it's got the potential to be a brilliant movie.

Cannot wait to see it.
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I saw the trailer last week in teh cinema and it does look like it could be a good one.

I always go on about it, but when you see a film/trailer on teh big screen it's always much better. I'll definitely be seeing this one.
 
jgraham said:
I saw the trailer last week in teh cinema and it does look like it could be a good one.

I always go on about it, but when you see a film/trailer on teh big screen it's always much better. I'll definitely be seeing this one.
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The trailers are half the fun of seeing a movie. I wish they'd show more :D

Saw the trailer for this when I watched The Taking of Pelham 123. It looks like it could be brilliant. Has anyone seen the short film it's based off?
 
Reception so far has been very positive. I'm expecting big things from this.
 
I think it looks great, cant wait tto see it. The short movie is kind of pointless, 6mins of nothing happening. But i checked out other stuff by the same director, Neil Blomkamp and his other stuff is pretty cool. He did the Renault (is it?) ad where the car transforms, one for addidas called Yellow that was pretty cool. And three short movies called Halo Arms Race. Im not a Halo fan, but those short movies where class. Especially the third one, it was pretty awesome.
 
No Cesc it is produced by Jackson, not directed by him
 
Watched this last night. Probably my favourite film of the year, right up there with Star Trek.

Totally owns Transformers 2.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Peter Jackson's the Director of this though.
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Jackson is the producer, not the directer.

Originally this was meant to be a Halo film, with the team and finance all set up for that, but then Microsoft started arsing around because they wanted more control over the film, so it collapsed.

Jackson felt really guilty, though, so he said he'd still fund Blomkamp doing another film, and they eventually settled on turning his short film into a feature length one. I've not actually seen the short film, but this certainly looks like it might work. I reckon it'll be one of those films that's either mindblowingly good or so staggeringly underwhelming that it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Then again that could describe any film!
 
Count Duckula said:
Jackson is the producer, not the directer.

Originally this was meant to be a Halo film, with the team and finance all set up for that, but then Microsoft started arsing around because they wanted more control over the film, so it collapsed.

Jackson felt really guilty, though, so he said he'd still fund Blomkamp doing another film, and they eventually settled on turning his short film into a feature length one. I've not actually seen the short film, but this certainly looks like it might work. I reckon it'll be one of those films that's either mindblowingly good or so staggeringly underwhelming that it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Then again that could describe any film!
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Ah my bad!
 
Just saw it. One word:

EXCELLENT.

Movie of the year by a MILE so far, and easily the best I've seen in recent memory.
 
Sorry mate.

But if it's any consolation, I had high hopes going into it too and it didn't ruin anything for me.
 
Glad to hear it met expectations. Looking forward to seeing this one at some point.
 
SharkyMcShark said:
Saw it. It was acceptable, but full of plot holes and random stupidity. The first half of the film was fantastic but after that it just devolved into
killing everything that moved with ray guns or a giant mech.
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I knew the real critics would say something like that.

I think people will enjoy that, as the weapons/mech were fecking cool, and it showed the complete lack of control anyone had over the situation.

What are these supposed plot holes?

On a side note the father/son situation was very endearing.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
I knew the real critics would say something like that.

I think people will enjoy that, as the weapons/mech were fecking cool, and it showed the complete lack of control anyone had over the situation.

What are these supposed plot holes?

On a side note the father/son situation was very endearing.
Click to expand...

*Gearing up for massive use of spoiler tags*

I really enjoyed the first half of the movie - I thought the setup was very good. The act where they're going through D9 and forcing everyone to sign the eviction documents was quite powerful, not only in that it showed how the aliens were viewed by the humans, but also played on several real life historical events aswell. I thought that the final third just becoming bog standard action movie wasn't in keeping with this - obviously the final act of the movie needed a climax (and it was pretty fecking cool), but I felt that it was overdone, and the elements that gave the movie its charm before this were entirely cast off - notions of acceptance and oppression, autonomy v regulation, and all that were eschewed for Black Hawk Down + Mech. Which again I didn't mind, but felt it brought the movie down.

The bald prick that led the mercenaries was a particularly annoying character in his one dimensional portrayal. He started the movie aggresively, and by the time he was saying how he can't believe he gets payed to do something he loves so much (police brutality) and he loves shooting prawns I was just waiting for him to die.

Heres what I found to inconsistent in the movie

  • Some of the opening montage is dedicated to letting us know how much the population of Africa wants the aliens to go home. Ostensibly they had to get their command module up to the big ship, a process that might have taken weeks, as opposed to 20 years, if at the beginning before the MNU took over they'd said "hey we need to get this ship up there help us" (because in theory the MNU wouldn't let them leave without getting their lazors).
  • MNU consistently being beligerent to the aliens/having rockets pointed inwards at their compounds. As if several thousand rights organisations wouldn't be watching their every move. I'm saying that going in and shooting a bunch of aliens every time they need to get a job done isn't something that would ever happen, and it would have been a far more effective literary tool if they'd have had to try and hide their brutality while still showing disdain for the aliens.
  • "Prawn". At the beginning of the movie it's alluded to as being offensive (there was the cop explaining that all it meant was that they looked like prawns, someone else saying it meant they were bottom feeders). At this point we've been led to believe prawn = n****r. And then Wikus called them that. Which at the beginning I thought was another way of showing that the world had to pretend to care about these aliens without actually caring in reality. But then he kept on calling them prawns once he'd befriended them. So apparently the equivalent is "Aussie" or "Noggie" - except no one ever has to justify why someone is called an Aussie or a Noggie, because it isn't offensive.
  • Don't even get me started on how stupid it was that they wanted him dead. Because after all their previous failed experiments I can see how instantly killing off the one working specimen is a good idea.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but I felt that the ending act stuffed up the good work that the first two acts had done.
 
SharkyMcShark said:
Saw it. It was acceptable, but full of plot holes and random stupidity. The first half of the film was fantastic but after that it just devolved into
killing everything that moved with ray guns or a giant mech.
Click to expand...

pew! pew! haven't seen it yet but might see it tomorrow
 
SharkyMcShark said:
Saw it. It was acceptable, but full of plot holes and random stupidity. The first half of the film was fantastic but after that it just devolved into
killing everything that moved with ray guns or a giant mech.
Click to expand...

Which is a worry coming from someone who thinks Transformers and Revenge of the fecking Sith are amongst the 10 best films EVER.

This can be taken in one of two ways. Either Ditrict 9 is catastrophically awful or actually rather excellent. My money's on the latter.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Which is a worry coming from someone who thinks Transformers and Revenge of the fecking Sith are amongst the 10 best films EVER.

This can be taken in one of two ways. Either Ditrict 9 is catastrophically awful or actually rather excellent. My money's on the latter.
Click to expand...

Just because a movie has plot holes it doesn't make it bad in and of itself. In a movie where the story is the main selling point, as it is here, I'd say it's an issue yes.

The story was not the main selling point in Transformers. And I fail to see what's wrong with Revenge of the Sith.

Are you going to mention that list in every thread I post in?
 
SharkyMcShark said:
Just because a movie has plot holes it doesn't make it bad in and of itself. In a movie where the story is the main selling point, as it is here, I'd say it's an issue yes.

The story was not the main selling point in Transformers. And I fail to see what's wrong with Revenge of the Sith.

Are you going to mention that list in every thread I post in?
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No but I'm gonna mention every time you criticise a movie for being "full of plot holes and random stupidity".

I mean, if I had to review both your favourite flicks using only seven words, I couldn't think of seven more appropriate words than those right there.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
No but I'm gonna mention every time you criticise a movie for being "full of plot holes and random stupidity".

I mean, if I had to review both your favourite flicks using only seven words, I couldn't think of seven more appropriate words than those right there.
Click to expand...

Transformers I'll give you, in that I love that movie for personal reasons, but what was wrong with Revenge of the Sith? Where were the "plot holes" and "random stupidity"?
 
SharkyMcShark said:
Transformers I'll give you, in that I love that movie for personal reasons, but what was wrong with Revenge of the Sith? Where were the "plot holes" and "random stupidity"?
Click to expand...

It was so utterly shit I've almost completely wiped it from my memory. But it was definitely full of plot holes and random stupidity, as were all the Star Wars prequels.
 
SharkyMcShark said:
*Gearing up for massive use of spoiler tags*

I really enjoyed the first half of the movie - I thought the setup was very good. The act where they're going through D9 and forcing everyone to sign the eviction documents was quite powerful, not only in that it showed how the aliens were viewed by the humans, but also played on several real life historical events aswell. I thought that the final third just becoming bog standard action movie wasn't in keeping with this - obviously the final act of the movie needed a climax (and it was pretty fecking cool), but I felt that it was overdone, and the elements that gave the movie its charm before this were entirely cast off - notions of acceptance and oppression, autonomy v regulation, and all that were eschewed for Black Hawk Down + Mech. Which again I didn't mind, but felt it brought the movie down.

The bald prick that led the mercenaries was a particularly annoying character in his one dimensional portrayal. He started the movie aggresively, and by the time he was saying how he can't believe he gets payed to do something he loves so much (police brutality) and he loves shooting prawns I was just waiting for him to die.

Heres what I found to inconsistent in the movie

  • Some of the opening montage is dedicated to letting us know how much the population of Africa wants the aliens to go home. Ostensibly they had to get their command module up to the big ship, a process that might have taken weeks, as opposed to 20 years, if at the beginning before the MNU took over they'd said "hey we need to get this ship up there help us" (because in theory the MNU wouldn't let them leave without getting their lazors).
  • MNU consistently being beligerent to the aliens/having rockets pointed inwards at their compounds. As if several thousand rights organisations wouldn't be watching their every move. I'm saying that going in and shooting a bunch of aliens every time they need to get a job done isn't something that would ever happen, and it would have been a far more effective literary tool if they'd have had to try and hide their brutality while still showing disdain for the aliens.
  • "Prawn". At the beginning of the movie it's alluded to as being offensive (there was the cop explaining that all it meant was that they looked like prawns, someone else saying it meant they were bottom feeders). At this point we've been led to believe prawn = n****r. And then Wikus called them that. Which at the beginning I thought was another way of showing that the world had to pretend to care about these aliens without actually caring in reality. But then he kept on calling them prawns once he'd befriended them. So apparently the equivalent is "Aussie" or "Noggie" - except no one ever has to justify why someone is called an Aussie or a Noggie, because it isn't offensive.
  • Don't even get me started on how stupid it was that they wanted him dead. Because after all their previous failed experiments I can see how instantly killing off the one working specimen is a good idea.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but I felt that the ending act stuffed up the good work that the first two acts had done.
Click to expand...

Sorry Sharky but I think you're wrong about a good many things. In fact nearly all of what you've said there.

  • Firstly, they didn't want him dead. They said specifically a dozen times that they wanted to capture him so they could harvest his organs and tissue. I suppose that may count in the end as wanting him dead, but it's obviously for the sake of their experimentations - they needed to harvest his tissue whilst he was still transforming.

  • As for the Rockets - no doubt they were there simply as a defence mechanism. Obviously there was a massive deal of mistrust between the human and aliens, especially considering they were rather feral and could've been inclined to attack/break-out randomly at any moment. Then there was the gang factor which heightens everything.

    It’s obvious (and shown a few times) that these aliens were much stronger than your average human, so any sort of mustering-of-arms between these gangs (especially with their alien weaponry) could’ve posed massive threats. Those rockets could quite feasibly thwart any potential threat/take out gang-houses.

  • As for the ‘Prawn’ nickname – I related it to being called a ‘skip,’ or someone being called a ‘curry.’ It’s all about context, as shown by the Wikus’s almost-affectionate usage of the term, whilst the Chief MNU Mercenary's utter disdain when using the term.

    As for him, himself, he was obviously a compelte knob that was 'alienist' (for want of a better word), just like the rest of the average population.

  • Personally I didn’t really like the fact Wikus and ‘Christopher’ when ‘commando up in this bitch’ at the MNU headquarters – it didn’t quite fit with me. But obviously Christopher needed the fluid, and he needed to ‘see’ what they were doing by ways of horrible experiments to the aliens in order to establish that open ending: Will they return to wage war or just rescue the aliens?

    Plus this was where the fecking awesome Lightning-gun got a good few X’s to it’s name.

  • Now as for your point about why wouldn’t they just let them go anyway, in fact why didn’t they help? I have to say at first I thought about that and agreed. But then I thought about how much the MNU, Governments and organisations wanted (nay, NEEDED) to study and experiment on the aliens, as they wanted to harness their weaponry and technologies. It’s pretty clear that the people wanted them gone, but the Governments didn’t.


I know what you mean about all the fighting and that though, you felt the movie was moving towards something great(er) than that - which I suppose is a credit to the movie to begin with. But really where else could it have headed?

There was so much tension coming from the populace that there would've been killing one way or another. This way at least it was for a reason - helping 'Christopher' escape.
 
When Natalie Portman's character died due to 'losing the will to live', that scene with Obi Wan Kenobi riding that loud irritating animal while chasing a robot with a lung disease, do they count as examples of random stupidity?
 
I can't wait for this, two weeks today though until it comes out over here (England). Some good films to be watched in the cinema during August with this, Inglorious Basterds, funny people and Scarface. Theres also final destination 3d which although may not be great it's always funny to see how they come up with the deaths.

I need to learn not to click on the spoilers!!
 
Wonder Pigeon said:
When Natalie Portman's character died due to 'losing the will to live', that scene with Obi Wan Kenobi riding that loud irritating animal while chasing a robot with a lung disease, do they count as examples of random stupidity?
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The tricky part about analysing that godawful mess of a movie is finding bits of it that don't count as examples of random stupidity.
 
jgraham said:
I can't wait for this, two weeks today though until it comes out over here (England). Some good films to be watched in the cinema during August with this, Inglorious Basterds, funny people and Scarface. Theres also final destination 3d which although may not be great it's always funny to see how they come up with the deaths.

I need to learn not to click on the spoilers!!
Click to expand...

It's getting absolutely panned by the critics, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Sorry Sharky but I think you're wrong about a good many things. In fact nearly all of what you've said there.

  • Firstly, they didn't want him dead. They said specifically a dozen times that they wanted to capture him so they could harvest his organs and tissue. I suppose that may count in the end as wanting him dead, but it's obviously for the sake of their experimentations - they needed to harvest his tissue whilst he was still transforming.

  • As for the Rockets - no doubt they were there simply as a defence mechanism. Obviously there was a massive deal of mistrust between the human and alien relationship, especially considering they were rather feral and could've been inclined to attack/break-out randomly at any moment. Then there was the gang factor which heightens everything.

    It’s obvious (and shown a few times) that these aliens were much stronger than your average human, so any sort of mustering-of-arms between these gangs (especially with their alien weaponry) could’ve posed massive threats. Those rockets could quite feasibly thwart any potential threat/take out gang-houses.

  • As for the ‘Prawn’ nickname – I related it to being called a ‘skip,’ or someone being called a ‘curry.’ It’s all about context, as shown by the Wikus’s almost-affectionate usage of the term, whilst the Chief MNU Soldier's utter disdain when using the term.

  • Personally I didn’t really like the fact Wikus and ‘Christopher’ when ‘commando up in this bitch’ at the MNU headquarters – it didn’t quite fit with me. But obviously Christopher needed the fluid, and he needed to ‘see’ what they were doing by ways of horrible experiments to the aliens in order to establish that open ending: Will they return to wage war or just rescue the aliens?

    Plus this was where the fecking awesome Lightning-gun got a good few X’s to it’s name.

  • Now as for your point about why wouldn’t they just let them go anyway, in fact why didn’t they help? I have to say at first I thought about that and agreed. But then I thought about how much the MNU, Governments and organisations wanted (nay, NEEDED) to study and experiment on the aliens, as they wanted to harness their weaponry and technologies. It’s pretty clear that the people wanted them gone, but the Governments didn’t.
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Seeing as we're being pro and using spoiler tags (and not quotes), I'll go in the same order you did.

  • When he was on the surgery table (after they made him kill the random alien in the weapons test) the discussion between the head honchos was on how they wanted to harvest tissue from every part of him, and this would involve killing him. Shit, they were about to take his heart out before he broke the restraints, and while I'm no doctor generally that's fatal.
  • I'm not doubting the need for the rockets as much as that they'd essentially be allowed to come here and essentially be homeless and like in a detention centre - I generally find it quite implausible that they'd be forgotten about by the hundreds of international rights and ethics groups in existence (today and in the 80s when they landed) and visibly down trodden by mercenary forces without anyone making a fuss. We do after all have a planetary reputation to uphold (now, anyway). I'm alluding not to the actual need to have rockets and mercenaries with bright white weapons so much as the very public nature in which they went about being brutal towards the aliens.
  • Prawn, fair enough what you said. My only issue really is that its introduction builds it up to be something that it really isn't.
  • The whole storming the top secret underground laboratory guarded heavily by pissed off mercenaries was the turning point of the movie for me - as you've said an alien scientist and someone who two days prior was a rubber johnnied desk jockey storming the joint just felt wrong. In a similar vain, I wasn't convinced by 'Christopher' coming to his sudden realisation because he saw a dissected alien corpse, given that he'd been living in the middle of a slum for 20 years, and had seen his friend shot in the face a day prior to that. It felt like a contrived plot point to be honest - the moment of realisation didn't need to have been attained through storming the complex.
  • Regarding letting them go, the governments had given up on the aliens (it said so in the opening montage) prior to handing them over to the MNU. Ostensibly at the point where the governments stopped saying "give us your lazros", but before they dumped them with Unethical Multinational Corporation #4857 it might have been good to say "hey we can go if you want"
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Which is a worry coming from someone who thinks Transformers and Revenge of the fecking Sith are amongst the 10 best films EVER.

This can be taken in one of two ways. Either Ditrict 9 is catastrophically awful or actually rather excellent. My money's on the latter.
Click to expand...

I hope it's the later. I discovered the trailer before anyone else I knew, so have been going round telling all my mates, my brother, his mates, and anyone else who'll listen, that it's going to be great and we all have to go and see it.

I kind of consider myself responsible for the film itself now. If it turns out to be shit, I may consider legal action against Blomkamp
 
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