Early District 9 Reviews

[Captain Craig]

I saw this at a sneak last night.
Is this going to be the discussion thread or is just an anticipation thread?

Don't want to say anything and spoil anyone.

I'll just say I liked it and would rate it easily ABOVE AVERAGE.

 

[Blue_Trek]

I saw this at a sneak last night.
Is this going to be the discussion thread or is just an anticipation thread?

Don't want to say anything and spoil anyone.

I'll just say I liked it and would rate it easily ABOVE AVERAGE.

Maybe one of our MODS can now switch the title to just "District 9 Reviews"

 

[Daneel]

I saw this at a sneak last night.
Is this going to be the discussion thread or is just an anticipation thread?

I'd say this is just an anticipation thread, so no spoilers please. Maybe you could start a grading/discussion thread, Captain Craig.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I told my dad I'd go see it with him next week. Can't wait.

 

[melancholymecha]

Also most of the times Ive seen gore has been on a small tv, not on the big screen in the dark. I dont know if that will have a totally different effect on me...

Umm, okay?

theres a difference (to me at least) b/w seeing a scary movie on a small 27 inch screen in your home and seeing it in a giant screen in the dark with full theater sound...

I'm honestly surprised that fictional gore still bothers people in this day and age. It's understandable to be disturbed by the real thing, but come on. Should something like Shindler's List bother you? Yeah. Should exploding heads in a Star Wars-y movie? No.

why shouldnt someone feel disgusted/shocked/freaked-out by watching something gorey? even if they know it isnt real?

 

[Trubinator]

Umm, okay?

theres a difference (to me at least) b/w seeing a scary movie on a small 27 inch screen in your home and seeing it in a giant screen in the dark with full theater sound...

I'm honestly surprised that fictional gore still bothers people in this day and age. It's understandable to be disturbed by the real thing, but come on. Should something like Shindler's List bother you? Yeah. Should exploding heads in a Star Wars-y movie? No.

why shouldnt someone feel disgusted/shocked/freaked-out by watching something gorey? even if they know it isnt real?

It's no knock to you personally. I just figured most would be used to it by now given that every other film jams gore down our throats to some degree. Even the average PG-13 film these days has more violence than the R-Rated film of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Just saw a midnight showing. It's got some serious oversight problems, conceptually speaking. But on a technical standpoint (cinematography, VFX, action, characterization) it works fairly well.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Just came back from a midnight showing. District 9 is easily one of the best films I've seen all year, and along with Star Trek and Moon, it's been one hellueva year for sci-fi.

 

[MetalPants]

Saw it myself. I don't think it is an "OMFG go see teh movie it rox!!!!1111" type of thing, but yeah, a good flick. worth the price of admission.

 

[Trubinator]

I caught the midnight showing as well ... lots of talent at work in the movie. The director is clearly somebody we should have on our radar, and the guy who played Wikus was quite good. But the movie was also disappointing overall. It tried to do too many things and in the process was unable to do any of them very well. Perhaps on a second viewing, things will be more clear. But after digesting things, at present, I'm giving it 2/4 stars.

 

[Warped9]

The idea of making the aliens loathesome while still having them mistreated (as I understand from the reviews) could really test audiences' capacity to sympathize with something like that. Really, how many people are bothered with the death of insects or sharks or lobsters or whatever you care to name?

On the other hand someone at work commented that he thought those wavy things on the front of their face made him think of Zoidberg from Futurama. Oh, so that's how they got here.

 

[Starbreaker]

It's not a good movie until Armond White writes a pretentious negative review!

It's officially certified awesome now.

 

[chrisspringob]

The idea of making the aliens loathesome while still having them mistreated (as I understand from the reviews) could really test audiences' capacity to sympathize with something like that. Really, how many people are bothered with the death of insects or sharks or lobsters or whatever you care to name?

That's what's brilliant about it. If they'd shown any group of actual humans being persecuted as they are in the movie, then the audience (or at least, pretty much any modern day Western audience) would instantly know to sympathize with them and the whole thing would seem black and white. But by making them actually non-human (and somewhat grotesque non-humans) the viewers' sympathies are tested in a way that they otherwise wouldn't be.

 

[Kaijima]

The ploy to test viewers' capacity for empathy is a great mindjob. I found for myself that the "prawns" where kind of scary and a bit gross at first glance but sure enough, after the encounter with the leading alien character who is capable of more intelligent interaction, I did come to see him as a person by the end of the movie.

 

[USS Mariner]

Best. Movie. Of 2009.

Give this thing an Oscar, and Copley needs a cadre of whores now..

 

[Kaijima]

Spoiler thoughts:

The movie works for me because it isn't a shockingly original story, but instead features some classic tropes told with a fresh spin and a heartfelt conviction.

Spoiler: District 9

Wikus' transformation and his eventual fate is both tragic and poetic - a human gets to gain empathy by becoming an alien but not cloying. Chris (the alien) and his promise to return in three years is both hopeful, and ominous because the story leaves you wondering: the aliens have superior technology and could probably raze the Earth. Will Wikus' sacrifice at the end cause Chris to tell his people that humanity is worth negotiating with? Or will an epic fleet appear over District 10 after laying waste to everything in their way? You can practically see Chris thinking in the final scene as he pilots the ship, mulling over his experience.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Can someone tell me, who has seen the film, that the impression I have sort of gotten about this film from trailers, is wrong?

That the film is basically a multi million dollar Bush-bashing romp, and that "District 9" is like a zone in Iraq, the people hunting the aliens are like American soldiers, and that they are fighting us because we envaded their planet. Please tell me this is wrong.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ We didn't invade the aliens' homeworld. Their ship came to Earth on its own.

Spoiler: District 9

a ship full of refugees, perhaps on autopilot, since I believe it's implied that the aliens on the ship can't function on their own - they're like worker drones without a leader. That's why conditions on the mothership were so utterly squalid.

 

[USS Mariner]

Can someone tell me, who has seen the film, that the impression I have sort of gotten about this film from trailers, is wrong?

That the film is basically a multi million dollar Bush-bashing romp, and that "District 9" is like a zone in Iraq, the people hunting the aliens are like American soldiers, and that they are fighting us because we envaded their planet. Please tell me this is wrong.

Dead-fucking wrong.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Can someone tell me, who has seen the film, that the impression I have sort of gotten about this film from trailers, is wrong?

That the film is basically a multi million dollar Bush-bashing romp, and that "District 9" is like a zone in Iraq, the people hunting the aliens are like American soldiers, and that they are fighting us because we envaded their planet. Please tell me this is wrong.

Dead-fucking wrong.

Congratulations, Mr. Laser Beam, who managed to answer with TACT.

 

[chrisspringob]

Can someone tell me, who has seen the film, that the impression I have sort of gotten about this film from trailers, is wrong?

That the film is basically a multi million dollar Bush-bashing romp, and that "District 9" is like a zone in Iraq, the people hunting the aliens are like American soldiers, and that they are fighting us because we envaded their planet. Please tell me this is wrong.

Couldn't be farther off. The humans didn't invade the aliens' planet. The aliens simply got stranded on Earth, and the humans herded them into camps. One can view it as an allegory for every ethnic conflict in human history, but there's no specific parallel with Bush and Iraq, unless the viewer happens to view every story about ethnic conflict through the lens of Bush and Iraq.