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DISTRICT 9 Post-Release - Page 19

post #901 of 915
2/28/10 at 7:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
Really? I thought it was inspiring. Despite everything, Wikus is still around.
Maybe it's the romantic in me but the fact he could not be with his wife (who he clearly loved) but still thought of her enough to leave her home made gifts was pretty sad.

To Tomas Mejor. I was arguing it was a combination of both, the biological change and a "change of heart", rather than just one or the other.
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post #902 of 915
2/28/10 at 7:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Savage View Post
To Tomas Mejor. I was arguing it was a combination of both, the biological change and a "change of heart", rather than just one or the other.
I've always felt that if a movie doesn't clearly express one option or the other as "the truth", then arguing that one option is more true than the other is pointless. The ambiguity is the point. I find that the question of whether Total Recall ends on a fantasy or a reality more interesting than either of the answers. I feel the same way here. To take one side or the other is just writing your own story.

And I agree with DaveB about Blomkamp. He should stop talking now. In fact, I worry about all these young filmmakers who've grown up in a world in which filmmakers are expected to talk endlessly about their projects. It's not always best for the story.
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post #903 of 915
2/28/10 at 7:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Savage View Post
Maybe it's the romantic in me but the fact he could not be with his wife (who he clearly loved) but still thought of her enough to leave her home made gifts was pretty sad.
He's still alive; biology aside, he's still "himself"; Christopher will return.

Where there is life, there is hope.
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post #904 of 915
2/28/10 at 7:57pm
I appreciate the dialogue. I won't belabor the point.

Kinda like 'Moon'. What radiation?
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post #905 of 915
2/28/10 at 8:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
The ambiguity is the point. I find that the question of whether Total Recall ends on a fantasy or a reality more interesting than either of the answers. I feel the same way here. To take one side or the other is just writing your own story.

And I agree with DaveB about Blomkamp. He should stop talking now. In fact, I worry about all these young filmmakers who've grown up in a world in which filmmakers are expected to talk endlessly about their projects. It's not always best for the story.
Oh god, yes.

On a similar note, I actually found it kinda annoying that Aronofsky is all coy about 'explaining' The Fountain, though the coyness isn't what I have a problem with. I would be fine with that. It's him putting out afterward that there IS some definite answer to people's questions about the film I take issue with.
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post #906 of 915
2/28/10 at 8:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
The more I hear about Blomkamp explaining dramatic beats of his story with biological details that aren't referenced in the film, the more inclined I am to put him with Richard Kelly in the "Would you just shut up already before you ruin your own movie?" category.
Yeah, this. Blomkamp can direct a movie that I'll watch the shit out of, but goddamn-- his little explanations about the film drive me nuts. Greg David's point about today's cinematic culture pressuring young directors to over-explain their art rings very, very true.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I've always felt that if a movie doesn't clearly express one option or the other as "the truth", then arguing that one option is more true than the other is pointless. The ambiguity is the point. I find that the question of whether Total Recall ends on a fantasy or a reality more interesting than either of the answers. I feel the same way here. To take one side or the other is just writing your own story.
Absolutely. Very well said. That ambiguity is one of the film's best strengths, not something that should be taken for granted.
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post #907 of 915
2/28/10 at 10:17pm
I didn't even consider Wikus' change of heart an ambiguous point while I was watching the movie. Maybe I've just been conditioned by the dramatic conventions of fiction and film to believe that when a protagonist emotionally evolves over the course of a narrative, it's autonomous character development, not mere plot machinery.

I suppose District 9 never makes it clear that it's NOT biological imperative that drives Wikus to ultimately relate to the prawns. But as character autonomy is the default position, I'm inclined to go with that even over ambiguity, despite what Blomkamp says. Otherwise, you can claim ambiguity for character development in any transformation-oriented movie or story, even those in which it's decidedly not part of the text (say, The Metamorphosis, to use a similarly buggy example).

It's especially annoying of Blomkamp to put it all on biology in this case, since we don't really know much about the Prawns, thus we can't really say whether Wikus ends up intellectually or emotionally "Prawn"-like. It's not like the human incarnation of a werewolf slowly taking on wolf-like qualities or Seth Brundle giving in to his fly side.
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post #908 of 915
2/28/10 at 10:39pm
Personally, I don't think the ambiguity lies in biological vs emotional (in which case I'd be inclined to agree with you; emotional evolution is the default state of fiction). For me, it's just a matter of whether he sides with the prawns because he's truly learned to empathize with them, or out of self-interest, as they're the only ones who will help him.

I find this a much more interesting issue than the biological imperative, since as you say, we aren't given enough information on that inside the confines of the story, which is the only source that matters.
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post #909 of 915
3/1/10 at 6:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
I didn't even consider Wikus' change of heart an ambiguous point while I was watching the movie.
I have to admit that I didn't ether until after I came in here and read the post release thread. My initial reaction was that he simply stopped being a spineless fool and actually understood what was going on around him. It wasn't until I read other people opinions that my theory changed.

Given that the movie is an analogy for Apartheid it would make more sense that it’s an emotional response rather than a biological one, I just think the changes he went through helped to steer his emotions in the right direction.
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post #910 of 915
3/1/10 at 6:56am
Yeah, its not as if Wikus changes all that much throughout the course of the film in order to chalk that change up to biology. Guy's a dick for 95% of the film. I just assumed it was resignment to his shitty situation that moves Wikus to help Christopher at the end, not some chemically-derived alien empathy.

Ah well, there's what the filmmaker's intent is and what he chooses to communicate. No sense in him over-explaining it since both interpretations are supported by the film.
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post #911 of 915
3/1/10 at 12:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
Personally, I don't think the ambiguity lies in biological vs emotional (in which case I'd be inclined to agree with you; emotional evolution is the default state of fiction). For me, it's just a matter of whether he sides with the prawns because he's truly learned to empathize with them, or out of self-interest, as they're the only ones who will help him.

I find this a much more interesting issue than the biological imperative, since as you say, we aren't given enough information on that inside the confines of the story, which is the only source that matters.
Yeah, the empathy/self-interest ambiguity's definitely there. That's always the question with narratives that "force" protagonists to empathize (for instance, the Twilight Zone movie vignette with racist Vic Morrow becoming Jewish and getting chased by the Nazis, becoming black and getting chased by the Klan, etc.).
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post #912 of 915
7/23/10 at 2:25am
WETA rules, but $599 gall-damn dollars? It's not even a foot tall:

http://www.wetanz.com/the-exosuit
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post #913 of 915
10/4/10 at 11:41am
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/...8&viewall=true
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post #914 of 915
6/3/12 at 3:16pm

Just saw this a second time. Still holds up: fresh, gutsy, funny, cool, a fantastic lead performance, and the subtext is a legit debate starter. What more could you want from your sci-fi?

 

Only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that lame thing of having 'fuck' in practically every line of dialogue. I guess some people must enjoy that, but after a while it just makes me wish they'd shut up, like one of those people who can't finish a sentence without going "umm" or "err". I mean I know that's kind of the point with Wikus at least, but still.

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post #915 of 915
6/3/12 at 5:33pm

Oh I love it. I include it with Moon and Sunshine in my trinity of awesome recent sci-fi.

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