DISTRICT 9 Post-Release - Page 6

This movie is really good, but I can't shake the fact that it's got nearly as many problems as it does great things...I can't say the same thing about something like The Terminator, or CE3K, or Star Wars, or Back to the Future, or Robocop, or The Matrix, etc....all considered classics, which is what D9 is being touted as....a movie has got to be firing on all cylinders (story, plot, characterization, direction, music, visuals) to get there. D9 is really good. A nice Blu-Ray in a few months. Next.

It was damaged and couldn't fly...it took 20 years to repair it...otherwise they wouldn't have waited so long. I believe it's mentioned in the film.

Sure, that's not what you said though. Fixing a ship is orders of magnitude more attainable than building one from scratch underground. Given that Blomkamp has explained outright what seemed to be suggested or was implicit in the film, that the species has a natural hive structure and that if the upper echelons are wiped out then some of the drones will begin to evolve leadership behaviour as a survival mechanism, I'm more than happy with that part of the story.

I'm not saying the film doesn't have any faults, just that I disagree with this one you're picking on, although maybe it should have been made more explicit becaiuse clearly some people didn't pick up on it. But I don't think it has any more faults (Xions's post above does well to address many of the issues that some people are having with it) than acknowledged classics like Robocop, Back To The Future (which is awesome fun but almost any time-travel film has massive issues and BTTF is no exception) or The Matrix (also awesome fun, also with plot conveniences and contrivances strung throughout and uniformly one-note hambone performances).

Even the classics have flaws, but we love them anyway because the stuff they get right is just so right. It's early days but right now District 9 seems to me to more than fit the bill.

It's too soon to be calling this a classic, but it was a fantastic experience first time through. Far more intense than I thought it would be, too.

I wonder how it will be on repeat viewings, though - especially viewings with a reasonable chunk of time between them. There were a lot of set/production details that will reward multiple viewings; I'm just wondering how the main story and performances will hold up.

I can't believe this was made for only $30 million. Looks like it cost 4+ times that, easily. While I know GI Joe was likely going for a deliberately cartoony look, still pretty mind blowing how much better D9's CGI was.

However, I'm really glad I went. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to Blomkamp's next.

Fuel. Wasn't damaged, needed fuel. Specialized fuel that took 20 years to collect.

I didn't get hung up on the technical aspects of where and why. I was too involved with the characters. Christopher Johnson may be my favorite character of the year if it weren't for his awesome son. And Wikus too.

My favorite film so far this year, and I think it's been a steadily good year.

Random musings...

Good movie. That's all. Loved the death by flying pig. I can't believe there was NO practical alien effects. They CGI was faultless. Love Wilkus, Christopher and Baby. Thought Stone Cold Steve Agent was a bit too one dimensional, and I'm left wondering if they'll sequelize the pending payback. Three years indeed.

Also the final shot of Wilkus/Brundlefly in the ghetto making them little flowers was touching.

Good movie.

You really can't come up with problems for those movies?

Specifically, 20 years to collect a sufficient quantity as to be useful.

Oh, and I must have missed it, but how did the alien end up being called Christopher?

Saw it early on Saturday. BLOWN AWAY. It easily met (or even surpassed) my excitement. Of course it had its flaws, but I didn't think any of them were enough for me to feel uncomfortable agreeing w/ Devin's 10/10. It was hands down the most fun I've had watching a movie in years.

They all had assigned "human" names, or at least that's what I gathered during the eviction. Wilkus was calling out human names at each door.

Best summary I've seen yet.

Thanks, Bucho. I do agree that the ending is fine as is. I guess by the end I was just like "holy fuck, how can this possibly be bigger" and then I started thinking that Christopher would show up with a fleet of prawns and prawn-Wikus would be there to greet him and they'd clasp appendages and start settling the hash of South Africa bullet-ball style.

Not really. I don't want to believe that this imaginary second movie would be an invasion story though I can see how Blomkamp could make one hell of a good chimera out of the vast assortment of such movies. I mean, District 9's only real flaw (to me) is that it's somewhat derivative but I have to dismiss that as a flaw because it does exactly what a good movie does with familiar tropes: makes them its own and presents them in a somewhat fresh, exciting way. I think he could pull that off with an invasion story.

That said, Christopher is obviously primed to be some kind of prawn elite and he doesn't appear all that bloodthirsty so we might extrapolate that into a characterization of prawns as a species. Perhaps they aren't all that warlike even though they have crazy weapons, so an invasion would not be their cup of tea. But then, they'd be pretty fucking angry, again if Christopher is any indication.

I can't really be sure what my ideal sequel looks like except that it begins with the aliens coming back and with Wikus waiting with his follower prawns. I would think he'd be turned human again and be an ambassador between species, preventing the total destruction/invasion thing from taking complete hold even if it is an element of the story.

Like I said, I can envision an epic thread discussing what happens next. In fact, maybe we should start one? I wonder where it would go is all.

At my theater we had "Human Only" signs hung up on the doors and small hallway leading into the screening room. I thought that was a pretty cool touch.

I liked it a lot, even thought it wasn't the movie I was expecting. It felt like two different movies (count me among the people who have a bit of a problem with how the film works as a faux-documentary until it decides that it doesn't need that structure anymore, in which it becomes a great, fun B-movie).

Surprised at how violent it was, but surprised in a kind of delighted way. The movie seems to want its cake and eat it too (condemning these companies and war lords for their greed with weapons manufacturing while allowing our main character to kick their asses with BIG FUCKING ALIEN GUNS) but ah well, it was still a great ride. Reminded me of Verhoven a lot. Like Robocop or Starship Troopers.

I think the Verhoven comparison is really astute, actually. Especially when you think about how gloriously violent it is alongside its earnest sociopolitical commentary.

I thought it was clear that CJ & Son were special. The director did back that up with a few comments in interviews.

The lil guy fixed the hologram projector, so he was obviously technically inclined. If Christopher was educated on the ins and outs of eviction policy, he was probably higher up on the Prawn totem pole.

Jordan? You mean Marshall?

Well, in the movie Wikus tells his cronies that CJ is obviously "sharper" than other prawns.

I kind of mentioned this in my post way back, but I preferred the ambiguity offered by the movie over Blomkamp's too-pat explanation for Christopher's intelligence and the general intelligence of the other aliens.

Specifically, I like the idea that NMU either completely underestimated the aliens as a species or were intentionally propagating the myth that they were sub-intelligent, so that the general human population would see them as animals and have no problem mistreating them. Eventually, the mistreatment and lack of resources results in a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts - a lower class forced to focus on bare necessities with little time for education (aside from rare exceptions like Christopher, who manage to stay focused on the task of leaving).

Otherwise, you run into some very sticky moral questions the minute you start drawing the all-too-easy parallels to apartheid (i.e., the people are justified in their generally low estimation of the intelligence of the population being discriminated against?).

Yeah, I like the idea that even though MNU (and the rest of the world, really) view the aliens scavenging as less then civilized, it's possible that all they're doing is searching and searching and searching for a way home, picking up things that seem useful (to them, in their culture) as they go. They might not all be as smart as Christopher, but then again there might be some that are even smarter.

Yeah, the garbage-picking is seen as lowly, but it definitely had a purpose.

Reminds me of the old adage... "One man's trash is another prawn's treasure/fuel/mutagen".

My grandad used to say that.

I think the element DaveB is discussing is still there. Clearly these creatures are sentient beings and not talking shellfish with the intelligence of housepets. They can use tools, build complex machines, etc. I think the reason humans so easily mistreat the prawns is a lack of understanding because this really is an alien species even though Blomkamp wisely retains some anthropomorphizing.

The prawns simply don't care about the same things we do and lack understanding of fundamental social concepts, as discussed by the talking heads in the earlier parts of the movie. Most of them probably don't understand individualism, property rights, etc which makes developing a shorthand with them rather difficult. They'd probably be better understood by tribal peoples than by contemporary global society.

So even though they are evolving a new command structure, they are still being pegged as subintelligent as opposed to being a completely different KIND of intelligence which is closer to the truth.

I hope that is a good synthesis for you, DaveB.

Although it's ripe for a sequel, I kinda want to leave DISTRICT 9 as it is. If it turns into some kind of invasion story I'll be disappointed. I think it ends perfectly.

See, I hate that. No offense but I have to question why Blomkamp hasn't earned the right to our good will with a potential sequel. Like, why should we be disappointed by whatever he does even if it is the logical and predictable choice of an invasion story?

I know we've all been burned by disappointing sequels before but there seems to be this prevailing attitude of MAKE EVERYTHING SELF-CONTAINED which is unnecessary if we're talking about an obviously gifted filmmaker who is not conventional in any of the ways we'd normally attribute to a "hollywood" director.

So I guess I just don't understand why people are like "no way a sequel would be good" or "I'll be disappointed". It's exactly that kind of mentality that will make you disappointed in whatever might be done because you're so hung up on that perfect first meal that you never want to risk going back to the same restaurant and trying something else.

I think the movie insists on a sequel. There is no way this story is over.

I don't think it's ripe for a sequel. The story has been told. Anything further would just be hollow spectacle.

I think that works, but I still find it a little troubling that, based on the interview, Blomkamp intends for us to take the "drones without a queen" explanation at face value. No matter where you go from there, the idea that most aliens are genetically predisposed to needing direction makes the racial discrimination subtext pretty problematic.

Again, this isn't really a slam on the movie, since the movie leaves things slightly more ambiguous and even invites interpretations like yours and mine, but rather a criticism of Blomkamp's explanation.

Yeah, I'm perfectly OK with the ending as is: this was Wikus' story, and it was told.

I'm not saying Blomkamp couldn't do a fine sequel: I'm simply tired of the notion that any genre film, good bad or indifferent, MUST be turned into an ongoing series. Let's see what else he's got to offer.

Seconded. I'd rather see Blomkamp tell other stories. I can think of a certain rebooted franchise that's in limbo I'd be very comfortable with him taking over.

See, any sequel's going to be micromanaged. They'll need more money to tell their story, and with more money comes the dilution of the story. "Let's make the humans more sympathetic." "Why are the aliens so ugly? The audience can't relate." "Can't splatter the lens like that. We need the pre-teen audience." Fuck that. Leave it alone.

I don't agree with it being problematic from a non-PC perspective, which Blomkamp clearly has. He isn't interested in worrying about people getting upset by that parallel since I think he'd argue that there are certain parallels but it's not all-inclusive. That the aliens work this way is probably part of the world-building as opposed to some kind of statement about black South Africans. It's an explanation for the behavior of the species, their inability to fight back or whatever given their superior technology, etc. If you get hung up on what it might say about black people, you're taking the allegory too far.

I don't understand your opinion at all, Brad. The movie leaves us with Wikus having transformed into a prawn and a 3 year timetable upon which CJ returns with more prawns with two goals: liberate his people and fix Wikus. This story is not told.

The assertion that all it would be is "hollow spectacle" is just knee-jerk stupidity revolving around the exact sequel aversion attitude Hollywood has seeded us with that I was talking about. You might try to argue that assertion but probably know that it's baseless. My saying so will probably invoke some kind of further argument and by all means, let's have it and more to the point: why is it never there in the first place with posts like yours?

EDITED TO ADD:

See now that's the kind of explanation for this mentality that I require to take it seriously. But I think you're wrong to assume this stuff, Alan. Blomkamp himself has talked about going outside the studio system again for his follow-up movie (though it is another unrelated SF movie so those who want that first or period should be pleased). There's really no reason why he'd have to compromise his vision any more than he did this time around unless he chooses to get into bed with Hollywood and I believe he knows better and I think he says as much. Please offer a better reason why a sequel shouldn't be made.

In a way, I'd hope any sequel would end with Wikus choosing to remain as he is. He's become a better human being as a prawn than he ever was as a human being.

What more is there to tell? They come back and rescue the rest of the Prawns? They come back and wipe out humanity? Either way it's just a generic sci-fi action movie. The story ends at the right point.

There are plot points that have not been wrapped up, but that doesn't mean the story isn't told.

It's not like we can't extrapolate what happens next.

It's because this story was about Wiklus' growth as a person, not about a big alien escape. It was about a man reassessing how he views the world, and himself in relation to that world, and reassessing what he believes in. What happens next is irrelevant. It's not important to the actual story. It's just meaningless plot.

That was the impression I was under. He didn't forget that there's a war going on outside his little tin shack. He saw the arm as a means to an end and considered consuming it to be the key to victory.

What really impressed me about that climactic battle is that in the midst of an awesome mechasuit, and mercenaries and guards becoming very wet and splattered versions of mercenaries and guards, I never lost sight of the ideas that the movie had established and founded itself on earlier. It's a lot of fun to watch Wikus, the buffoonish (sorry, no better word to describe him) administrator, fight back against the MNU-- but it's also sort of horrific to witness the explosion of violence that MNU's greed, ambition, and barbaric cruelty has led to. Yes, I wanted to stand up and shout, "THAT GUY JUST GOT A PIG LAUNCHED AT HIM AND THE PIG SENT THE GUY THROUGH A SHACK AND HE DIED AND I FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR", but the damage he was able to inflict, on his own, on his fellow man was sort of scary. We actually want technology that's capable of reducing a human being to marinara sauce (the lumpy kind)?

It also simultaneously makes the aliens a little more frightening or curious, depending on how you look at it. I don't know if I got the impression that their race is war-like, so I'm sort of given to thinking about what the hell their race's history looks like (pre-Earth) that they ever developed weapons capable of that kind of destruction. They didn't just spring up out of the ground with a mothership the size of a small town and an armory that would make Predator envious. What the hell have they come across in their history that gave them a reason to engineer that caliber of firepower?

Yes it does, Richard Dickson. The story of Wikus and CJ is not over, though it could be left like this and we'd all probably be more or less satisfied. I'm not sitting here demanding a sequel for the sake of a sequel. I believe this story can and should continue and potentially wrap-up those hanging "plot points".

What is this movie at all, Brad? It can be pithily summarized as: South Africa Alien Nation with lightning guns. Based on the premise alone, D9 could have been a generic scifi action movie. That it isn't has nothing to do with some magical recipe for success and everything to do with Neill Blomkamp's creative choices in telling this story.

Unless the sequel was made by Bret Ratner, your assertion holds no water. Of course Blomkamp could screw the pooch but he deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point. Your unwillingness to provide that is because you are a jilted lover whose heart has not yet healed. I know that the SW prequels and the Matrix Sequels hurt you, pal, but it'll all be okay.

EDITED TO ADD:

Ridiculous. If the movie were 3 hours long and showed more of Wikus' growth as a "human" in his new form with additional stuff concerning CJ coming back and whatever else and ending with Wikus being returned to human form and now an advocate of the prawns and an all-around decenter sort of guy... I doubt you'd be like "MEANINGLESS PLOT!" if it was all handled with the same assurance of execution that the movie we do have contains.

In short, it is not meaningless plot but merely an extension of what we've already seen. If you think Wikus has no character arc beyond this point I don't know what to say except: you're wrong.

Hey, how come you autistically refer to Dickson by his full name, but not me? I'm insulted.

Autistically? In the interest of civil conversation I'll just pretend you didn't say that.

I like you better than Richard Dickson. I believe we can be on first-name basis.

Wait, no. I just think Richard Dickson is the kind of name that needs to be reiterated in its entirety. If I knew him, I would always call him "Richard Dickson" and never "Richard" or "Dick Dickson". Even if we were the best of friends. Your name, I'm sorry to say, is less fun to type/say and should be shortened.

In fact, can I just call you "Bra" from now on. FOUR WHOLE LETTERS is too long.

Hell, worse comes to worst, he could have just cut the hand off, shoved it into his weapon of choice, and used it that way.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't work or they would have done that by now. If it did, the Prawns would be dead and they wouldn't be doing the experiments. Even Wikus said as they were about to cut his arm off, "That doesn't work!"

Well since you can't seem to wrap your head around the concept of a dramatic arc, I'm not surprised.

No, I think we should all call him Dick Dickson from now on.

Xion, when human beings oppress other human beings, the first thing the oppressing party does is call into question the intelligence/humanity of those they're oppressing. There are obvious parallels being drawn between how Wikus and others think of the aliens' collective intelligence and how other oppressors have thought of other subjugated group's collective intelligence. We see this over and over again in how Wikus treats the aliens he's evicting, how he talks about them to the camera, etc.

This parallel is very clearly meant to exist - I assume we agree on this?

Now, you're telling me that, despite the initial parallel being quite obvious, it ceases to exist at the exact point where the apartheid-era South African government (or slave owners in the U.S. or pretty much any indigenous population killing/enslaving colonial government) was wrong about the parties they oppressed and Wikus and NMU were correct about the parties they oppress?

This isn't a matter of "PC." PC would come into play more if Blomkamp were actually trying to get us to buy that subjugated populations are actually savages in need of leadership, and I don't believe he is. It's more likely just a bit of sloppiness. This is one of the most straightforward analogies in the movie, and it smacks of apologism to say that it breaks off exactly at the point where it would conveniently avoid suggesting something unsavory and, yes, un-PC.

I'm not clear why the "sequel" question becomes such a heated one. Barring 2012 actually being The Apocalypse, a sequel will be made, so the reasons why that is or is not a good idea don't seem worth getting exercised over. Even if Blomkamp doesn't care to do it, my guess is that they'll make him a very generous offer to let someone else take it on.

I mean, it's not as though one poster somehow persuading another of their rightness will have even the slightest effect on whether or not that actually happens.

You guys sure would be trailblazers with that one.

I didn't say they don't have problems. All movies do. But those are considered pinnacles of their respective genres for obvious reasons. D9 is being put in the same category. It doesn't belong there. It's a flawed gem of a movie.