District 9 Review & Warning

[sarahvait]

Personally I liked this movie. Thinking back, I can certainly find a lot of problems.

Spoiler

I understand the prawns having kids, but the alien child in the movie veered a bit too close to that Hollywood practice of having the cute kid there who's used for sympathy/comedy (ah, poor thing wants to go home instead of the bad old tents) but not really needed, so they throw in a reason later to make them SO important to the plot (like in Jurassic Park where it just had to be the girl who hacked the computer to shut the doors and save them from the raptors). I suppose I can buy the little kid being able to power up the ship. I mean, you're stuck in a slum for several years, so the dad probably spent a lot of time teaching the kid all about their technology and what not. They sorted hinted at the kid being good at that sort of thing in the scene where he fixes the little holo-viewer. But that's a pretty big stretch.

I also think they went a bit too far in making Christopher tug at your heartstrings. I liked that they sort of worked to make the aliens harder to sympathize with. They look freaky and at first act extremely savage, which you can sort of understand but isn't going to endear them to many people. That makes it more compelling when you do start to connect with them. But Christopher fell into that familiar mold of noble creature of the misunderstood race that you just have to root for because they are right and the humans or whoever is oppressing them is wrong. Like the dragon from Dragonheart or ET or those kids from Race to Witch Mountain.
And I felt that counter-acted against what the movie had been going for up until then. I guess it's not bad, just same old same old.

But Wikas was a great character. That's not to say he was a particularily good or noble person. But he really drove the movie. I can agree that all the bad guys were pretty 2-D, but it didn't matter to me because I was immersed in watching Wikas go up against them. Through his forced mutation, he would maybe learn from his past failings and see things from a different perspective? Was he upset at having to kill the innocent prawn because he finally saw that it was wrong, or because he feared that in his captors' eyes, they saw him as the same kind of expendable creature whom they would simply kill once he had outlived his usefulness?

Well, that's just me anyway.

 

[Thurmer]

No idea if anyone will have read this far (many probably stopped early on). This is my opinion and the impressions I walked away from the movie with. Many (such as Moviebob who considers it a 10/10) are going to disagree, and I feel they are perfectly entitled to their disagreement (the world would be boring if we all agreed). However please do not flame me, or cut part of the post out and say "I didn't read beyond this, Lulz". I also have the right to express my opinion even when it conflicts with the fanboyism of others.

i actually skipped over most of it to this point... lulz
hehe, just adding my 2cents to the movie in terms of reviewing it personally. i thought it was great but definitely not 10/10 great. i really enjoyed the plot and basis, i thought it was executed really well and the wikus character was really well acted (and seemed identical to a romanian friend of mine in terms of mannerisms and characteristics). this imo is alot better than any halo movie would of been, 8/10 from me.

edit: another point, i can kind of look over the points of a few computer commands when its alien technology, maybe they fixed something to get it to work therefore it wasnt that it took like 2 minutes after sitting around thinking for 20 years more that it took 20 years of research and adaptation to get it to work then it just had to be implemented. the one thing that struck me as strange was that district 9 was supposed to be highly militarised but wikus snuck in there quite easily and then they cut between wikus and chistopher (i love the normality of his name btw) in chistophers shack to blowing into the mnu hq. i guess they could of fought their way there but i mean, maybe 10 seconds of showing them getting there would of imo been worth the extra time.

 

[PurpleRain]

Well to answer all of your questions about the other aspects of the movie they were nice but they didnt help the characters or story sure they were nice and all but that has nothing to do with the characters and story. Also I made a post in the Moviebob review that I didnt like ANY of the Characters but Christopher who I feel is the only one that didnt act like a cardboard cut-out/complete asshat. In addition to having shitty characters and some BIG plot holes and the fact that the movie had Excellent CGI and camerawork kinda makes it more of a letdown. I also wish the end made more sense, you know when Captain Genocide is about to blow Wikas' brains and horrible accent all over the dirt but then the Aliens come out of nowhere and use their on again off again super strength to tear him a new one, why did they do that if theyre all just workers with no motivation as explained earlier?

P.S. Ive also said repeatedly in the other forum that I dont think the guys payed to keep district nine in check would let some random african gang just chill out there and snack on the aliens and I dont think that we'd start butchering aliens because we cant use their guns. also I think humanity would be a little more awe-struck having finally answered an age old question.

You say you didn't like any of the characters? You mean you don't like them or they're bad characters in design? Because personally I find they were great, well rounded characters. Good writing also means that you don't have to like anything that they are about. You don't even need to agree with their mission, just understand where they are coming from. I've talked about the army officer and Wikas so I'm sure you wouldn't want me blabbing off more there.

Still, your original argument was with the script not being intelligent. It seems more as if you just don't like it. Which is fine. Like the OP, you can hate a movie, but like any work of art you can't say it is bad.

Well Wikas wasnt the character I was speaking of when I said cardboard cut-out he was the ass-hat Captain Cockbag and the CEO of what I can only assume is a front for Cobra were the characters that felt bland and uneeded I also didnt see any likable traits in Wikas because even though he half assedly sacrificed himself so that Christopher and his people could live but he was still an asshole for all the other Horrible things he did earlier ie:killing babies with. (to clarify it wasnt an abortion the Prawn babies were already formed) Its akin to the end of some movies when the bad guy has a change of heart and helps the hero only to die (Darth Vader) it doesnt make all the bad stuff he did go away because he still killed babies.

The baby killing I found an incredible piece of the script. It really shows how little they care about the aliens. Of course humans would keep their population down but seem good by only allowing ones with paper work to have them. The fact he burnt the eggs shows that people think of the aliens as nothing more than insects. Just some creatures to be stepped on.

Another thing I liked about the script was all the assumed knowledge. We have lived with aliens for twenty years or more before this documentary came out and showed this one tragic event. Also, the movie in documentary form follows how they work to the point. In doco's they often have a very one-sided viewing of an event. Perhaps the commander being a cardboard cutout is a way of showing this. It is a way for the documentary to show how he (being the metaphor for the government/army/intolerance) was the enemy in the film and only the enemy, counterpointing what the documentary was all about, that being one about showing why people should be tolerant to the aliens as seen in the arc of the event. I mean, so much could have happened with the ship and finding different things about the aliens we should as the people watching this, already know from what the papers and news has shown, but it has only singled to this one happening.

It is a marvelous script is what I'm saying, nay, shouting. I can't understand why people would say that it isn't intelligent. I could claim that Fight Club is not intelligent because I have gripes with the characters and how corny the whole thing is, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I mean, some characters were so cliched and melodramatic and the story is full of plot holes, but we all can agree it is a fantastic script and piece of art.

Already I and many other people have argued so much for it. Doesn't that mean that there is some intelligences behind it.

 

[danosaurus]

snip

So, you've pointed out that it was incredibly implausible, but is it a good movie?

This.

Since when was a sci-fi movie meant to be 100% plausible in terms of social and governmental ethics?
I think the OP has read too far into the script with his handbook of governmental policies at his side and forgotten what a decent movie's supposed to be.
Remember decent movies?
Those things that you'd line up in the cinemas for and happily hand over your hard earned cash to see? yeah, District 9 is easily one of those.

I, for one, hadn't been to see a movie since the latest Harry Potter was released and was thoroughly disappointed when I left the cinema.
I reminisced that the last movie that actually made me feel something in the cinema was the LOTR trilogy.
Let's face it, Movies are becoming abysmal - with the likes of Michael Bay running around, it's a wonder that there aren't full scaled riots for people demanding their money back in Cinemas.

Honestly, watch the movie and enjoy it for what it is. Don't rant on that it doesn't add up to your perfect 10/10 setting and story for 20 'paragraphs' - make your point and move on with it.
Churning out line upon line about inconsistencies in the plot that you've groomed out of the storyline, like a monkey picking ticks out of it's mates back, is a bad habit.

In regards to your review, you'll first need to learn to structure your paragraphs less like a "retarded chimpanzee" before you earn any kudos in presentation.
Your vocabulary is refreshingly varied and intelligent but it just becomes overshadowed when you begin harping on about every tiny, little hiccup in the movie that you can muster. You become a broken-record and the review-reading turns into a chore.
Voicing your opinion is fine but learn to balance your writings, you've outright tipped the scales within 5 'paragraphs' and the rest of the review is basically an arbitrary expansion of this initial viewpoint.

Next time, try taking a neutral standpoint instead of outwardly attacking a film based on your own bias criteria.

I've been a massive sci-fi//horror movie fan for about 20 years now and this, my friend, is one film that I can honestly say is worthy of an in-cinema viewing.

 

[Slycne]

Had an alien ship arrived over the third world, first world nations would be all over it. Nobody would be saying "gee, why don't we let a corperate conglomerate of mercenaries and businessmen run everything". Even if one could not get the technology to work, you'd have people from all over the globe up in the space ship itself trying to reverse engineer it.

The movie hints at the UIO*, which seems to be a global organization with some measure of control over the aliens and their handling. MNU was hired by the South Africans. It's also been 20 years since they cracked this ship open, if all their tech is gene based then most would have given up trying to reverse engineer it or simply retreated to their separate nations to study it.

Someone I was discussing the film with pointed out that the technology also has many destablazing side effects. Imagine is one nation was able to crack interstellar travel, their weapons, etc. If a global organization is in control they could simply be dragging their feet to delay.

You'd also have the aliens themselves being brought all over the globe, as opposed to being dumped in some politically touching refugee hell hole. Studies on biology, linguistics, and everything else. Pretty much every academic on the planet would want to spend some time with these guys.

Yet a key point of this movie is basically that even after "cracking the hull" of the alien ship people just go "oh gee, there is no command circuit and we can't get anything to work" and give up.

Once again it's been 20 years, humans have obviously learned their language and all the basics about them at this point. Your dealing with essentially beings with a lower than high school education, after biology I don't think there would be much to study. Also again the UIO* could be keeping them from being taken.

What's more the "deep secret" of the corperate alliance running things is that they are trying to engineer gene tech to use alien hand weapons and such. Not really a bad thing until you realize that the entire operation is written by morons. See apparently these guys are vivisectioning aliens and such to figure out how they tick. You know, sort of like technology hasn't progressed any since Dr. Mengele in the 1940s and we don't have modern medical devices for analyzing bodies and such (CAT scans, etc...). Research I might add which would have every medical facility on earth doing back flips to get in on. If I was running the "secret" (but really just common sense) research on how to activate the DNA locks on alien tech (while of course other teams would be looking at the science itself in hopes of reverse engineering it) I'd simply be gathering the information collected by like.... oh Yale, rather than slicing up aliens with the cutting edge of nearly 70 year old science. Plus nature being what it is there are going to be corpses to examine without needing to intentionally create them.

I somewhat agree with you on this, I let this go in that a film should be allowed to take some liberties. This seemed very much like a tonal decision to enhance the narrative.

Overall I had a good time with the film, it was visually enjoyable while tacking the ramification of one possible outcome of an alien presence being stuck on Earth.

 

[Jekken6]

Well written, but i disagree with all your points. It was a fantastic movie, so, good day, sir

 

[0thello]

It was enjoyable, anybody who thinks this is even a remotely good allegory of the atrocities of S.A. is deluded or misinformed.

As I Nigerian I was pretty pissed at the portrayals but hey, look who's writing the story... The indigenous S. As were pretty much non-existent (surprise, surprise). They did remarkably well with a $30 million budget. I do hope to see more "big" budget films utilize the African continent but if we're going to have to get cannibalism, witch doctor bitches, dark-continent, clichés for the viewing pleasure of the largely ignorant demographic its aimed at... please spare us.

All in all, watch it in jest, it's not the holy grail of film production or story telling it is however a good Friday night film that is perhaps the best the minds behind it have to offer (which isn't saying much).

 

[Dragonearl]

The movie has it's flaws and I see your points, but I still loved the movie. Still, a pretty solid review on your part.