I saw the previews for District 9 when they started on TV a few weeks ago, and I didn’t really give them a second glance. But after the movie was released, I started hearing about the box office numbers (which generally don’t mean that much in terms of quality), and the spectacular reviews it was receiving. Next thing I know, I’m hearing from friends how good it was, and seeing comments from some of my friends on Facebook (whose opinions I respect) commenting on how amazing it was…so when Phil called me and asked me if I wanted to go see it, I said yes.I went into the film knowing absolutely nothing other than the fact that there were aliens in it. That’s it. Not that it was set in South Africa, not that there were aliens living on earth, not that it was in a mock-documentary format (for some of the film)…nothing. It was great watching everything without having any expectations, and for those of you that haven’t seen it, I’ll do my best not to reveal anything major to you.
As far as science-fiction goes, it was fantastic, but it was a great movie on its own merits as well, without having to be classified as sci-fi. To find out that the budget for the film was only $30 Million was astounding to me, and I recently read a review with the star of the film, Sharlto Copley, who explained that most of his dialogue was improvised, and that he wasn’t working from a script.
Sharlto Copley was definitely one of the highlights of District 9, evolving from a nerdy office worker to a desperate hero (anti-hero?) in the span of 90 minutes. This is his first major performing role, but I would expect that you’ll see a lot more from him in the future. The parallels between humans living with aliens, and their reactions to them, is an obvious parallel with South Africa’s history of apartheid…you’d have to be borderline retarded not to see that…but I thought they did a good job of not bashing you over the head with it.I don’t want to give to much of the movie away, so I’d like to continue the conversation in the Comments section for those of you that have seen the movie. I’ll add some additional thoughts to begin, and hopefully it will stimulate some discussion. If you haven’t seen the movie, and are planning to see it…stay away from the Comments section.
And to those of you that haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do.
3 comments:
I really liked the dynamic between Christopher and Wikus, and how it changed throughout the movie. It was unexpected to see Wikus actually be a redemptive character by the end of the movie, especially after his initial betrayal outside the underground ship. The scene where the smaller ship was being pulled up to the mother ship was great, as the prawn child went and curled up in Christopher’s arms…that scene stuck with me. And while I’ve heard some criticism of the ending, I thought it was great. A perfect ending.
Let’s hear your thoughts.
Yeah, I loved it too. I thought it was very unpredictable and unique in its presentation, and man, it was just a good STORY. You hear that, Michael Bay? Your 200 million dollar budget for Transformers 2 apparently couldn't buy a story I gave a rat's ass about!! Man, the 30 million dollar thing, that really gets to me. It wasn't just a good sci fi movie, but it LOOKED good, for like, one sixth the budget of Transformers 2...which granted, also looked good. But wasn't good.
caesar
As much as I say i enjoyed this movie. I honestly found the documentary leading up to the initial introduction to Christopher kinda boring. That really has to be my only complaint about the movie. other than that. It was threw me for a loop when the events started happening to Wikus, that really tied him to the prawns and how much it effects the overall outcome of the movie. It definitely was a series of events I did not foresee happening and was really happy to find a movie for the first time, in a very long time, where I just had no idea what was going to be happening next.
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