District 9: Not as smart as it wants to be but much cleverer than it could have been.

[RandySF]

http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/District-9

Not as smart as it wants to be but much cleverer than it could have been, District 9 is a kind of gross-out laboratory of sociologically-minded science fiction tropes updated for the post-Cloverfield generation. A first-contact scenario that eschews angelic choirs and glowing wonder for muddy corruption, the film threads enough thoughtful commentary into its whirligig media-fractured action plot to mostly make up for its lapses into cliché.

(snip)

Relatively low-budget for the impressively epic scope that it delivers ($30 million by some accounts, no doubt vouchsafed by the film's producer, Peter Jackson), District 9 has an admirably grungy, guerilla aesthetic about it that keeps the script's darker overtones from getting too oppressive. With its cast of South African unknowns and a story that's less insterested in crowd-pleasing set pieces than blatant socio-political analogies (to tribal warfare, corporate greed, racism, and even genocide), it also shows a willingness to use genre tactics for more serious purposes, rather than just as an end in themselves.

[goodboy]

1. I can't wait to see this movie. (nt)

[trumad]

2. Is it good though?

[RandySF]

4. I will know when I see it

I will say that I'm impressed with the ad campaign. Her in SF, I scrtched my head wondering what the "Humans Only" signs were about on the bus stops. That and similar signs on the sides of the buses ("No aliens allowed on bus") kind of gave it a feel of what it might be like, if you take a moment to suspend reality.

[Onceuponalife]

8. Oh, yes it is very good

But since we usually disagree, you'll probably hate it lol.

[Posteritatis]

14. It's very difficult to watch at points, but I really liked it (nt)

[petronius]

3. Going to see it this afternoon - I have high hopes...

I liked Moon, and it would be really nice to get two good new non-cheesy SF films in one summer. :)

[Forkboy]

5. Intelligent sci-fi movies are as rare as a dog that speaks Norwegian.

Hopefully this will be one of the exceptions. It looks good to me.

[AllenVanAllen]

10. I thought the dog was Swede Mac?

[Forkboy]

11. Me want!

My parents raised Huskies when I was little. I'm more a cat guy now, but I'll always love Huskies. If I lived someplace in the country I'd get one in a heartbeat.

[AllenVanAllen]

12. They are pretty awesome dogs.

My neighbor has two and one of them is huge! I think it may be part wolf.

[MercutioATC]

6. Going to see it in 10 minutes...I'll report back.

[MercutioATC]

7. Definitely a smart movie. More social commentary than sci-fi.

Not at all what I expected, but it was great.

[petronius]

9. Agreed, we just saw it today. I was very happy with it

I liked how some very disturbing stuff was presented so casually - like Wikus' upbeat discussion of abortion - although my wife was a bit squicked out by some of the gore. I'll almost certainly watch it again...

[Araxen]

13. A movie that makes you think

There's not too many of these kind of movies nowadays sadly. Definite must see movie.

[FarrenH]

15. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE

And its not just because I'm South African. In fact that's kind of a negative because we tend to loathe our own accents on film - although I've noticed there is a tendency with white SAn accents in film to lean towards an Afrikaans-speaker's accenting of English, while most English-speaking white SAns have a blander accent and in some parts of the country its more remnant of British Empire-era hot-potato English.

My primary reason is that, if you read the more intelligent, lucid comments on the youtube trailer, or a bunch of blog entries that have already been posted, a lot of viewers are giving it a 10/10 and putting it up there with Blade Runner. And I like intelligent Sci-fi with lots of subtext. I'm not a huge Jackson fan but thats mainly because my only exposure is LOTR and I basically snored through that (I read it 5 times when I was a kid before the creatively-impoverished copyfest that is most of modern fantasy just ruined it for me, nowadays I hear "Dwarf" or "Elf" and cringe). But Jackson only produced it, while Blomkamp directed it (never heard of him, but willing to give him a try).

Sadly it opened over there before it opened here, so its not in cinemas yet, which is a bit of a cheek for an SA movie. Perhaps they were cogniscent of the less than favorable impression we have of our own industry and thought it would do much better here if it won foreign praise first?

[shadowknows69]

16. Just saw it last night. Highly reccomend it.

[shadowknows69]

17. Here's a link to the original short film District 9 was based on.

Click on the picture to watch.

<http://rimworlds.com/theclassicsciencefictionchannel/?p=2239>


ETA putting this in a seperate thread too.

[and-justice-for-all]

18. This film was great..nt