District 9 some thoughts and questions

[G2309]

I just saw this movie (late I know but i don,t get to the cinema often.
What do you guys think of it? I enjoyed it and would recomend it to anyone. A god engaging story with good characters and better action than I expected.
Questions was it explained why the ship went to Johanesburg? In an interview the directr said he didn't want it to be a political allegory was he serious? How could it not be.
Do you think this would happen if alien refugees turned up? I thought it wasaworrying portrayal of howpeople act. And highlights the suffering and treatment some people still suffer in the world.

 

[Deckerd]

From memory, the thread about this when it came out was almost unanimously in approval.

 

[6079SmithW]

I only saw it once but I thought it was OK. The excessive shaky cam gave me a headache though. It was an interesting twist on the first contact scenario and I suspect had the aliens not been sick they would not have been taken advantage of. It definitely was political allegory. They're making a sequel, district 10. Of note, they decided to green light this instead of the halo movie, a good call in my opinion.

 

[od0_ital]

Questions was it explained why the ship went to Johanesburg?

Probably because the director and the film's star are both from South Africa.

I was at a premiere screenin' in Austin where both men did a Q&A after, and I think the director made a comment about how aliens always go to New York or Los Angeles, and he wanted to do something different. He also pointed out that Johannesburg has about ten or so different languages - no one there speaks more than one or two, but ya have to be able to understand 'em all, which helped with the creation of the Prawns language. No human could speak it, but they could all understand it.

 

[Gepard]

Awesome movie, with an amazing performance from first-time actor Sharlto Copely (SP?) and great visual effects. I recall it drew a lot of comparisons to Avatar around here at the time of its release, due to the similar "big business oppresses CGI aliens and the lunkhead main character defects to their side" premise. For my money, D9 is the far superior use of the premise, and if I had a time machine, I'd go back and make myself see it a third time instead of going to Avatar.

 

[Shazam!]

Why can't you go back in time and watch District 9 for a third time AND Avatar?

 

[Gepard]

Well, because I spent $16 on Avatar that in retrospect I'd rather have spent on D9. I'm bitching about wishing I hadn't wasted money on Avatar, y'see. It's a sad day when passive-agressive cattiness doesn't come across on the internet.

 

[G2309]

Questions was it explained why the ship went to Johanesburg?

Probably because the director and the film's star are both from South Africa.

I was at a premiere screenin' in Austin where both men did a Q&A after, and I think the director made a comment about how aliens always go to New York or Los Angeles, and he wanted to do something different. He also pointed out that Johannesburg has about ten or so different languages - no one there speaks more than one or two, but ya have to be able to understand 'em all, which helped with the creation of the Prawns language. No human could speak it, but they could all understand it.

I dffinately appreciated the change of location, I was just wondering if there was an in story explanation. Not that other alien stories tend to need one.
This is definately better than a Halo movie. I prefer it to Avatar too.

 

[backstept]

the ship could have stalled over the ocean and there would be no movie

 

[Klaus]

I liked it a lot, much better than Avatar which was basically the same story...

 

[Too Much Fun]

Speaking of the "Avatar" comparison, I kind of had the opposite reaction to the two movies, and I don't mean thinking one sucked and the other didn't. I was mildly entertained by "Avatar" for about the first half entirely because of its visual merits, but once its message became clear, I grew disappointed and for the whole second half, I was bored (decent ending, though).

With "District 9", I wasn't very impressed with the first half where they tried to make it 'realistic' and 'documentary-style' showing the news coverage of the extraterrestrial settlement on earth, and I didn't think it was THAT interesting. It was novel, but I would rather follow the life of a character or characters than all this fake news stuff.

When the movie started to focus on the character on the run in the second half, I think it became much more enjoyable to watch. He was a very engaging character who was both funny and sympathetic, and his relationship with one of the aliens was fascinating. I love the action sequence at the end with those "Aliens"/"Robocop"-like battle machines too.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Questions was it explained why the ship went to Johanesburg?

Probably because the director and the film's star are both from South Africa.

I was at a premiere screenin' in Austin where both men did a Q&A after, and I think the director made a comment about how aliens always go to New York or Los Angeles, and he wanted to do something different. He also pointed out that Johannesburg has about ten or so different languages - no one there speaks more than one or two, but ya have to be able to understand 'em all, which helped with the creation of the Prawns language. No human could speak it, but they could all understand it.

I dffinately appreciated the change of location, I was just wondering if there was an in story explanation. Not that other alien stories tend to need one.
This is definately better than a Halo movie. I prefer it to Avatar too.

Well, the ship was malfunctioning. They probably didn't really plan where they were going and just aimed for any city they could.

 

[Sindatur]

I loved it, but, my mom really hated the political nature of the refugees being rounded up in District 9 of Johanasberg, too true to actual history for her taste, and she felt it exploited history.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, it was a bit of allegory.

 

[Anduril]

Fookin' prawns!

Like the OP I just watched this a few weeks ago. Really good movie. Comparing it to Avatar....no. D9 was much better.

 

[Shazam!]

Well, because I spent $16 on Avatar that in retrospect I'd rather have spent on D9. I'm bitching about wishing I hadn't wasted money on Avatar, y'see. It's a sad day when passive-agressive cattiness doesn't come across on the internet.

You're right. I thought you had an actual time machine.





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[Kaijima]

The director of the film is somewhat interested in doing a prequel. Prequels are often a cheap way out, but the specific reason he wants to is interesting: to examine how District 9 is a true alternate history story.

See, people tend to see the movie as a simplistic metaphor for aparteid. Some people even get offended because the aliens are portrayed as being "stupid and dirty", and they think that this is actually some form of latent racism by the "white guy" director... they think the aliens are supposed to represent black people.

The director has basically said though... no, that's not it. The Prawns aren't black people :P Rather, they're just the next man down on the totem pole and unfortunately suffering for it. In the world of District 9, everyone looks down on the aliens - including South Africa's black population.

An alternate history prequel would examine how the alien arrival in South Africa headed off "aparteid" much earlier by giving human beings a new target. If anything, it might offend some folks for different reasons - by showing that the black colored humans joined right in with the pink colored humans in using racism to create a new underclass.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The connective tissue between the aliens and apartheid was much more direct and explicit in "Alive in Joberg," Blomkamp's short film which was the basis for his feature film. For one thing, the short film explicitly mentions apartheid. What's really amazing are the interview answers from some of the "characters" in "Alive in Joberg." The responses, which show a deeply prejudiced view of "aliens," were actually taken from Blomkamp’s interviews with real people about black Nigerians and Zimbabweans.

“I was asking black South Africans about black Nigerians and Zimbabweans. That’s actually where the idea came from was there are aliens living in South Africa, I asked “What do you feel about Zimbabwean Africans living here?” And those answers — they weren’t actors, those are real answers…” source
​

It's a chillingly important concept that was, unfortunately, diffused by the bombast and spectacle of the feature. It's too bad that D9 wasn't as audacious as the short film.

 

[G2309]

The connective tissue between the aliens and apartheid was much more direct and explicit in "Alive in Joberg," Blomkamp's short film which was the basis for his feature film. For one thing, the short film explicitly mentions apartheid. What's really amazing are the interview answers from some of the "characters" in "Alive in Joberg." The responses, which show a deeply prejudiced view of "aliens," were actually taken from Blomkamp’s interviews with real people about black Nigerians and Zimbabweans.

“I was asking black South Africans about black Nigerians and Zimbabweans. That’s actually where the idea came from was there are aliens living in South Africa, I asked “What do you feel about Zimbabwean Africans living here?” And those answers — they weren’t actors, those are real answers…” source
​

It's a chillingly important concept that was, unfortunately, diffused by the bombast and spectacle of the feature. It's too bad that D9 wasn't as audacious as the short film.

thats really interesting I didn't know that. Its a shame the youtube video was taken dow.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

^ Click the "Alive In Joburg" link in the first line of my previous post (or just click here). It takes you straight to Blomkamp's Spy Films site, with the short film itself.