District 9 - Review, Discuss, Commentary ***SPOILERS*** possible

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Captain Craig, Aug 14, 2009.

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District 9 - Your grade

Poll closed Dec 12, 2009.
  1. Excellent

    90 vote(s)
    60.8%
  2. Above Average

    39 vote(s)
    26.4%
  3. Average

    11 vote(s)
    7.4%
  4. Below Average

    5 vote(s)
    3.4%
  5. Poor

    3 vote(s)
    2.0%
  1. NIUPonyBoy

    NIUPonyBoy Captain Captain

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    Jun 1, 2009
    Location:
    IL
    Uh, that's because there are only humans in history.
     
  2. T'Baio

    T'Baio Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2001
    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Oh...you got the joke.

    Good for you. :)
     
  3. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Location:
    Ireland.
    I'm sick of humans being the good guys.

    District 9, Avatar, it's like every movie coming out these days has a human hero at the centre of it.
     
  4. Checkmate

    Checkmate Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2009
    What are you talking about? District 9 didn't have a single "good guy." There wasn't a single redeeming character in the whole movie except, possibly, the alien kid and he was more innocent than good.

    Hell, that's what I liked about the movie. Everyone of the main characters was a worthless piece of shit that deserved everything visited upon them and more.
     
  5. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Location:
    Ireland.
    Poking fun at a post a little above me, chiefly, lamenting the rise of the bad guy humans. That said:

    Nah, it had good guys. Not spotless or flawless good guys, but they were the people we were rooting for against the evil corporation and whose motives at the end were very respectable.
     
  6. The Boy Who Cried Worf

    The Boy Who Cried Worf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Jul 12, 2008
    What about when we fought those aliens you could only see with the funny glasses?
     
  7. melancholymecha

    melancholymecha Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Aug 21, 2002
    someone, somewhere needs to do a District 9/Avatar crossover parody. Robot Chicken maybe...
     
  8. Greylock Crescent

    Greylock Crescent Adventurer Admiral

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    Jun 3, 2009
    Location:
    Walking The Path
    Christopher = Jake Sully = comedy gold
     
  9. Checkmate

    Checkmate Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2009
    Anyone who not only takes pride, but gets overly excited, at the idea of abortion, offers souvenirs of it, and equates it (again, excitedly and gleefully) as popcorn will never be a "good guy" in my book. No matter what he ends up doing later. Especially when the only reason he does it is for purely selfish and delusional reasons.

    Christopher Johnson was almost as bad as Wickus. He stranded and abandoned his people for no apparent reason, left them to rot in squalor and starve to death, but then twenty years later he sees them in a medical lab and comes up with some sob-story about how he has to go home to save them. Maybe he should have thought about that before doing what he did.

    Again, Christopher's son is the only one who showed any signs of being a "good guy." And that was only because he was ignorant of what Wickus and Christopher had done/were doing.
     
  10. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Location:
    Moncton, NB
    Chris didn't abandon anyone, it took him 20 years to develop his intelligence (he wasn't always around as smart as he was) gain the right materials he needed for the fluid (it wasn't the mere amount of fluid he needed, he had to mix the right kinds to make the stuff he needed). He couldn't have done what he was going to do any faster.
     
  11. Checkmate

    Checkmate Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2009
    Where are you coming up with any of that nonsense? Nothing at all in the movie even hinted that he was in the same caste as the other Prawn. It took him 20 years to create more fuel, which he had clearly been doing for the entire 20 years. Meaning he knew exactly what to do from the very beginning. This was only reinforced by the fact that his son, who would have been of the same caste/breeding as Christopher, who also had a natural ability to understand and repair their technology. If it was that easy for them to learn and develop, more of them would have been rocket scientists.

    It was his drop ship. He ditched it from the mothership soon after it arrived. He abandoned his people. He left them to starve and to rot. For no apparent reason whatsoever. You can't even claim it was to create the fuel: He needed their own technology to do that, which he could have done just as easily on the mothership (and probably much faster due to exponentially greater resources and doubtlessly more advanced refining technologies); a mothership of which he could just as easily have parked in orbit, hovering over the moon, or anywhere else he needed that would keep humanity away long enough for him to do what needed to be done. For whatever reason there was to do it. Even if he did have to isolate himself and let his people starve, he was safer and had access to everything he needed while docked to the mothership. There was no reason at the time he abandoned them to abandon them.

    Colossal dicks. Both of them.
     
  12. melancholymecha

    melancholymecha Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2002
    Wikus is sent to evict the Navi from their home tree. :p
     
  13. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2003
    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    I think it telling that based on the percentage more people consider District 9 as EXCELLENT at 61% vs AVATARS 53%.
     
  14. JacksonArcher

    JacksonArcher Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2001
    I certainly enjoyed District 9 over Avatar and a lot of other mainstream films this year.
     
  15. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Location:
    UK
    I think he got it from the Director's commentary. So yes, Christopher was much more the "hero" of the story.

    Wickus was just an ordinary bureaucrat who either didn't really appreciate what he was involved in or found a way to deal with it to get through the day. But that's the whole point of a character arc. By the end he's done a total 180 and is as much a victim as anyone else. No matter how much of a twat he was, I can't say as he deserved what he got...almost, but not quite.
     
  16. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2009
    Location:
    Ireland.
    Me too. There's no question in my mind it covers similar thematic material but does a better job.

    In Avatar's defence, though, Avatar has the bit from Dune where Muad'Dib tames the goddamn sandworm.
    Alright, by Muad'Dib I mean Jakesully and by sandworm I mean the turok and ikran scenes, but hush.
    District 9 isn't quite as jammed full of cool things as Avatar is... but it's a much stronger film regardless.
     
  17. Hyperspace05

    Hyperspace05 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2005
    I think it is also telling how the like/dislikes of both films often are affected by the hype (or lack thereof). It would have been interesting experiment to see how the grades would appear if D9 had been the hyped film, and Avatar came out of nowhere. :)

    But they are different films, and will appeal to different sensibilities. I voted both as 'excellent', but Avatar wins out. Still, both are my top 2 theater experiences this year.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
  18. Base_Delta_Zero

    Base_Delta_Zero Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    May 4, 2004
    Location:
    Maine
    Yeah, but that's only because...oh. Oh, wait, you're doing a thing. I get it.