Not much is known about the movie's plot. It is, however, known to be based on Alive in Joburg, a short film (produced by Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley, Simon Hansen and Shanon Worley; Sharlto Copley also portrayed one of the interviewed policemen) about aliens landing in Africa and becoming slaves/migrant workers. In the movie they are called the "Non-Humans" and are forced to work by the fictional company, Multi National United (MNU for short). A trailer has been uploaded on the official website depicting the ongoing struggle between the humans and the aliens.
This movie was one of the trailers shown before X-Men Origins: Wolverine and I think it looks pretty interesting. It kinda reminds me of Half-Life 2 in a way when the Combine invaded.
Looks really good, yeah. I thought (hoped!) it was actually a movie version of Childhood's End or something... Not entirely sure why I thought that. Maybe just that interview with the alien, it reminded me strongly of some of the early scenes in that book...
In the op, I posted a trailer and near the end, there wasn't any translation on what the alien said and his face was censored. There is a new trailer, well it's the same thing, but this time there is a translation and the censorship is gone.
I saw a preview for this movie in the theaters recently, and it looks interesting despite the familiar "alien visitor" theme. I really liked how they blurred out the alien's face - definitely contributed to my curiosity.
On May 08 2009 06:38 JWD wrote: I saw a preview for this movie in the theaters recently, and it looks interesting despite the familiar "alien visitor" theme. I really liked how they blurred out the alien's face - definitely contributed to my curiosity.
OP Here is youtube clip
They probably blurred it out because you don't actually get to see what they look like until the end or something.
edit-
On May 03 2009 13:19 sixghost wrote: This might be a dumb question, but why is the alien's face blurred out? Will it be the same way inthe movie?
Seems like an odd choice. If they didn't want to show the alien in the trailer, why show it at all.
To add to the viral campaign is my guess. People will try and decode the alien speak.
I think they just blurred it out in some trailers to have that feel like in some interviews when they want someone to remain anonymous - to retain their identity.
Because I've seen some trailers that didn't have it blurred out. It may also just be an error or just certain trailers - cause like I said, I've seen the same trailer where they're interviewing the alien, asking it why it came here etc, and it's head wasn't blurred - but it does look quite odd, really bug-ish, and thus, freakish.
The movie itself looks good. Ya, it does implicate humans as the evil ones in the movie - because they are wanting to take advantage of the aliens, wanting their technology, yet making them live in slums, and do menial work while they're basically held captive here. Which isn't too far-fetched. I believe we're portrayed quite accurately in movies involving alien encounters etc - but perhaps its because its human nature to fear what we don't understand.
For a while I thought this was going to be another stupid political movie, maybe about mexican immigration or something. Now it actually looks like it might be entertaining.
On July 20 2009 08:24 Ideas wrote: wasn't this director originally supposed to direct the halo film?
yep, its the same guy. Originally they dropped out Halo because of D-9, and thank god, seriously. The District will be awesome, I hope they launch a trailer for Avatar with it as well.
If you're interested, check out the short film "Alive in Joburg." That film has been around for a while, and is what District 9 is based on. I don't know what direction District 9 is going in, but "Alive in Joburg" was kind of a commentary on Apartheid and racism.
It looks pretty stupid. Cause I know the entire point of the film is going to fall back on some civil rights/multicultural/strength in diversity retarded crap. Keep politics out of movies, thanks. Especially movies about Aliens; honestly, 99% of us here would undoubtedly support the extermination of aliens if they came to earth, the minority would be those who wished to make them *only* slaves- let alone a movement for their equality? ugh, stupid.
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
and why is that? At least cite examples that lead you to that response, because quite frankly there are some beautifully done movies involving politics, and intellectual content.
some amazing political type movies in no particuluar order would be
All the kings men (1942) Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) schindlers list (1993) Citizen Kane (1941) All the presidents men (1976) Malcom X (1992)
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
This post says a lot more about the kind of movies you watch and the kind of person you are, than about movies in general.
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
Actually every medium has the potential to convey a meaningful message. Even art. It's just that not everyone like them intellectual and stuff. Case in point - Transformers 2. Brain stimulation = 0%, yet one of the highest grosses this season.
There is a fairly new trailer which hasn't been linked yet as far as I can tell.
Still looking good, but the trailer somewhat feels like it could be your typical Michael Bay action flick. But the fact that Peter Jackson is involved helps me keep my expectations high.
Still looking good, but the trailer somewhat feels like it could be your typical Michael Bay action flick. But the fact that Peter Jackson is involved helps me keep my expectations high.
I'm not too sure him being the producer means that much though
Fucking Hell 97 percent in RT.com as of the moment! Going to watch this tomorrow and give my opinion since we are 16 hours ahead of you guys in the US.
The movie looks good, but in Vancouver alot of the transit buses have that movie ad of 'HUMANS ONLY - DISTRICT 9' as well as alot of bus stops which is fucking annoying and tourists look at us vancouver folks as retards.
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
a lot of intellectual work goes into movies(watch mulholland drive, Inland Empire) and in my opinion, generally they are more intellectual than books.
Idk about the movie but the alien just looks like a dude in a costume. /ignorance
Not even sure if it's coming to theaters here, 23. oktober 2009.
From IMDb
After watching District 9, one can only be impressed at how original this film is. The man behind this film is Peter Jackson, and his vision is transferred to this latest film as grandly and brilliantly as it was in his famed Lord of the Rings trilogy. The trailer reveals a lot of the film's style and nuance, but it's only by watching the film can you truly receive the full end of the movie's audaciousness.
The premise itself is impressive; it's a devilish and inventive twist on your typical science fiction/alien blockbuster – don't worry, I won't reveal too much. An extraterrestrial race land on Earth, for whatever reason. Their intentions are not malevolent, but instead peaceful. Immediately they are imprisoned by the human government and placed in a detention centre-like, slum-like habitat in remote Africa (?). Why are they here? Their story is bared on-screen for all to see, and it's absolutely fascinating.
See this film for its dazzling originality. It boasts incredible scenes of science fiction, heartfelt and evocative scenes of human drama and condition, and is just a wonderfully deep and structured film. One of the best of the year so far, for sure.
Seems really fascinating, when this movie finally hits the slow-ass theaters here I might go watch it.
On July 20 2009 11:35 {88}iNcontroL wrote: "keep politics out of movies"
Was where I stopped reading and got a lil sadder for mankind.
Movies are not exactly what you would call an effective medium of intellectual content and debate. Its actually pathetic that you would think otherwise, but alrighty then!
a lot of intellectual work goes into movies(watch mulholland drive, Inland Empire) and in my opinion, generally they are more intellectual than books.
not sure I'd go that far. Books can be far more "purely intellectual" than movies, and idk. Maybe it's just the kind of movies I watch and the books I read.
On August 14 2009 12:47 SanguineToss wrote: The movie looks good, but in Vancouver alot of the transit buses have that movie ad of 'HUMANS ONLY - DISTRICT 9' as well as alot of bus stops which is fucking annoying and tourists look at us vancouver folks as retards.
I will spend 10 bucks for the movie though.
LOL, I think the advertisement is pretty creative to be honest, but if anyone thinks it's real and doesn't know it's a movie then lol... Since it even has the movie site link on it.
I was just back from this. Without spoiling too much, THIS SHOW IS A MUST WATCH. So many references we gamers could refer to but they're not the strongest point. Hmm.. I'd say the whole recipe including the references makes a delicious cake. Rating is a solid 10/10. Not the ebay AAAAAAA+++ type of 10/10 but good old movie critics' 10/10. Don't hesitate anymore, guys.
It took a direction I didn't think it would. Any movie that can make me root against my own species is definitely something special. Given the budget and other constraints, this is a kick-ass movie. I can't wait to see the halo movie they're gonna make.
On August 15 2009 02:39 KurtistheTurtle wrote: It took a direction I didn't think it would. Any movie that can make me root against my own species is definitely something special. Given the budget and other constraints, this is a kick-ass movie. I can't wait to see the halo movie they're gonna make.
If I remember, they were orginally going to make the Halo movie, but once the Halo movie fell through, Peter Jackson gave the director $30 million and told him to just make whatever you want.
If you watch the real life halo videos, they are shot in a very similar way to District 9.
Yea, probably the number 1 reason why I like this movie is because it has that thing that pseudo-intellectuals downplay when doing movie reviews - the "original" plot twist. The phrase is so corporate-whored nowadays to fool people into thinking movies are good. In this case, I sat in the movie theatre literally not knowing what will happen next in a good majority of the plot developments. Also, the depth to which they carried the plot is pretty impressive as well.
Gonna watch it in about 2 hours! Although I usually don't believe in critics since movie taste depends on the person, but it has an "A-" rating on Yahoo movies and a 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
On August 14 2009 18:33 fanatacist wrote: It was fucked up but awesome.
8.5/10
pretty good review.
one of the best movies of the summer would you say?
The best probably. At first I was kind of like "meh wtf interesting concept but this is getting old." Then there is just one moment where it goes from "meh" to "what the FUCK" and then straight to "OOH SHIIII" and it just keeps on being "OOH SHIII" for like 30-40 minutes. Good movie.
The people who rush to see a movie and are quick to give a review are always biased in liking it. Because who rushes to pay 10$ to see a movie they don't want to see or thinks will suck?
On August 15 2009 07:45 CharlieMurphy wrote: The people who rush to see a movie and are quick to give a review are always biased in liking it. Because who rushes to pay 10$ to see a movie they don't want to see or thinks will suck?
Gi Joe cough cough.
That shit was the most improbable absurd waste of $10.
I was so happy with how this movie turned out. Such a great plot, and such a realistic portrayal of the human race as a whole...I loved it...the FIRST good movie of the summer as far as I'm concerned. So many scenes near the end will have the kid in you screaming for more.
And the main character, for a first acting experience, what a great job he pulled off.
On August 15 2009 07:45 CharlieMurphy wrote: The people who rush to see a movie and are quick to give a review are always biased in liking it. Because who rushes to pay 10$ to see a movie they don't want to see or thinks will suck?
Gi Joe cough cough.
That shit was the most improbable absurd waste of $10.
No one honestly thought that movie would be good, I can't believe that.
On August 15 2009 07:45 CharlieMurphy wrote: The people who rush to see a movie and are quick to give a review are always biased in liking it. Because who rushes to pay 10$ to see a movie they don't want to see or thinks will suck?
I went to the movie with 0 expectations, I didn't even know what it was about. I think that 99% of the movies made in the last 5 years have sucked dick, so I am pretty sure I am unbiased enough to see an exception. My credentials:
On August 15 2009 08:45 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: I didn't like this movie, it made no sense wtf :S
Am I alone here? D:
Or, rather, I didn't hate it, but, like, it was "huh, what just happened?"
It was a little weird, but it definitely made sense IMO. What did you not understand? Maybe I can help you out. I thought the movie was pretty deep in some ways and definitely had an unexpected plot.
I didn't get what the movie was supposed to prove. Was it just "humans suck and hate others who are different from them?" That's all I got out of it :S
Also there was hardly any context for a lot of the stuff :[ And why the hell did MNU want to -kill- Wikus? Wouldn't his, you know, ability to use alien weaponry be more valuable to them than if he was dead? What did they expect to get out of a dead body?
On August 15 2009 09:34 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: I didn't get what the movie was supposed to prove. Was it just "humans suck and hate others who are different from them?" That's all I got out of it :S
Also there was hardly any context for a lot of the stuff :[ And why the hell did MNU want to -kill- Wikus? Wouldn't his, you know, ability to use alien weaponry be more valuable to them than if he was dead? What did they expect to get out of a dead body?
Oh and Wikus is a douche.
"humans suck and hate others who are different from them?"
Isnt that esentially what racism is? You hate other people just because they are different? I think this movie was also a criticism on people. I think there was a reason why the film took place in South Africa.
MNU wanted to kill Wikus because they wanted to get his DNA and organs so that they could either 1) study it and try to replicate to use the alien weaponry 2) use his organs and plant them in other things to try and use the alien weapons.
Yeah, not exactly rationale, but I if you have before you potential to dominate and control the world, then you probably wouldnt make the most rational decisions either.
I didn't enjoy the movie at all it seemed to drone on for far too long. I got the anti-prejudice vibe from it but based on the previews I saw a completely different movie with enough uses of the word Fuck to even make money train blush.
Why didn't the aliens just use their way overpowered technology to own the MNU since afterall, the MNU kidnapped a lot of the aliens and experimented on them as well as treated them badly? The aliens seemed to be too retarded to have such awesome technology and not put it to good use.
On August 15 2009 10:57 Gnaix wrote: Why didn't the aliens just use their way overpowered technology to own the MNU since afterall, the MNU kidnapped a lot of the aliens and experimented on them as well as treated them badly? The aliens seemed to be too retarded to have such awesome technology and not put it to good use.
Yeah, that was what I was thinking too, but my guess is that since the aliens have been on Earth for nearly 20 years, they lost their sense of being civilized and turned to being savages. They could have easily overpowered the humans, but instead they didn't fight back and was abused.
I guess what was so interesting to me about it was the fact that it did portray humans as, well, the evil beings that we are. We can't even get along with other races of our own species, so clearly, how poorly would we treat a new species from another planet, especially a refugee species? I think this movie held true to that regard, showing us essentially dissecting them like rats, trying to figure out things about them. And when one of our own is "infected", we try to cut him down as if he was never one of us to begin with.
I can't believe this film was made with a $30 million budget... it just makes me say F U all the more to Transformers 2 and terminator salvation... with their $175 and $150 million budgets, respectively, being a total waste for those of us who wanted to view a decent flick. Unfortunately, both of those movies have made over double their investment, so we can expect more of that horridness, as always.
On August 15 2009 10:57 Gnaix wrote: Why didn't the aliens just use their way overpowered technology to own the MNU since afterall, the MNU kidnapped a lot of the aliens and experimented on them as well as treated them badly? The aliens seemed to be too retarded to have such awesome technology and not put it to good use.
They stated in the movie that these aliens were mainly "worker-class", and were good at being told what to do, but could not think for themselves. Clearly, "Christopher" was one of a higher class, and held the intellect to change things for their race. I just wish they went more into the explanation of the "fluid", and why it took 20 years etc...
On August 15 2009 10:57 Gnaix wrote: Why didn't the aliens just use their way overpowered technology to own the MNU since afterall, the MNU kidnapped a lot of the aliens and experimented on them as well as treated them badly? The aliens seemed to be too retarded to have such awesome technology and not put it to good use.
They stated in the movie that these aliens were mainly "worker-class", and were good at being told what to do, but could not think for themselves. Clearly, "Christopher" was one of a higher class, and held the intellect to change things for their race. I just wish they went more into the explanation of the "fluid", and why it took 20 years etc...
Thanks, I really missed that important fact and it makes sense now. I agree on the "black fluid" since how did they gather it? Was it extracted from the planet Earth? I wonder if there will be a sequel? + Show Spoiler +
Since Christopher did say he'll come back in 3 years and maybe it'll be like Independence Day lol? Or it'll be one of those movies to leave us wondering.
On August 15 2009 10:57 Gnaix wrote: Why didn't the aliens just use their way overpowered technology to own the MNU since afterall, the MNU kidnapped a lot of the aliens and experimented on them as well as treated them badly? The aliens seemed to be too retarded to have such awesome technology and not put it to good use.
They stated in the movie that these aliens were mainly "worker-class", and were good at being told what to do, but could not think for themselves. Clearly, "Christopher" was one of a higher class, and held the intellect to change things for their race. I just wish they went more into the explanation of the "fluid", and why it took 20 years etc...
It took 20 years because they needed to extract enough from the weapons to power a space ship, how is that not really obvious? All of the plot points were well explained imo.
Yeah they mentioned it about the time where Witkus was trying to tell "cristropher" about the eviction, and he basically got called out on it being illegal. He said something like, most are workers, this guy is a little smarter, so he tried the approach of taking his kid away because it was "illegal" to have a child living in "dangerous" conditions.
I thought that right there showed some truth to how humans treat other humans...we make laws that not everyone even understands, but we still enforce them, or use them against those that dont quite get it. I guess I agree with the statements above that this was a representative movie about our inherent racism.
On August 15 2009 11:17 ghermination wrote: It took 20 years because they needed to extract enough from the weapons to power a space ship, how is that not really obvious? All of the plot points were well explained imo.
I never said it wasn't "obvious". I just didnt like how it was brought up so non-chalantly, like...ok we're good to go back into space, let's roll...there was no build up to it. I still give the movie a 9/10 overall so it wasnt a bid deal for me.
Oh and also, they said stuff about a command module falling off and that's why the mothership doesn't work. Except the mothership magically worked for the ending...?
On August 15 2009 11:06 ghermination wrote: OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE IS SO GOD DAMNED AMAZING. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BETTER SCI-FI MOVIE IN MY LIFE CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL
But seriously, go see this or you have missed out on the best sci-fi movie in the last decade.
On August 15 2009 11:51 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: Oh and also, they said stuff about a command module falling off and that's why the mothership doesn't work. Except the mothership magically worked for the ending...?
Well, they could only remote activate the mothership, and induce the tractor beam, after filling the command module with fuel...
On August 15 2009 11:51 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: Oh and also, they said stuff about a command module falling off and that's why the mothership doesn't work. Except the mothership magically worked for the ending...?
um... lol... that ship that was beamed up was definitely the command module.
On August 15 2009 11:51 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: Oh and also, they said stuff about a command module falling off and that's why the mothership doesn't work. Except the mothership magically worked for the ending...?
um... lol... that ship that was beamed up was definitely the command module.
There were over a million aliens found on board the ship, but mostly were worker class, then why was Christopher the only one that had access or was even in on the whole command module repair, except for that yellow prawn that just couldn't be polite and decided to get himself killed. Although, I'm guessing this is where the teaser trailer of that alien saying he just wanted to go home can be explained. Most likely when they broke into the ship they had captured all the intelligent prawns and interrogated them to death and left all the dumb ones in D-9. Chris prob evaded the filtering of intelligent prawns and saved his ass from becoming an experiment or prisoner.
And also it took 20 years to find all that fluid yes, but remember they were FORCED out of the ship by the MNU. The officials say they did it for humanitarian reasons because the prawns were malnourished and such, but the prawns would have probably scavenged much faster if they had just stayed on their own ship instead of being removed from it. That explains why they didn't try to make contact in the first place. They had lost all power, and made an emergency landing with no intention of making first contact with humans. I'm still wondering why there wasn't more of a human presence on the ship studying it and such, but I guess after 20 years and billions of dollars funding it they gave up...or something...
Also, the director was from South Africa I believe, this was supposed to have elements of apartheid in it. And it did for a majority of the movie except for the whole retrieving fluid and getting the spaceship off the ground thing. Go read some interviews and you'll be more informed on the main theme of the movie.
The movie was very good. The initial 30 minutes were kind of painful though, what with all the terrible things Witkus had to go through.
And this movie was so obviously a message about apartheid in South Africa. They took examples from history and applied it to aliens.
There are some kind of surreal elements in this movie though. Like how the aliens with their intergalatic space travel and their super advanced weaponry got totally owned by humans. But with two alien weapons they can storm Johannesburg and a super security government building with ease. And I don't know, just my opinion but I don't think humanity would treat an alien race that advanced with such disrespect. Even though they acted terribly and were unorganized as hell there's still an insanely huge mothership in the sky.
Anyways, hopefully Christopher returned 3 years later with an entire fleet of space fuel tankers and just sprayed the entire earth with it. Great movie though.
Just saw this now. Completely shell shocked. Was not expecting this good of a movie. easily top 3 movie i've seen this year. highly recommend to everyone.
Okay, there are a couple plot holes that just don't make sense to me. + Show Spoiler +
There is video footage of the command module falling off the ship, and and it obviously fell before the humans made contact with the aliens and threw them in sector 9. SO HOW DID THEY NOT FIND IT IN A SEARCH? I mean if a giant alien dropship randomly landed in the middle of a field in Johannesburg i'm pretty sure they would see it. Also how did it get buried? The rest of the movie is amazing but i just can't get over this part. How did the humans not instantly find the command module.
Also lol why did Wikus remember who he was after his transformation was complete? If he was being transformed into a prawn at the DNA level how was he able to retain his memories? How did he sneak into the main city of Johannesburg to put the flower thing on his porch? If he was relocated to sector 10 it would have been a 256km walk to Johannesburg AND he would have obviously been seen.
One more thing. When he escapes from the operating room, why does he suddenly develop super strength (throwing the orderly with his "Prawn" hand) and then completely lose it later in the movie (for example when the power suit has been destroyed and he's crawling on the ground, considering he was hurt but obviously didn't have a life threatening injury. The same thing happens with Christopher multiple times, when they are breaking into the MNU headquarters he exhibits the normal Prawn strength by throwing a table, and by throwing that bomb that looks to be about 20-40kg (comparing it in size to Wikus) however he can't kill the soldier beating him to death solo inside the shack.
Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
Just too much crap that you're asked to ignore or put to the side.
Luckily it has some decent drama, humour and action to make up for the above idiocy and allow you to sit through it.
On August 15 2009 15:40 Brett wrote: Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
1. The rocket fuel came from alien space ship parts that most likely originated from within the mothership, not a substance native to earth. Given that they were small parts, they only held small bits of fuel which explains why it took 20 years to gather everything. 2. There was a explanation for why the aliens were so dumb/hostile -- most of the ones found in the mothership were "workers" and were severely malnourished upon arrival. Christopher Johnson was a rare intelligent alien unlike most of the aliens in D-9. 3. They couldn't fly home because the command module (the space ship that Christopher Johnson pilots at the end) had fallen out, leaving the mothership unable to function without it. 4. Think they were starving by the time they reached earth and I think they only reached earth because the pilots of the mothership died somehow so the aliens left didn't know what to do. 5. The reason they didn't use their technology is open to some speculation. However, it's obvious they couldn't use it when they first arrived because they were hungry and malnourished, not to mention dumb and probably unable to wield sophisticated weaponry. By the time they became acclimated to their situation they likely knew that they were outnumbered so even if they were treated like shit at least they weren't dead (the whole primitive worker class argument comes back to mind...).
There really aren't as many plotholes as you think there are, and for the plotholes that do exist, they are relatively small. I don't think you've given the movie a fair shot and have jumped to the conclusion that the writers are trying to make the audience accept too much at face value when it is you who won't bother to fully understand the story.
Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
Just too much crap that you're asked to ignore or put to the side.
Luckily it has some decent drama, humour and action to make up for the above idiocy and allow you to sit through it.
Just because you're as dumb as a fucking brick doesn't mean the movie had a bunch of plot holes. If you even cared to watch or pay attention, or FOLLOW the movie, you'd know that the "plot holes" you talk about were actually explained and aren't even plot holes. You didn't even mention the ACTUAL plot holes (ghermination or whatever mentions them), and even so, those plot holes aren't even that major... and pretty much appear in every movie ever made.
Ok. I thought it was pretty dope. People who I saw it with were pointing out holes in the plot but in doing so were kind of making assumptions about some alien ecology and sounded dumb. The only real problem I had with it was the kinda poor CG. The weapons were sweet though. I don't know if I've seen another movie with that many people getting exploded.
On August 15 2009 15:37 ghermination wrote: Okay, there are a couple plot holes that just don't make sense to me. + Show Spoiler +
There is video footage of the command module falling off the ship, and and it obviously fell before the humans made contact with the aliens and threw them in sector 9. SO HOW DID THEY NOT FIND IT IN A SEARCH? I mean if a giant alien dropship randomly landed in the middle of a field in Johannesburg i'm pretty sure they would see it. Also how did it get buried? The rest of the movie is amazing but i just can't get over this part. How did the humans not instantly find the command module.
Also lol why did Wikus remember who he was after his transformation was complete? If he was being transformed into a prawn at the DNA level how was he able to retain his memories? How did he sneak into the main city of Johannesburg to put the flower thing on his porch? If he was relocated to sector 10 it would have been a 256km walk to Johannesburg AND he would have obviously been seen.
One more thing. When he escapes from the operating room, why does he suddenly develop super strength (throwing the orderly with his "Prawn" hand) and then completely lose it later in the movie (for example when the power suit has been destroyed and he's crawling on the ground, considering he was hurt but obviously didn't have a life threatening injury. The same thing happens with Christopher multiple times, when they are breaking into the MNU headquarters he exhibits the normal Prawn strength by throwing a table, and by throwing that bomb that looks to be about 20-40kg (comparing it in size to Wikus) however he can't kill the soldier beating him to death solo inside the shack.
1. Ya that was probably one of the only plot holes IMO
2. Stuff like this happens in movies, you'll have to get used to it. Perhaps he wasn't completely transformed? We don't know do we? So how can you assume it was a plot hole. Maybe he was just physically transformed, but his brain was still partially human and able to retain memories? Since none of us are scientifically qualified to know the answer, then how can you just assume it's a plot hole?
3. People who have super strength lose it when they're injured, you just disproved your own plot hole when you were trying to explain it... Also, why do you say Christopher Johnson couldn't kill the guy beating him up. In case you didn't notice, Christopher Johnson is a pacifist. He could have easily killed that guy, but he didn't because he CHOSE not to, not because he suddenly lost his super strength at that moment. If you notice when they broke into the facility, Christopher Johnson didn't actually harm anybody. The only thing he did was make a bomb and blow up the wall so they could escape. He didn't even fight Wikus when they were arguing.
Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
Just too much crap that you're asked to ignore or put to the side.
Luckily it has some decent drama, humour and action to make up for the above idiocy and allow you to sit through it.
Just because you're as dumb as a fucking brick doesn't mean the movie had a bunch of plot holes. If you even cared to watch or pay attention, or FOLLOW the movie, you'd know that the "plot holes" you talk about were actually explained and aren't even plot holes. You didn't even mention the ACTUAL plot holes (ghermination or whatever mentions them), and even so, those plot holes aren't even that major... and pretty much appear in every movie ever made.
LOL, rage up some more you armchair hero. I'm allowed to have a different opinion to you. They weren't explained and are holes; I don't share your apologist view.
'Stuff like this happens in movies.. get used to it'
Well I agree that How the Command Module stayed hidden was a plot hole, but they did identify it as a problem. The Engineer talking about how they had been searching for it and couldn't find it.
Perhaps it had some low power cloaking device, maybe the wierd alien tech alowed it to bury itself.
Also as for the flower getting to the wife's porch... it Is possible Vichus didn't take it himself, he could have had it delivered... there was some type of a black market connection (possibly less in District 10 but still probably there)
On August 15 2009 15:40 Brett wrote: Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
1. The rocket fuel came from alien space ship parts that most likely originated from within the mothership, not a substance native to earth. Given that they were small parts, they only held small bits of fuel which explains why it took 20 years to gather everything. 2. There was a explanation for why the aliens were so dumb/hostile -- most of the ones found in the mothership were "workers" and were severely malnourished upon arrival. Christopher Johnson was a rare intelligent alien unlike most of the aliens in D-9. 3. They couldn't fly home because the command module (the space ship that Christopher Johnson pilots at the end) had fallen out, leaving the mothership unable to function without it. 4. Think they were starving by the time they reached earth and I think they only reached earth because the pilots of the mothership died somehow so the aliens left didn't know what to do. 5. The reason they didn't use their technology is open to some speculation. However, it's obvious they couldn't use it when they first arrived because they were hungry and malnourished, not to mention dumb and probably unable to wield sophisticated weaponry. By the time they became acclimated to their situation they likely knew that they were outnumbered so even if they were treated like shit at least they weren't dead (the whole primitive worker class argument comes back to mind...).
There really aren't as many plotholes as you think there are, and for the plotholes that do exist, they are relatively small. I don't think you've given the movie a fair shot and have jumped to the conclusion that the writers are trying to make the audience accept too much at face value when it is you who won't bother to fully understand the story.
1. Yes, that explains why it took 20 years to locate the parts from bits which fell to earth, but it doesn't explain why they stopped above JHB and didnt just get this fuel from the ship. It was already there. There is literally no reason for them to have come to earth except for the food issue. But that just poses the question as to why they simply sit inside the mothership starving. 2. They had so much fucking weaponry (that they must have understood how to use) and the brain to develop an understanding of our language and participate in trade, and yet they're completely unmotivated to defend themselves from the oppression? Sorry, that makes little sense to me. They suddenly develop this mean streak when Wikus is threatened at the end of the movie (tearing the soldier to pieces) and yet they'll let themselves be thrown into the camps? 3. I understand that... but all it takes is this small amount of fuel to power the huge command module and fire up the entire mothership? I mean honestly... 4. Yeah, I assumed they were starving by the time they got there also. The deaths is stretching it though. 5. This loses weight after they've been on the planet for a year, regained their strength, stockpiled weapons and are in the company of some prawns intelligent enough to lead them, eg. Johnson
On August 15 2009 09:34 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: I didn't get what the movie was supposed to prove. Was it just "humans suck and hate others who are different from them?" That's all I got out of it :S
Also there was hardly any context for a lot of the stuff :[ And why the hell did MNU want to -kill- Wikus? Wouldn't his, you know, ability to use alien weaponry be more valuable to them than if he was dead? What did they expect to get out of a dead body?
"humans suck and hate others who are different from them?"
Isnt that esentially what racism is? You hate other people just because they are different? I think this movie was also a criticism on people. I think there was a reason why the film took place in South Africa.
MNU wanted to kill Wikus because they wanted to get his DNA and organs so that they could either 1) study it and try to replicate to use the alien weaponry 2) use his organs and plant them in other things to try and use the alien weapons.
Yeah, not exactly rationale, but I if you have before you potential to dominate and control the world, then you probably wouldnt make the most rational decisions either.
They didn't want to kill Wikus at all! At the very beginning of his metamorphisis they said that they wanted to "harvest" everything they could from his, skin, blood, bone, bone-marrow, any type of tissue etc.. It was only after he escaped, started causing havoc, killing other MNU agents etc.. that they (not even they, rather just the military agents) wanted to use live-ammo. The government still wanted him very much alive to be able to prove better research material.
Over all I think it was a good movie and pretty much lived up to it's hype well enough. Sure, the ending was unexpected and kinda a let down - but I guess that's to be expected.. like.. he was infested.. and was alrdy mutating after like 32 hours after exposure.. so it would make sense that after about a week he'd be fully mutated into a "prawn" but it was unfortunate - cause I was hoping that he'd get help from them and be able to be turned back into human but I guess the hero can't always have the happy ending like most fairy-tales or other movies.
Another weird aspect was that the trailer that kept coming out for this movie, didnt include the interview that they had w/ a prawn.. from the trailer, it showed an agent sitting down w/ a prawn in an interogation room asking a bunch of military-type questions, like: "where did you come from" "why are u here" "how do ur weapons work"
to which the prawn replied: "we crash-landed here, we didnt mean to come here" "we mean you no harm" "please, we just want to go home"
maybe it was just a separate "news" type announcement to support and advertise the movie, cause obviously it wasn't in the actual movie itself. All-in-all, I think the reason they came to earth was because they ran out of gas in their mothership, then of course their command-module malfunctioned and fell from teh mothership.. another interesting question woulda been, why didn't more of the prawns team up w/ "christopher" towards the end.. I figured it woulda been a uniting of the race when they stormed the MNU building.. but no, it was just 2 subjects O.o I thought maybe they'd be more zealous ^ ^ and support each other.. so it seems they're more zerg like than Protoss like in which they're kinda out for themselves and protecting themselves rather than die-hard patriots of their homeland or ideals My Life for Aiur!
good movie though.. kudos. prawn-mech-suit was kick ass too.. just sucked that noob ass Wikus didnt know how to fully pilot it, seeing it in the hands of an actual war-proven veteran prawn woulda been bad-ass.. hell, even Christophers son was better at remote-piloting it when he activated it from the dropship. I liked the magnetetic-absorbing field when it contained all the bullets fired at it, then repelled them back at all the hostiles.. rofl!!
Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
Just too much crap that you're asked to ignore or put to the side.
Luckily it has some decent drama, humour and action to make up for the above idiocy and allow you to sit through it.
Just because you're as dumb as a fucking brick doesn't mean the movie had a bunch of plot holes. If you even cared to watch or pay attention, or FOLLOW the movie, you'd know that the "plot holes" you talk about were actually explained and aren't even plot holes. You didn't even mention the ACTUAL plot holes (ghermination or whatever mentions them), and even so, those plot holes aren't even that major... and pretty much appear in every movie ever made.
LOL, rage up some more you armchair hero. I'm allowed to have a different opinion to you. They weren't explained and are holes; I don't share your apologist view.
'Stuff like this happens in movies.. get used to it'
As if that somehow invalidates the criticism...
Every time i see you post you seem like an idiot. The "holes" were explained and if you were even capable of following the plot line (not enough Halo for you?) you would see that most of those questions are answered. Notice the fact that when Christopher and his friend are searching in the garbage for alien technology, his friend needs to be reminded multiple times what they are looking for? Christopher is the last of the leaders left alive, and he was the only one capable of understanding the injustice going on in D-9. The "rocket fuel" is a chemical that allows the weapons to bind ONLY to the Prawns, so it definitely has some sort of mysterious properties. There is no explanation as to how they got to Earth, so their ship could have for some reason been damaged. I think you're highly overestimating the intelligence of the workers because when the humans cut their way into the ship they found the workers starving and burning fires inside of a gigantic "hall", even when surrounded by technology. Obviously they are only capable of simple tasks and require repeated instruction - rather like worker ants, who are completely dependent on the queen for commands. Notice that their entire existence in D-9 revolves around food, even to the point of them being shot while trying to eat a tire. They obviously aren't capable of gaining the initiative to use the weapons.
Why didn't they shoot the command module down with SAMs when the mothership was pulling it up with its tractor beam? They showed zero hesitation in launching SAMs at it when it first left the ground, knocking out 1 of its engines. There was still6 missiles remaining in the one launcher we were shown. Was the only reason because "we wanted to see what was happening to the command module"?
well, the only info I can offer regarding ur point would be that they did try once to shoot it down, while it was being beamed up.. but the mech-prawn caught the missle, and unfortuantely didn't discard it quick enough and it blew up it's arm :O but also maybe they were busy trying to deal w/ Wikus while in the mech-suit.. He was their priority, rather than what the prawns were doing - I mean, in general, they wanted them to leave anyway, but of course the government wanted their weapon-technology.
i'm kinda wishing that they had a bit more closure on the issue at the end though - I mean.. they end off saying that there's still like 2.5 million prawns in D-10, the new holding site.. and Christopher said that he'd return in 3 years.. but I thought they'd at least have tried to rescue a few more prawns than just 2?? and Wikus shoulda tried to go w/ him obviously, to better help himself - but then again, on that issue, he chose to sacrifice himself so that Christopher could escape.
But the third act is disappointing, involving standard shoot-out action.
Well, it is undeniably original in its depiction of an alien culture, and challenges the usual movie assumption that aliens will be either superior beings, or very hostile ones. These aliens are simply other intelligent creatures, weak and far from home, and angry at their mistreatment.
Evidently the director failed because a lot of people here seem to find fault with it because it doesn't fit into the superior alien being mold. If you're judging it based on the action sequences and escape plot and not the tedious first half hour, you're only going to find a sub-par sci-fi film.
I posted this segment from a Neill Blomkamp interview
What do you want people to take from this film?
Blomkamp: Well, it's not a message. I don't want the audience to walk away from this thinking that I gave them some sort of societal message, but what I do want, the reason that the film exists I think in the first place is because hopefully – I don't know that I've done this – I've given them science fiction presented in a slightly different way. So it's not so much a message but it's more like, 'Oh, I really enjoyed watching that film because it was an unusual take on science fiction.' So that's the goal.
The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title “District 9” evokes Cape Town’s historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero’s name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets.
And there’s a harsh parable here about the alienation and treatment of refugees.
On August 15 2009 20:54 Sosha wrote: i'm kinda wishing that they had a bit more closure on the issue at the end though - I mean.. they end off saying that there's still like 2.5 million prawns in D-10, the new holding site.. and Christopher said that he'd return in 3 years.. but I thought they'd at least have tried to rescue a few more prawns than just 2?? and Wikus shoulda tried to go w/ him obviously, to better help himself - but then again, on that issue, he chose to sacrifice himself so that Christopher could escape.
I'd imagine a movie called District 10 will be released 3 years from yesterday and portray the return of Christopher to rescue his species from our planet, and rain terror on us for treating his people like animals. I just hope if they do make a sequel that they keep the same production values, because for $30 million, I'm still in awe at what they were able to pull off. Suck it transformers.
It was a decent scifi flick. Not the best but still decent consider how few good scifi movies as of late.
The movie is better if you go in without any expectations. After all the hype I've read, It ended up a little short.
As for the nerd rage about plot holes; rofl is all i can say. It's a science fiction film, it doesn't have to make sense, it just have to provoke interesting reaction to be good.
On August 15 2009 15:40 Brett wrote: Plenty of holes or stupid pills that the writers want you to swallow in the story so that they could set up the premise of the movie, e.g. Rocket fuel making a human turn into a prawn, 20 years to find this rocket fuel on the ground on OUR planet when it only comes from THEIR technology WHICH THEY FLEW TO EARTH WITH (why not just fucking fly home in the first place), why did they just come and plonk themselves up in the air above JHB and sit there until they starved... never make use of this ridiculous strength or alien technology (unless selling it for fucking cat food) even though they're being herded into concentration camps and killed etc.
1. The rocket fuel came from alien space ship parts that most likely originated from within the mothership, not a substance native to earth. Given that they were small parts, they only held small bits of fuel which explains why it took 20 years to gather everything. 2. There was a explanation for why the aliens were so dumb/hostile -- most of the ones found in the mothership were "workers" and were severely malnourished upon arrival. Christopher Johnson was a rare intelligent alien unlike most of the aliens in D-9. 3. They couldn't fly home because the command module (the space ship that Christopher Johnson pilots at the end) had fallen out, leaving the mothership unable to function without it. 4. Think they were starving by the time they reached earth and I think they only reached earth because the pilots of the mothership died somehow so the aliens left didn't know what to do. 5. The reason they didn't use their technology is open to some speculation. However, it's obvious they couldn't use it when they first arrived because they were hungry and malnourished, not to mention dumb and probably unable to wield sophisticated weaponry. By the time they became acclimated to their situation they likely knew that they were outnumbered so even if they were treated like shit at least they weren't dead (the whole primitive worker class argument comes back to mind...).
There really aren't as many plotholes as you think there are, and for the plotholes that do exist, they are relatively small. I don't think you've given the movie a fair shot and have jumped to the conclusion that the writers are trying to make the audience accept too much at face value when it is you who won't bother to fully understand the story.
1. Yes, that explains why it took 20 years to locate the parts from bits which fell to earth, but it doesn't explain why they stopped above JHB and didnt just get this fuel from the ship. It was already there. There is literally no reason for them to have come to earth except for the food issue. But that just poses the question as to why they simply sit inside the mothership starving. 2. They had so much fucking weaponry (that they must have understood how to use) and the brain to develop an understanding of our language and participate in trade, and yet they're completely unmotivated to defend themselves from the oppression? Sorry, that makes little sense to me. They suddenly develop this mean streak when Wikus is threatened at the end of the movie (tearing the soldier to pieces) and yet they'll let themselves be thrown into the camps? 3. I understand that... but all it takes is this small amount of fuel to power the huge command module and fire up the entire mothership? I mean honestly... 4. Yeah, I assumed they were starving by the time they got there also. The deaths is stretching it though. 5. This loses weight after they've been on the planet for a year, regained their strength, stockpiled weapons and are in the company of some prawns intelligent enough to lead them, eg. Johnson
1. It was a crash landing. It would make sense to land near by a safe habitable planet just in case you can't fix your spaceship. They didn't want to make contact, the humans forced themselves in, so making first contact could have been a last resort for the aliens who were forced into the situation. For all we know, they were gathering fuel when the humans broke into the ship. Landing over JHB could have just been by chance. 2. Cat food could have been like a drug for them, and you don't bite the hand that feeds you. Yes those prawns could have blasted their way to cat food, but they had no idea of how to make it, nor does it seem like they were intelligent enough to make it. Pulling a trigger is easy, but to make cat food is a different thing. 3. It's alien technology in sci-fi, it's allowed to happen. 4/5. The trailer had a captured prawn being interrogated who seemed to be quite intelligent. For all we know they had captured all the intelligent prawns to interrogate and experiment on and Chris could have just evaded bring captured by acting dumb. Cat food addiction could have subdued them and they were still outnumbered so huge resistance wasn't a good option. We do know that the prawns did have armed resistance within the D-9. Remember when they first went into evict the prawns there was one who hid behind a shack with an AK-47? Then the convoy got shot on. So there was resistance, but for many reasons a huge armed resistance could never happen.
Had anyone else thought that maybe the prawns were actually a very different species that discovered the fluid, and were transformed into their present form because of it? And that this is perhaps how Christopher claims to be able to reverse the process, potentially because he'd done it before to other "infected" by it.
I liked the film a lot. The one thing I didn't get was why the prawns had to be released from the spaceship in the beginning, i mean, ... you can't get out of your own spaceship cuz your HONGORY? bs. intelligent my ass. But still, the films pretty badass. And the robot.. THE ROBOT?!?! Sick nasty.
Also like how they framed the story into some mockumentary/news format
And him getting his arm was very cool. I had no idea what to expect, whether it's some horror alien flick or some super hero gundam shit or a remake of Goldbloom's The Fly... LOL. Instead it's a nice mix of all 3 in an epic summer movie. wordddddd you jive turkey.
On August 15 2009 09:34 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: I didn't get what the movie was supposed to prove. Was it just "humans suck and hate others who are different from them?" That's all I got out of it :S
Also there was hardly any context for a lot of the stuff :[ And why the hell did MNU want to -kill- Wikus? Wouldn't his, you know, ability to use alien weaponry be more valuable to them than if he was dead? What did they expect to get out of a dead body?
Oh and Wikus is a douche.
"humans suck and hate others who are different from them?"
Isnt that esentially what racism is? You hate other people just because they are different? I think this movie was also a criticism on people. I think there was a reason why the film took place in South Africa.
MNU wanted to kill Wikus because they wanted to get his DNA and organs so that they could either 1) study it and try to replicate to use the alien weaponry 2) use his organs and plant them in other things to try and use the alien weapons.
Yeah, not exactly rationale, but I if you have before you potential to dominate and control the world, then you probably wouldnt make the most rational decisions either.
They didn't want to kill Wikus at all! At the very beginning of his metamorphisis they said that they wanted to "harvest" everything they could from his, skin, blood, bone, bone-marrow, any type of tissue etc.. It was only after he escaped, started causing havoc, killing other MNU agents etc.. that they (not even they, rather just the military agents) wanted to use live-ammo. The government still wanted him very much alive to be able to prove better research material.
They DID want to kill him... wouldn't you think saying "take his heart" would kill him? They had every intention of harvesting his body and not caring whether he lived or died in the process.
On August 16 2009 02:20 Xeris wrote: They DID want to kill him... wouldn't you think saying "take his heart" would kill him? They had every intention of harvesting his body and not caring whether he lived or died in the process.
That was one of the most frightening scenes I've seen in a long time... I mean...I know it's a movie, but dear lord could you imagine going through something like that, being rushed to the hospital, then transfered to a research facility and submitted to the exams with the weaponry as well as being basically told your whole body is going to be ground up into nothingness just for the off-potential of advancing our understanding of the prawns....damn that whole scene still gives me chills.
I absolutely loved this film. Great acting, great filming (interesting and original style), wonderful story.. and for all us action nerds the movie has a TON of amazing action. Never got tired of the alien technology splatting people. And that battle suit? WOW.
I hope for a sequel.. Christopher Johnathan's return could be epic
very interested to see what will happen in the sequel, they will surely make a sequel. you can't possibly leave a movie this open ended without making a sequel, it seems like they purposefully set it up to be so open ended that a sequel would be required !
I thought the movie was nowhere near as good as I was expecting.
The movie devolved into generic action movie half-way through. The plot wasn't that smart, nor did the whole premise of the story make any sense other than as a convenient setup for an Apartheid story.
Aliens get to Earth for no particular reason. They hover over JHB for 2 months as they starve to death. Their leader drops from the command pod at some point for no reason. The leader hides among the rest scavenging juice for 20 years, which somehow fell out of their ship even though their mothership was never attacked. CJ goes home for help at the end. Apparently nobody from home thought to come look for them. Apparently humans abandonned the mothership once they moved all the prawn drones to the surface. Why did humans want the relatively useless prawn guns? The lightning gun was sorta useful, but the assault rifle was no better than one with bullets. Only the Goliath seemed to be legitimately useful, and the Nigerians had the only one. Even then, it can be stopped by human weapons, so it's not like it's a super weapon.
On August 16 2009 03:03 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: The best part of that movie was, imo, that battle suit. Making a magnetic field to catch/launch bullets? Catching that missile? Now that was bad ass.
Wikus was a douche. Deserved every bit of what happened to him
Too bad he apparently forgot to do this stuff 99% of the time.
he wasn't really a douche, he was just human. he was a nice / kind guy, but like almost everyone he didn't understand the aliens and mistreated them. not because he was mean or cruel, but because of a general lack of empathy for them or their situation (like 99% of people).
I just saw this movie and I thought it was pretty good. However I don't think they're going to make a sequel considering how the movie ended. If they did though, I'd definitely go see it. Just my opinion.
They set it up perfectly for a sequel...repeatedly, the words "I will return in 3 years"... and 2.5 million & growing... Christopher will rescue his kind... as I said earlier, I just hope they carry on the same production values if they do make a sequel...and if they dont make one, this movie was so fantastic I wouldn't even mind...better it die out then taint it with a T3 or T4 style sequel.
Man I can't get this movie outa my head, that's a first in a very loong time. This movie alone restored my faith in the movie industry.
On August 15 2009 09:34 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: I didn't get what the movie was supposed to prove. Was it just "humans suck and hate others who are different from them?" That's all I got out of it :S
Also there was hardly any context for a lot of the stuff :[ And why the hell did MNU want to -kill- Wikus? Wouldn't his, you know, ability to use alien weaponry be more valuable to them than if he was dead? What did they expect to get out of a dead body?
Oh and Wikus is a douche.
"humans suck and hate others who are different from them?"
Isnt that esentially what racism is? You hate other people just because they are different? I think this movie was also a criticism on people. I think there was a reason why the film took place in South Africa.
MNU wanted to kill Wikus because they wanted to get his DNA and organs so that they could either 1) study it and try to replicate to use the alien weaponry 2) use his organs and plant them in other things to try and use the alien weapons.
Yeah, not exactly rationale, but I if you have before you potential to dominate and control the world, then you probably wouldnt make the most rational decisions either.
They didn't want to kill Wikus at all! At the very beginning of his metamorphisis they said that they wanted to "harvest" everything they could from his, skin, blood, bone, bone-marrow, any type of tissue etc.. It was only after he escaped, started causing havoc, killing other MNU agents etc.. that they (not even they, rather just the military agents) wanted to use live-ammo. The government still wanted him very much alive to be able to prove better research material.
They DID want to kill him... wouldn't you think saying "take his heart" would kill him? They had every intention of harvesting his body and not caring whether he lived or died in the process.
well yes, the procedure of the harvest would have killed him - but when he escaped and they were hunting for him, they wanted him captured alive.. It was after they broke into MNU HQ and started killing peeps that they military agents wanted to switch to live-ammo... but the actual MNU/governemtn still wanted him captured alive.. seems to be more supportive of the information if the organs and tissue are at their most vibrant.. as opposed to rotting.
Saw it with my girlfriend - we both thought it was simply "meh". Too many things were left unexplained, what story it did have has actually been done before, and I was rarely left with any sense of mystery during the film (besides what they never bothered to clarify).
The best scifi movie of this year, in our opinions, still remains as Moon (filmed with only a 5 million budget).
On August 16 2009 06:43 Alpine wrote: They set it up perfectly for a sequel...repeatedly, the words "I will return in 3 years"... and 2.5 million & growing... Christopher will rescue his kind... as I said earlier, I just hope they carry on the same production values if they do make a sequel...and if they dont make one, this movie was so fantastic I wouldn't even mind...better it die out then taint it with a T3 or T4 style sequel.
Man I can't get this movie outa my head, that's a first in a very loong time. This movie alone restored my faith in the movie industry.
Yeah, but how can you make a story out of the sequel? Christopher comes back with a fleet of alien megaships, load up all the prawns on earth to take home, and if anyone tries to stop them they zap them. The sequel either has to be really ingenious or else it will just ruin the reputation of the first. This movie was really good, and unless they can make something better they should just leave it at that.
you forget that almost all sequels ruin the reputation of the originals... except with Peter Jackson at the helm you have to have faith that any sequel will probably end up being better O_O!
I mean, The Lord of the Rings movies got progressively better..
man, cant believe im one of the few that didnt like the movie it dragged hard for the first hour and a half. there was no getting me back after that. i'll admit it got interesting, but it was far too late. i just wanted to get out. the rapidly developed relationship between christopher and wikus was the only saving grace of the movie, but again, far too late.
How the hell can't you like the movie, the mechsuit shot a freaking PIG, like the gravity gun from Half-Life. Transformers ain't got nothing on the mechsuit. Also, interspecies buttsex, lol.
I thought it was sadly ironic, that for a movie about valuing the life of all living things, that the camera was unflinching in its exciting portrayal of gore and much of the violence to me seemed to be only for the sake of having violence. Everything in the movie was heavy-handed, the violence and the theme. I understood in the first 5 minutes of the movie that this was about human tendency to de-value and be afraid of things that are not like us, but I got another hour and some odd minutes of more of the same message. In the same hour and some odd minutes, every time an alien was on screen with MNU security forces, they had to kick punch or shoot an alien. Got a little bit repetitive, and they should have been using that time on other scenes to let us understand and care about the characters a bit more. The movie didn't make me care about any of the characters since they were all stock motivations. Badly written movie.
The good stuff was the idea of first contact, where the humans become the oppressors. Also, the way the alien technology was designed to work with their DNA, and the fuel for the ship is their genetic essence, which is why it mutates the incorrigible bastard protagonist. In other words, the space ship could basically run on jizz? I wouldn't mind filling up my car if that were the case.
Ok, I'm pretty sure the command module falling thing was not a plot hole. From what I gathered, they were only looking for the module after the fact, as in they were like "why the shit isn't the spaceship working" and they heard around town that something had fallen off, so they went to the security footage and saw it fall.
Even if that process only took a few days, thats plenty of time for the aliens to hide it somehow, even if Christopher was just working alone.
Edit:
On August 16 2009 06:31 1337o wrote: I just saw this movie and I thought it was pretty good. However I don't think they're going to make a sequel considering how the movie ended. If they did though, I'd definitely go see it. Just my opinion.
Are you serious? They set it up for a sequel so perfectly that they would have to be retarded not to make one. Movie is getting close to end.....CUE MYSTERIOUS MUSIC AND UNEXPLAINED FATE OF MAIN CHARACTERS....CUE EPILOGUE TEXT THAT CONTAINS THE NAME OF THE SEQUEL (D-10). I mean come on. And there are a LOT of directions you can take the sequel, if there is indeed going to be one. "Aliens come back and rape with advanced tech" is one, but seeing as this movie was unconventional in plot, I'm sure a supposed sequel would be too.
So, in a movie about the horrors and folly of disrespecting the sanctity of all life has to cash in on huge amounts of gore and scintillating action sequences?
If you actually think about this movie, it doesn't really measure up. There's also very little art in this movie, the characters are kind of bland outside of their motivations. The performance of Wikus is pretty well done; the actor adds nuance and gets you to think about him, but the movie spends so little time developing character, it's all implied. The distancing use of the "documentary" style is blah. There's no need for it other than poor writing, it allows you to jump from person to person, in order to set-up the plot. Instead of including the information skillfully within the scheme of the overall plot. Granted, it is a lot of backstory to give, but its kind of boring to watch the first 20 minutes of the movie and its just talking heads. They were actually telling us, rather than showing us. Which is weird to say about the movie, but still applies.
I thought it was sadly ironic, that for a movie about valuing the life of all living things, that the camera was unflinching in its exciting portrayal of gore and much of the violence to me seemed to be only for the sake of having violence. Everything in the movie was heavy-handed, the violence and the theme. I understood in the first 5 minutes of the movie that this was about human tendency to de-value and be afraid of things that are not like us, but I got another hour and some odd minutes of more of the same message. In the same hour and some odd minutes, every time an alien was on screen with MNU security forces, they had to kick punch or shoot an alien. Got a little bit repetitive, and they should have been using that time on other scenes to let us understand and care about the characters a bit more. The movie didn't make me care about any of the characters since they were all stock motivations. Badly written movie.
The good stuff was the idea of first contact, where the humans become the oppressors. Also, the way the alien technology was designed to work with their DNA, and the fuel for the ship is their genetic essence, which is why it mutates the incorrigible bastard protagonist. In other words, the space ship could basically run on jizz? I wouldn't mind filling up my car if that were the case.
6/10
This is the first legitimate criticism I've seen in this thread, and I completely agree on the heavy-handed and repetitive points, as well as the lack of character depth. I really enjoyed the premise of the movie and thought it had a billion interesting parallels. But a lot of time seemed to be wasted as you said. This post pretty much reflected my feelings coming out of the movie.
I thought it was a great movie overall, 9/10. Considering that the movie was made with a $30 million budget, I wish other hollywood films could learn from this movie *transformers 2, GI Joe*.
I liked it, but thought it got kinda long and the whole go on w/o me part was painful, but I know tons of you think this movie ruled, so I'm in the minority. It was fun and I liked it, but wouldn't see it again. Except the part with the pig and the part where the thing sticks in the guy's forehead and then explodes. 7/10
I really liked this movie for a number of reasons.
It didn't divulge too much about the aliens. It had that silly irony to it, that we as humans if we were ever visited by an alien race we would almost expect them to be far more superior than us. However they were not. They were just like people. (Minus the whole intergalactic spaceship, they were fundamentally like us.) It captures humanity at its worst, how we're so focused on weaponry, which leads to money, and how we're willing to throw human decency out the window for it.
I feel that this movie just really captured humanity. I'd give it a 8/10. Which is good since I'm picky as fuck when it comes to movies...
Also I just seen G.I Joe such a corny ass movie... dear god...
On August 17 2009 04:41 {88}iNcontroL wrote: cannot believe people are complaining about this movie.. one of my favs. So fucking thoroughly good in every aspect.
Just saw it 2 hours ago Absolutely amazing movie, all these concerns raised can be justified one way or another. Even my gf who was really skeptical about watching a sci-fi movie but she really enjoyed it! (bar all the blood scenes hehe)
On August 16 2009 14:42 iPF[Div] wrote: Am I the only one that found myself wanting to pick up a south african accent and make FOOK MAN 50% of my vocabulary?
That makes 2 of us man... I wish I had an accent like that...it was awesome when he started getting so intense later in the film.
Good movie overall, but I'm going to point out the things I didn't like since the positives don't need to be mentioned because we all know how incredible Peter Jackson is.
-I enjoyed the majority of the beginning and end, but a good chunk of the middle was just terrible to watch, the transition from documentary to narrative was just not done well and the pacing during this period was just atrocious
-The allegory to race relations in South America is fine even if not subtle, but completely hypocritical. While he alludes to this he seems to portray the blacks in his movie as ritual savages, inferior even to his depictions of the prawns. Extreme glorification of violence, bigotry and selfishness by EVERY group in the movie.
-Neill Blomkamp is a terrible director.. when I watched his short a year or however long ago I said to myself how terrible it was and that a Halo movie from him couldn't even be saved by Peter Jackson. Shaky camera and retarded PoV reverse camera shots that look stupid. Unfortunately this whole movie is shot like that and I've never understood why every director has to do this crap to try and stand out but it's just plain stupid. Doing it in the documentary scenes is fine but it should stop there. The only thing good the director managed to do in this movie was CONCEIVE of the idea, and then have Peter Jackson help him to make it watchable.
-Main character.. you don't need a typical hero protagonist in every movie, but our character is just not likable. Throughout the entire movie our hero has one thing on his mind, himself. The movie's supposed to show his transition from killing baby prawns like firecrackers to learning to respect them after he becomes one, but even at the end when he constantly shows he still doesnt give a shit and knocks out Christopher, I ask myself what's the point? Why is the movie about him? I can't care about him and he's annoying so why am I watching him?
-Constant plot holes, why can't the aliens just use their weaponry to do what they want? Oh, all 1 million of them were subdued by cat food! Etc.
-Gunfights near middle/end of the movie. All the fights not involving alien weaponry were just so repetitive it got so tired to watch seeing people exchange fire with automated weapons, he could have just used the same clip for 30 minutes worth of footage and no one would have noticed. I mean jesus christ, television shows manage to have better gunfight scenes.
All in all it's a jumbled mess that would be laughed at as a joke if Peter Jackson wasn't involved. Will not watch another movie by this director even if its declared the greatest movie ever made and gets a 100% on rotten tomatoes.
Good movie but they kinda went overboard with how hateable the main character was. I understand you don't want the typical main char, but he was detestable for such a long portion of the movie and it really detracted.
I loved how life-like they made the prawns. They gave them such personality.
Oh... and how the fuck did the fuel do that to him?
My theory is that a lot of the aliens' technology is based off of their own physiology. That's why everything from their weaponry to the shuttle can only be operated by them - it's not that the technology is keyed to them, but rather their bodies actually serve as part of the machine.
Following this theme, the fluid/fuel could be chemically similar to the aliens or their blood. If this is the case, it could conceivably act like an immune system that purges all foreign material. This might explain why Wikus turned into a prawn.
This does seem like an awful lot of handwaving though. Who knows.
biggest plothole was that it took 20 years for christopher to find enough fuel to repower the command module but when that mech was dying you could see a TON of that shit leaking out. dunno why they didn't just use the mech then.
That and the fact that the kid was SO much better remote operating the mech than wikus was... like wikus needed to learn that bullet stopping trick pronto.
This was a cliche sci-fi plot wrapped in a summer action movie so that 'mass audiences' will actually watch it without realizing it's sci-fi and squeal about how WONDERFUL it is! It's a great idea for hopefully regaining sci-fi's reputation.
However, every piece of this plot has been done before, and better. The mech fight was painful for me to watch - why are people in movies so *unutterably bad* at fighting? He's got weapons of mass destruction on board and he spends half the 'fight' just running and holding his arm up. Newsflash dude: you're armored! Those bullets aren't doing jack )#%@!! Turn around and BLOW ALL THE BAD GUYS AWAY with your nuke arms or scatter railgun arms! WTF?
This film in three easy steps: 1: Look how horrible racism is and how prevalent it is in South Africa against aliens. Don't you the audience member think all prawns are gross and stupid?
2: Oh look here's some smart prawns with real personalities haha don't you feel like a racist now? I got you!
3: Long mech fight scene for no reason.
Notice there's no end step. The movie just leaves you on a non-cliffhanger that you can't give two farts about.
On August 18 2009 11:52 garmule2 wrote: This was a cliche sci-fi plot wrapped in a summer action movie so that 'mass audiences' will actually watch it without realizing it's sci-fi and squeal about how WONDERFUL it is! It's a great idea for hopefully regaining sci-fi's reputation.
However, every piece of this plot has been done before, and better. The mech fight was painful for me to watch - why are people in movies so *unutterably bad* at fighting? He's got weapons of mass destruction on board and he spends half the 'fight' just running and holding his arm up. Newsflash dude: you're armored! Those bullets aren't doing jack )#%@!! Turn around and BLOW ALL THE BAD GUYS AWAY with your nuke arms or scatter railgun arms! WTF?
This film in three easy steps: 1: Look how horrible racism is and how prevalent it is in South Africa against aliens. Don't you the audience member think all prawns are gross and stupid?
2: Oh look here's some smart prawns with real personalities haha don't you feel like a racist now? I got you!
3: Long mech fight scene for no reason.
Notice there's no end step. The movie just leaves you on a non-cliffhanger that you can't give two farts about.
On August 18 2009 11:52 garmule2 wrote: This was a cliche sci-fi plot wrapped in a summer action movie so that 'mass audiences' will actually watch it without realizing it's sci-fi and squeal about how WONDERFUL it is! It's a great idea for hopefully regaining sci-fi's reputation.
However, every piece of this plot has been done before, and better. The mech fight was painful for me to watch - why are people in movies so *unutterably bad* at fighting? He's got weapons of mass destruction on board and he spends half the 'fight' just running and holding his arm up. Newsflash dude: you're armored! Those bullets aren't doing jack )#%@!! Turn around and BLOW ALL THE BAD GUYS AWAY with your nuke arms or scatter railgun arms! WTF?
This film in three easy steps: 1: Look how horrible racism is and how prevalent it is in South Africa against aliens. Don't you the audience member think all prawns are gross and stupid?
2: Oh look here's some smart prawns with real personalities haha don't you feel like a racist now? I got you!
3: Long mech fight scene for no reason.
Notice there's no end step. The movie just leaves you on a non-cliffhanger that you can't give two farts about.
I don't know if you noticed, but the guy piloting the suit didn't really know how to use it, since ... you know... HE IS NOT A PRAWN SOLDIER TRAINED TO USE THE SUIT. Kind of obvious, no?
And as it was said before, the prawns that were in d-9 were worker units, aka drones, they didn't have real leadership and in an alien environment their basic instincts took over, thus they behaved stupidly.
Finally, I fail to see how this movie had a cliche plot. However the ending is up to the viewer to interpret if it is good or not, since you are entitled to your own opinion.
I watched the movie and thought it was very good. I also read in an interview that the director wants to do a sequel if this movie is successful, so here's to hoping for a District 10 in the future.
I thought this was a great movie, I really loved the style of all the alien tech. It's really impressive they put together a summer sci-fi movie on such a small budget in comparison.
first of all i liked this movie, an anti-ET almost, they;d make a great double bill
On August 17 2009 06:20 A3iL3r0n wrote: So, in a movie about the horrors and folly of disrespecting the sanctity of all life has to cash in on huge amounts of gore and scintillating action sequences?
If you actually think about this movie, it doesn't really measure up. There's also very little art in this movie, the characters are kind of bland outside of their motivations. The performance of Wikus is pretty well done; the actor adds nuance and gets you to think about him, but the movie spends so little time developing character, it's all implied. The distancing use of the "documentary" style is blah. There's no need for it other than poor writing, it allows you to jump from person to person, in order to set-up the plot. Instead of including the information skillfully within the scheme of the overall plot. Granted, it is a lot of backstory to give, but its kind of boring to watch the first 20 minutes of the movie and its just talking heads. They were actually telling us, rather than showing us. Which is weird to say about the movie, but still applies.
first off, the doc style was done really well, it flowed, you barely even notice when it changed into a normal third person movie, it also fit with the way they advertised the film just making it seem like a news reel as opposed to a movie. sure, you may not like it, but its a technique that isnt done often and they played it out very well. also, enough of the movie it spent on Wikus, your missing the idea that in every movie, their ment to imply things about characters, thats what makes a good chracter, it helps you feel like you know them, without really telling you anything
the gore? what are you talking about with gore, this movie barely had any compared to so many other movies out right now, especially in the sci-fi genre
I saw this movie tonight and I still don't know how I feel about it. The plot is really cool, however obvious it is and the characters are portrayed really well. That said there wasn't anything other than the characters that was great about the movie. The action was pretty meh and the plot had so many small holes I couldn't take it seriously. It's like they had a really really good idea for a sci-fi film and then decided to throw in some action scenes or just make the main character do something that makes zero sense to anyone who can analyze a situation just to further the story. I know some people will argue that he wasn't in a situation to think clearly but some of the stuff is just too much for me to believe he was that out of it.
Overall I guess if you have any desire to see the movie, go see it. Some people seem to love this movie, but don't be afraid if the plot feels forced.
I'm glad some people found the movie underwhelming, because I certainly did. I went in with very little expectations and came out dissatisfied. The plot holes mentioned eventually ruined it for me, plus the annoying lead character didn't help much. The action sequences were good though.
Honestly, it felt like this movie was talking more about apartheid (with aliens instead of people) than about anything else. Don't get me wrong, watching movies about racial segregation and the like are all fine with me. But I went in expecting a different sort of movie from watching the trailers, and I can't help but feel disappointed with the direction the movie took.
I know I can't say this because it's just an opinion but I feel that complaining about "plot holes" and the main character acting "stupidly" and "illogically" and saying that he was "annoying" just shows that you are immature and too stupid or too young to appreciate why that might add value to the movie.
And I feel that not being able to complain about issues which irk me in an art medium such as film, which is completely open to interpretation, without being called dumb as a fucking brick, immature, stupid or too young borders on utter fucking idiocy because, just like what you posted... it's an opinion. It's not math guys... It's ok if people think differently on this.
On August 19 2009 17:46 Brett wrote: And I feel that not being able to complain about issues which irk me in an art medium such as film, which is completely open to interpretation, without being called dumb as a fucking brick, immature, stupid or too young borders on utter fucking idiocy because, just like what you posted... it's an opinion. It's not math guys... It's ok if people think differently on this.
I feel like you MUST be dumb for 2 reasons; number one, I stated that it was my opinion and that I was aware that it was your opinion, which it turns out is somewhat ironic since you are so deadset on demonizing me that you don't seem to realize how hypocritical your own vitriol is, and number two, because I didn't say the things you wrote with nearly as much anger nor intensity as you suggest.
Ah, wait, maybe now I understand. My opinion that it is an issue of maturity is "utter fucking idiocy" because, apparently, opinions are so sacrosanct. Your logic is astounding. And, just because something is an opinion does not make it immune from criticism nor from discussion; it is not a magic descriptor that says I cannot express my disagreement. Ultimately your anger just makes you seem more dumb when you defend the status of "opinion" while attacking my own.
Where do I suggest that you're experiencing anger or intensity?
I'm pointing out that you're now the second person who has attacked people personally (even if not pointing it at anyone directly) for not liking the movie or finding faults in it.
And, just because something is an opinion does not make it immune from criticism nor from discussion; it is not a magic descriptor that says I cannot express my disagreement.
Straw man. I never said that you can't. Of course we can disagree.
What I am pointing out is that comments like this:
complaining about "plot holes" and the main character acting "stupidly" and "illogically" and saying that he was "annoying"
somehow justifies the following conclusion:
you are immature and too stupid or too young
????
Honestly? If they disagree they're automatically immature, stupid or young? And you're justified in saying that... how?
You're not attacking the position, you're attacking the person.
I don't understand where this infered anger is coming from, but it's completely irrelevant. Don't change the issue.
My biggest problem with this movie was that it could've been SOOOOOOO much more. But as it stands it's still damned awesome. This could've been the greatest sci-fi film ever made, but falling short of that is nothing to be ashamed of. Great movie.
Where do I suggest that you're experiencing anger or intensity?
I'm pointing out that you're now the second person who has attacked people personally (even if not pointing it at anyone directly) for not liking the movie or finding faults in it.
And, just because something is an opinion does not make it immune from criticism nor from discussion; it is not a magic descriptor that says I cannot express my disagreement.
Straw man. I never said that you can't. Of course we can disagree.
What I am pointing out is that comments like this:
Honestly? If they disagree they're automatically immature, stupid or young? And you're justified in saying that... how?
You're not attacking the position, you're attacking the person.
I don't understand where this infered anger is coming from, but it's completely irrelevant. Don't change the issue.
I haven't changed the issue at all. Don't get all butthurt when I express my opinion if you're going to hold up an opinion as so powerful. It's my fucking opinion that if you only like omniscient 100% rational logical characters who make the entirely utilitarian decision at every opportunity, you are immature. Now, please don't quote this post in 3 word blocks to refute something that does not need refuting. And who the shit said I had to justify my opinion? As you've said, it's entirely our own decision in a subjective medium. Additionally, I don't give a damn who said it. I don't even know who said it. I don't really look at the names of the people who are posting. It has nothing to do with attacking the individual. I'm attacking the attitude, which can be held by any individual, that a character who is not 100% rational and makes the best decision all the time is preferable to a fallible and human protagonist. I believe it shows an immaturity to expect it from anything other than a mindless action movie, which has its place and which I also enjoy. So get off my sack.
And gee, I don't know where the "inferred" anger is coming from...maybe the fact that you attributed the "dumb as a fucking brick" quote to me, or that you cursed in your post to make your point? This is not generally considered polite conversation. Oh, I guess "fucking utter idiocy" is not ad hominem, hmm? But I guess I can't take umbrage with that, since it's just an opinion, right?
Ad hominem would be my attacking your incorrect use of the word ad hominem. WOOPS!
I didn't attribute the dumb as a fucking brick quote to you. Notice I said 'guys' and didn't quote you in that post? It was a general comment to people getting so defensive when people don't like the movie.
I'm not getting butthurt about your opinion. Does your "get off my sack" comment mean you're deeply disturbed by my post? I assume not.
You don't have to justify an opinion, but it's pretty generally accepted that it's unnecessary to post comments about someone's general maturity, intelligence or age based purely on a disagreement over such subjective material as movies. That is something I'd be more inclined to attribute to immaturity.
On August 19 2009 17:17 NoobsOfWrath wrote: I know I can't say this because it's just an opinion but I feel that complaining about "plot holes" and the main character acting "stupidly" and "illogically" and saying that he was "annoying" just shows that you are immature and too stupid or too young to appreciate why that might add value to the movie.
wow...do you really think you are more mature, smarter, and older than me? You know nothing about me and yet you so freely stereotype everyone that finds fault with the movie. You're right about one thing though; it is your opinion, and a stupid one at that.
Please explain to me how "plot holes" and "illogical" main characters "add value to the movie". Last time I checked, these were usually indicators of a bad movie. But maybe your ego has a more "mature" opinion?
Oh, and like, I know I can't say this because it's just an opinion, but I feel that you're a complete idiot. (see what I did there?!)
what plot holes? be specific about these things you didn't like that will probably add weight to your argument... as it stands you sound too young or stupid when you say things like "oh yeah this movie had many problems, some of which are plotholes and illogical decisions, blah blah blah". Be specific!
and I haven't read any plot-hole arguments that weren't adequately explained in the film... I don't think the movie was perfect plot wise, I had problems with it but they did a good job explaining things plot wise. i wasn't confused or left wondering why about too much
Are we sure we're talking about "plot holes" or things they just didn't explain? Remember this was shown to be a documentary specifically about the main character. That's what they're discussing pretty much right from the beginning ("no one knew what he was gonna do" etc.) with a small intro to how the prawns got there, and how it eventually ties into the main character ("he was giving the eviction notices).
I thought they purposefully left out a ton of information because that adds to the mystery of it all... I wouldn't of liked this movie if they spent half of it explaining why this and that was happening.
a guy turns into an alien by accidentally opening the jar of the "fluid" they were making while on earth so they could operate the mothership that was powered down.. with his help, an alien was able to make it to the mothership with the fluid and they left while being shot by humans b/c they wanted him and his "alien arm" that had already transformed in the process and when he turned into an alien, he left a rose kind of thing on his wife's porch. the end =/
good movie and all, but it was kinda plot-less almost =/
On August 20 2009 02:26 Xenixx wrote: what plot holes? be specific about these things you didn't like that will probably add weight to your argument... as it stands you sound too young or stupid when you say things like "oh yeah this movie had many problems, some of which are plotholes and illogical decisions, blah blah blah". Be specific!
and I haven't read any plot-hole arguments that weren't adequately explained in the film... I don't think the movie was perfect plot wise, I had problems with it but they did a good job explaining things plot wise. i wasn't confused or left wondering why about too much
have you even read this thread? I said that a lot of the plot holes have already been mentioned, and I didn't want to get bogged down with explaining it all.
can you people please stop with this "young and stupid" argument? It just shows how immature you are. Tell me your age and education if you really feel that you're better than me.
edit: Xenixx just checked your profile and you are a few months younger than me. So stop with that pointless argument.
I saw this thread, after talking to a couple of friends who have already seen the movie. I just watched the trailer (literally less than 5 minutes ago) for the first time.
I come to the end of the thread, looking for peoples opinions, so I could judge for myself whether it was worthwhile watching the movie or not, and I see all this pointless attacking of one another.
So, some people think that there are some plot holes. Others think that they are fine. Who fucking cares? It's an opinion.
So, some people think the main character did not act completely logical and rational. Others think that it's a good idea that the main character was not a Spock in human clothing. Yet again, who fucking cares? It's an opinion.
You can try to attack me in this, I don't give a shit, because I've already seen what I wanted to see from this thread. I won't be viewing it again. If I watch the movie, I might give my opinion on it, but I'm not going to bother reading through all this crap again.
On August 20 2009 02:26 Xenixx wrote: what plot holes? be specific about these things you didn't like that will probably add weight to your argument... as it stands you sound too young or stupid when you say things like "oh yeah this movie had many problems, some of which are plotholes and illogical decisions, blah blah blah". Be specific!
and I haven't read any plot-hole arguments that weren't adequately explained in the film... I don't think the movie was perfect plot wise, I had problems with it but they did a good job explaining things plot wise. i wasn't confused or left wondering why about too much
have you even read this thread? I said that a lot of the plot holes have already been mentioned, and I didn't want to get bogged down with explaining it all.
can you people please stop with this "young and stupid" argument? It just shows how immature you are. Tell me your age and education if you really feel that you're better than me.
edit: Xenixx just checked your profile and you are a few months younger than me. So stop with that pointless argument.
well now that i've called you out for the examples, feel free to let loose with them? do you understand why someone wouldn't credit you when you don't provide specifics you just label generally?... in good fun lets hear the specifics.
i have read most of the thread and the 'plot holes' were answered promptly from what i read
e: and to clarify i really want to hear what the plot holes are because its interesting to me, as i said i didnt have a problem with the plot except for a few scenes
and to the guy raging, a post before, its a forum dude, people talk, i want to know what he thinks about plot holes after whats been said already, even after my post he didn't post any specifics... why?
i think a big problem that a lot of movie watchers have is projecting their own circumstances on the characters, specifically that they're seated, well-rested, comfortable, etc. when they're watching the movie
meanwhile, movie characters (especially using district 9 as an example) are often times borderline delirious with fatigue, physical pain, and psychological torment and they're usually supposed to act accordingly, both in the things the writer has them do and the ways the director has them do it
but if u didnt know, this movie was an extremely low budget movie that jackson supposedly on the spot. he just got really pissed with the entire "halo" movie incident because microsoft and fox are idiots and cant agree on shit, so jackson just went "screw it" and made this movie in an instant. shows how good he is even through low budget and on the spot films :D
the brilliance of the movie is not unlike a thought experiment that challenges comfortable practices by revealing their disturbing and absurd side. the basic move is to show an obviously absurd and morally perverse situation conducted with utter seriousness and unquestioning acceptance by the people involved. viewers would recognize the absurdity of the situation, but also recognize in them parallels to real affairs. further, viewers would recognize a cognitive divide between them and the absurd actors, so that they gain an understanding into the nature of the biases and practices on display.
aside from the obvious and at times sermonizing critiques of racial and corporate issues that seem to be obligatory in films with pretention for social analysis, d-9 gives time to some unpopular issues, and takes on some obscure ones as well.
there is a dig at abortion in d-9, an unpopular target by films. more accurately, it makes light of the scientific rhetoric employed to make abortion sounds clean and fun. amidst the burning and exploding prawn eggs, we hear laughter and descriptions of ingenious feeding machines. now, pointing out that one side of the abortion rift uses dehumanizing language to great effect isn't necessarily anti-abortion as policy. i support abortion even though i recognize that fetuses are human, as do others.
the mockumentary style is well noted, that the narrative is carried out through media clippings is less so. fragments of “residents say” interviews, official statements, and third party expert interviews do well to show the disorderly reverberations of opinion. the natives are insular and oblivious that they are being showcased in order to be mocked, much like when say the nytimes interviews some redneck or christian. the officials are manufacturing dignity and truth, and the media accepts that story all too willingly, but the viewer knows that the official stories are often absurd. (numerous instances of this stuff from the first eviction coverage to wikus having sex with prawns coverage) the third party observer comes off as playing the role of captain obvious, always understating and after the fact, incapable or unable, due to third party status, to make any genuinely meaningful and revolutionary pronouncement. where is the cassandra of the time, or the voice of reason? nothing but inert statements and blind fumbling, a situation that may be a dig at the real media.
wikus’s insistence on getting the aliens to sign paperwork, at gunpoint, through a chaotic and obviously quixotic expedition is satire to the legitimacy and sense of civility conferred to formal legal proceedings. a barbaric and forceful act carried out with utter seriousness and official dignity, the appearance of rationality and procedure conferred by codified paperwork. all of these modern pillars of organized social life are revealed as power-serving rhetoric as the prawns react to the farcical proceedings with understandable rude reality. for those willing to look deeper, the corp first declared a right to evict, an unilateral move that paid no mind to the interests of prawns. then, the farcical invitation to contract. as we know, contractarian ideals confer a sense of fairness, voluntary organization, reciprocity and even an obligation to obey the law. however, prawns are clearly being forced into a contract that they neither desired nor much understood. of course, the media does its part by portraying the situation as law enforcement, rather than a clear power struggle with the prawns being the weaker side. here, viewers of practically any political persuasion can find real life doubles of what the prawns went through. for libertarians, taxpayers, otherwise known as victims of property violation, are also handed tax forms to sign, even though the very institution of taxation is a coercive and unwanted intrusion. if this is the way they view taxation, then d-9’s satire of paperworks won’t be lost on them. similarly, leftwing revolutionaries object to the greater legal formalism, or ritualism as duncan kennedy would say. the treatment of immigrants by assorted papers and procedures established on the presumed right to exclusive control of territory bears closest resemblance to events on the screen.
d-9’s treatment of property and capitalism is less concentrated but still novel. when wikus walks away from his government job and into the midst of the nigerian gang, he was severed from capitalist civil society and dumped into something obviously different. the novel thing that d-9 does here isn’t to point out that, in the jungle, your money is no good, but to portray wikus’ bewilderment and confusion. he was an institutionalized man whose incapacity to live apart from the rules of capitalist exchange screamed mental blockage. nevermind the cute offer to “buy” weapons, walking into the camp is itself absurd. the assumption that such an attempt at trade would be successful is manifestly absurd, yet wikus still followed that thought, as though it wasn’t a thought at all but a mechanical habit. a habit that is replicated in his going to the food store, both before and after he became the most wanted man alive.
logically speaking, the nigerian gang could impact the interests of big capitalism tremendously, either by their storage of alien arms, or the way they affect alien relations. why doesn’t the mnu deal with them before they had a chance to mess things up? well, what did you expect? the way mnu deals with the nigerians is not unlike how google and yahoo deals with china. it is a part of the cost of doing business to accept the presence of irrational regimes. you can understand them and hence act around them, but why remove something that is too costly to touch, and isn’t posing an immediate impact. I don’t think d-9 featured this detail, but the message is clear, it is both useless and dangerous to mind things outside of your business, atrocities included. this petty cynicism is the inert core of modern political life.
the beautiful thing about d-9’s political tentacles is that it knows how to be loud yet understated. absurdity is most stark when it is natural and subtle, when the viewer has the sense that she is the only sane person left on earth. d-9 manages to avoid, for the most part, plastic and shrill caricatures. (all three words bring up images of sarah palin, painfully) it is not preachy or sentimental, but at the end of the story, you can’t blame yourself for wishing that a prawn armada lays waste to these silly monkeys.
which brings us to the ending that some say is inconclusive. the problem is, if the ending is conclusive, then the moral situation would also needs to be conclusive. the prawns are not angels nor unambiguously moral beings. they are apparently a centralized and collectivized society with no real sense of intelligent culture in the vast majority. perhaps a popular caricature of soviet style communism, but also a popular archetype that many foreign cultures are thought to exhibit. whatever the case with the prawns, it is clear that their victory is anything but a tragedy, albeit a one tinged with poetic justice. a prawns retribution fleet won’t develop the far more ambitious moral vision that I suspect is in store for d-10.
ps a lot of the so-called plotholes are there to either create a sense of the absurd, or to plainly tell you that you shouldn’t bother paying attention to questions like “how exactly does the dna tech work” and instead pay attention to more important content. at points, it is obvious that artistic license has been taken on things like dna etc that are not realistic, but this is not a big deal.
there's a lot of neat points that just flew over my head.
Like for example, these critters that actually infest parts of Johannesburg which were probably the inspiration for the aliens' design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn
Hate to post this late into the thread just to say I saw it...but I just saw it yesterday and it was awesome! Now I can finally read this 11 page thread that I have wanted to read since it started.
This movie was really well done. There's so few things that I didn't enjoy in it, and most of the plot holes here are non-existant, or just people being anal.
Why are so many people praising this movie? The tedious middle section and terribly inconclusive ending aside; I have issues with the movie as a whole. Yes, I got the mock documentary style and noted its critiques of corporate/government excess as well as the irony of "civilized" bureaucracy carried out at gunpoint.
However, the pervasive feeling I got from D-9 was a sense of "why". The movie simply shows a series of events, little to no explanation given. I suppose one could argue that this is in fact a strength, forcing the view to draw his/her own conclusions, but to me it speaks of poor writing and an overemphasis on flashy CGI gun battles. To top it all off, I found the main character (Wikus) thoroughly unlikable. His behavior at the beginning of the movie and when he abandoned Christopher nearly entirely nullified any empathy I might have felt for his plight.
you are not supposed to understand everything. you have to remain distant enough from that world, without any firm reference points of understanding, to grasp at any insinuations you can find, and thus stumble on the correct ones. it is a way of guiding your viewing by sensitizing you to peculiarities. the irrelevant details are whitewashed, or you should already whitewash them after you recognize what hte point of the exercise is.
wikus is not likeable, but he acts like a typical human would act. humans are not altogether likeable.
I thought District 9 was a rather terrible sci-fi movie in a lot of aspects. I think they handled the whole Aliens living on earth thing incredibly well, but the main plot of the movie was so weak and riddled with plot holes. Basically everything having to do with the Spaceship fuel was bad. In terms of a movie that was just a fun to watch movie i'd say it was great in that.
On August 23 2009 12:51 oneofthem wrote: you are not supposed to understand everything. you have to remain distant enough from that world, without any firm reference points of understanding, to grasp at any insinuations you can find, and thus stumble on the correct ones. it is a way of guiding your viewing by sensitizing you to peculiarities. the irrelevant details are whitewashed, or you should already whitewash them after you recognize what hte point of the exercise is.
wikus is not likeable, but he acts like a typical human would act. humans are not altogether likeable.
And what precisely is the point of this movie? That the vast majority of humanity is despicable scum? That "aliens" are really just humans underneath it all?
i dont know about you, but i got the point about 5 minutes in. don't want to waste much time on this, so i'll just link this and say what you get out of a movie has a lot to do with your store of related experiences/thoughts.
the reason why the made wickus (sp?) such a dick and somewhat not likeable was a commentary on people. it was telling us that THIS is the best humanity has to offer which was obviously, very little.
Slightly offtopic btu I thought this was a fantastic movie. Probably one of the best in the last 5 years atleast. Classic.
Yeah This was done by the guy chosen to be hte Halo director. Halo got pulled on him 5 months in so Jackson privately financed him with his personal group.
I thought the writer deserves props for making the humans so human. Wickus is almost equivilent to a nazi bureaucrat at the beginning of the movie. (Slums but no scientifically planned massacres, yet. There was talk about breeding control). Though he changes as his circumstances change throughout the movie, he never acts in a way unrealistic with how he would seem to naturally grow. Sure he can suddenly grow a heart for something he at the very least disdained, but it's not as realistic as him demanding a quid pro quo exchange. Something not out of the goodness of his heart.
Is anyone else disturbed there's going to be a sequel?
The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
I can see both sides on this. The premise is great, and the actor playing Wikus did a good job, and it had intense gun battles. To the more critical eye, the movie has a lot of schlocky moments and in view of the greater scope of all movies, there are movies with great premises and execution so why get bother getting a boner about this overall average to above-average film?
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
whats with people thinking that stories in which you dont like the main character are crappy movies? the whole knocking out christpoher thing fits right in with his entire persona.
I really liked this movie, even with all the plot holes. At first I thought it would be another sci-fi movie with thinly veiled social commentary, but it turned out to be more like a psychological thriller at parts. The action sequences were great and it's nice to see a different portrayal of aliens. Also the fact that it didn't end in "happily ever after" is a good change from fairy tale sci-fi movies.
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
You're forgetting that to humans prawns are stupid creatures. They are at the same level of animals. He's been through absolute hell, been almost killed a hundred time, is being transformed into some weird shit and now he finds out he has to wait 3 fucking years for a giant shrimp to keep his word and change him back. It's a miracle he didn't shoot Christopher in the face.
there's a lot of neat points that just flew over my head.
Like for example, these critters that actually infest parts of Johannesburg which were probably the inspiration for the aliens' design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn
Thanks for the links hideo, it got really interesting information.
Here's the interview with the director Neill Blomkamp from that link provided by hideo. Some of the things he talk about may solve most of the plot holes that you guys have been debating about. Just posting this incase anyone miss hideo's links or didn't read it. + Show Spoiler +
District 9's Director Tells Us All About His Alien Back Story By Meredith Woerner, 3:00 PM on Thu Aug 6 2009, 19,299 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)
Who are the humanly named "prawn" aliens of District 9, and where did they come from? Director Neill Blomkamp reveals all to us about these beings, their planet, ships and possible home in the Andromeda Galaxy. Spoilers!
At Comic-Con, we interviewed Neill on camera, and he mentioned his hive mind concept about the aliens of District 9. Later on, we got to press further about the entire alien world that Neill had built around his alien creatures, past the hive.
What is your own back story for these aliens? What's their home planet like? Why did the end up on Earth?
The hive mind [concept] is the most important thing to me, because I love the idea of a civilization that can build all of that technology and then, at the same time, just have a massive population that was just drones that needed direction, and were absolutely incapable of building that stuff on their own. I found that to be a really interesting concept. Also, it sort of explains why they don't turn on the humans. Individually, they may be feeling oppressed, but they don't have it together enough to form a resistance and back one another. So I found that really interesting.
I think that they do have a home planet, it's pretty far away probably in the Andromeda Galaxy, but what I like is that they'll live on the ship for thousands of years. Obviously, there's much more of a population on the main planet, but the ships will go out and get the minerals and the ore and whatever resources they need and then bring them all back home.
The other thing is that the ship was meant to clip together with other ships. So there's, like, vast amounts of resources that they're bringing to the parent planet. And the ship, when the army generals or the queen of that particular ship died off by some sort of virus or bacteria that they picked up on some other planet, that killed them off. And it didn't effect these sort of resilient, hardy sort of drone workers. Then the technology is usually the thing that they relied on to save them, but in this case it sort of screwed them because it brought them to a planet that kind of treated them pretty badly, but it was the ship that realized that, unless it gets to a life sustaining planet everything is going to die, which is a cool idea. So the ship just auto pilots to the closest one in the Goldilocks band, and it's our planet and then pulls up and hits the breaks.
Where does this leave Christopher Johnson [an abnormally smart prawn who sparks a bit of a revolution... Not to give too much away]?
I think it's taken 20 years. I think because there is a subconscious hive mind happening, really what they should do is lay one egg that has a different embryo in it that grows into a Queen or being someone that dictates direction. But I think in the interim, because they may have done that, there may be an egg out there with that, but as that being is growing, I just like the idea that he may have been a lot more directionless in the beginning. But the hive structure of their society may just pick one or two that starts to become the leader. Like the overall structure of his brain may change because the hive may want that to happen. So he starts having a direction and a goal. Which is an interesting idea and it's just enough to kick start them to be able to get to the ship to get back.
1) DELETED
2) Also, the first time when Wikus entered the spaceship below the shack and Christopher told him that he can fix Wikus and transform him back to human form. After a few dialogue, Christopher then said, "The transformation is accelerating...you do not have much time." After they retrieved the alien fluid tube and got back to the shack, Wikus ask Christopher how long it would take to fix him once they fly up to the mothership. Christopher replied, "three years." At the end of the movie, we see that Wikus had finished his metamorphosis and completely transformed into a prawn. My question is that Christopher told WIkus that his transformation is accelerating and he's running out of time, and at the end of the movie, he completed his transformation, does that means it is too late to reverse the transformation even if Christopher came back in 3 years as he promised to fix him?
Overall, I thought the movie was good although there were some stuff that didn't quite made sense to me. Also another interesting thing to note is that according to wikipedia, as of 8/30/09, the film have grossed revenue of $105,149,708. That is 3.5x more from a mere 30 mil budget to produce the film. I would say that figure translate to a successful film. And as one of the poster (forgot who and too lazy to search through the thread again) mentioned that the director/producer would do a sequel if the film is successful. I'd say we'll most likely gonna get a sequel and I'm looking forward to that!
EDIT: Yeah, I guess you're right Hawk and Zeppellin. I didn't thought about the 20 (or 30? forgot) years lapse that gave time for the human to learn the alien's language.
1) Might be forgetting something, but I figured they all understood it to some degree after living with them for so long.
2) It's ambiguous really, and could have just meant that he doesn't have much time to do it before he goes fully prawn, making it a longer process and so on. Really minor if you ask me
there's a lot of neat points that just flew over my head.
Like for example, these critters that actually infest parts of Johannesburg which were probably the inspiration for the aliens' design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn
Thanks for the links hideo, it got really interesting information.
Here's the interview with the director Neill Blomkamp from that link provided by hideo. Some of the things he talk about may solve most of the plot holes that you guys have been debating about. Just posting this incase anyone miss hideo's links or didn't read it. + Show Spoiler +
District 9's Director Tells Us All About His Alien Back Story By Meredith Woerner, 3:00 PM on Thu Aug 6 2009, 19,299 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp)
Who are the humanly named "prawn" aliens of District 9, and where did they come from? Director Neill Blomkamp reveals all to us about these beings, their planet, ships and possible home in the Andromeda Galaxy. Spoilers!
At Comic-Con, we interviewed Neill on camera, and he mentioned his hive mind concept about the aliens of District 9. Later on, we got to press further about the entire alien world that Neill had built around his alien creatures, past the hive.
What is your own back story for these aliens? What's their home planet like? Why did the end up on Earth?
The hive mind [concept] is the most important thing to me, because I love the idea of a civilization that can build all of that technology and then, at the same time, just have a massive population that was just drones that needed direction, and were absolutely incapable of building that stuff on their own. I found that to be a really interesting concept. Also, it sort of explains why they don't turn on the humans. Individually, they may be feeling oppressed, but they don't have it together enough to form a resistance and back one another. So I found that really interesting.
I think that they do have a home planet, it's pretty far away probably in the Andromeda Galaxy, but what I like is that they'll live on the ship for thousands of years. Obviously, there's much more of a population on the main planet, but the ships will go out and get the minerals and the ore and whatever resources they need and then bring them all back home.
The other thing is that the ship was meant to clip together with other ships. So there's, like, vast amounts of resources that they're bringing to the parent planet. And the ship, when the army generals or the queen of that particular ship died off by some sort of virus or bacteria that they picked up on some other planet, that killed them off. And it didn't effect these sort of resilient, hardy sort of drone workers. Then the technology is usually the thing that they relied on to save them, but in this case it sort of screwed them because it brought them to a planet that kind of treated them pretty badly, but it was the ship that realized that, unless it gets to a life sustaining planet everything is going to die, which is a cool idea. So the ship just auto pilots to the closest one in the Goldilocks band, and it's our planet and then pulls up and hits the breaks.
Where does this leave Christopher Johnson [an abnormally smart prawn who sparks a bit of a revolution... Not to give too much away]?
I think it's taken 20 years. I think because there is a subconscious hive mind happening, really what they should do is lay one egg that has a different embryo in it that grows into a Queen or being someone that dictates direction. But I think in the interim, because they may have done that, there may be an egg out there with that, but as that being is growing, I just like the idea that he may have been a lot more directionless in the beginning. But the hive structure of their society may just pick one or two that starts to become the leader. Like the overall structure of his brain may change because the hive may want that to happen. So he starts having a direction and a goal. Which is an interesting idea and it's just enough to kick start them to be able to get to the ship to get back.
1) The thing that bothers me is how is it that Wikus is able to understand the alien's language with no translator device?
aliens have lived on earth for almost 30 years at that point and he's a fairly high up employee in the alien affairs division, that's like asking how a missionary to the new world in the 1600s could possibly ever learn the language of native americans
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
a movie where a character under a significant amount of duress makes nothing but calm and rational decisions is arguably more far-fetched than one where they do something really dumb in hindsight to try to make the duress stop
too often people at the movies project the character to be as calm and content as they are sitting in the theater instead of putting themselves into the character's position
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
You're talking about the guy that tried to cut off his own arm. How did you expect him to take the news that it would be 3 years to change him back?
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
That part really made me laugh because when Wikus shot the alien weapon and the security guy splattered and Christopher responded "Fuck!". I thought it was funny because there was a subtitle for it.
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
That part really made me laugh because when Wikus shot the alien weapon and the security guy splattered and Christopher responded "Fuck!". I thought it was funny because there was a subtitle for it.
Haha yea the splatters from the humans with the alien gun was simply win.
I found the whole situation with the aliens unbelievable. I don't mean the aliens themselves or anything like that just their situation on earth with humans. But at least the plot was consistent in this. I'm a big sci-fi person and I've seen/read a lot but to me it was just...stupid. I thought the movie was decent but nothing close to special or even good. I can't recommend it. Decent is the perfect word for it imo.
Inglorious Basterds is amazing, go see that instead.
On September 02 2009 09:20 Xxio wrote: NO spoilers in this post
I found the whole situation with the aliens unbelievable. I don't mean the aliens themselves or anything like that just their situation on earth with humans. But at least the plot was consistent in this. I'm a big sci-fi person and I've seen/read a lot but to me it was just...stupid. I thought the movie was decent but nothing close to special or even good. I can't recommend it. Decent is the perfect word for it imo.
Inglorious Basterds is amazing, go see that instead.
of all the fictional elements in the movie, the fact that sentient beings when deprived of their leadership struggle became marginalized and isolated by the dominant population is easily the most grounded in reality
If First Contact was made a corporation (that manufactures weapons lol) would not be given control over the alien population. Driving their trucks and telling Aliens to be evicted and having their own army shooting them down. Oh and letting the aliens just live off garbage and get addicted to cat-food, not to mention having some random Algerian gang taking control of their ghetto.
Also, why the fuck would they keep them in the middle of Africa? I mean, are there no governments in this movie or what? And if it's way into the future when corporations control the world (which it in no way seems) they still wouldn't treat the aliens that way, it's just inefficient and counter productive on so many levels
On August 24 2009 17:46 A3iL3r0n wrote: The part that totally killed off the movie for me was when Wikus knocks out Christopher once he finds out its going to take 3 years to change him back. This is after the break into the government lab together and they have a moment during all of the gun fire. It gives Wikus has 0 heart at all, and not only that, any strides you thought he was making became null also. It's just bad writing, it's basically a bald-faced way of making the task of getting Christopher back to the mothership all that more difficult and harrowing, when there were obvious other ways to make this happen that were more smooth and kept the main character's development intact.
I can see both sides on this. The premise is great, and the actor playing Wikus did a good job, and it had intense gun battles. To the more critical eye, the movie has a lot of schlocky moments and in view of the greater scope of all movies, there are movies with great premises and execution so why get bother getting a boner about this overall average to above-average film?
Wikus was ALWAYS weak, this just shows that more. Furthermore, it highlights humanity's weakness - Wikus knew that a massive population of Christopher's race was in peril, but instead he chose the selfish path when he learned he would have to wait for any hope of becoming human again.
^ to add on that, I'm pretty sure Wikus doesn't know how to operate the alien medical technology on the ship (as he was told) to make himself human again...soo he just wanted to go up there to chill?
On September 02 2009 09:54 Xxio wrote: If First Contact was made a corporation (that manufactures weapons lol) would not be given control over the alien population. Driving their trucks and telling Aliens to be evicted and having their own army shooting them down. Oh and letting the aliens just live off garbage and get addicted to cat-food, not to mention having some random Algerian gang taking control of their ghetto.
Also, why the fuck would they keep them in the middle of Africa? I mean, are there no governments in this movie or what? And if it's way into the future when corporations control the world (which it in no way seems) they still wouldn't treat the aliens that way, it's just inefficient and counter productive on so many levels
Did you not watch the damn movie at all?
They kept them in the middle of Africa because it was right below their mothership. This was blatantly obvious.
Governments hired this corporation to move the aliens (specifically the South African government) because they didn't want to do it themselves and have the "blood on their hands".
There were 1.8 million (or more) aliens in District 9. Are you seriously going to tell me that it's that easy to control them, keep them from living in slum-like conditions, and stopping crime from running rampant in a slum of 1.8 MILLION?
It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
The plot is perfectly believable, you obviously just didn't watch half the movie or it'd be blatantly obvious as to why.
On September 02 2009 10:00 Xxio wrote: ^ to add on that, I'm pretty sure Wikus doesn't know how to operate the alien medical technology on the ship (as he was told) to make himself human again...soo he just wanted to go up there to chill?
I'm sure that when you are facing your HUMANITY being taken away from you by a DNA-altering foreign substance transforming you against your will, you'll think completely logically.
On September 02 2009 09:54 Xxio wrote: If First Contact was made a corporation (that manufactures weapons lol) would not be given control over the alien population. Driving their trucks and telling Aliens to be evicted and having their own army shooting them down. Oh and letting the aliens just live off garbage and get addicted to cat-food, not to mention having some random Algerian gang taking control of their ghetto.
Also, why the fuck would they keep them in the middle of Africa? I mean, are there no governments in this movie or what? And if it's way into the future when corporations control the world (which it in no way seems) they still wouldn't treat the aliens that way, it's just inefficient and counter productive on so many levels
first contact happened in 1982, if anything south africa was a great place for them - mutually agreeable for both major parties during the cold war
presumably it didnt take that long to realize that any useful research was going to be difficult and expensive to get - the whole world was watching south africa so they couldnt just execute the poor guys and no other country was going to take them, it's too expensive and too much of a hassle
MNU probably offered reduced-cost security for the opportunity to study them and their technology - maybe governments hadn't tried vivisection and other inhumane research that a shady company might be more willing to do (and for all we know some could have been secretly shipped out to government facilities for the same type of research - again, for a fee)
letting nigerian gangs control district 9 by keeping the aliens addicted to cat food was probably a better alternative to running the risk of the aliens having any sort of organized rioting and was probably much cheaper than keeping an organized police force to do the same thing
as for it being inefficient and counterproductive to treat the aliens poorly, all MNU needed from them was a few test subjects/eggs every now and again, and they were sufficiently marginalized that no one would give a shit or intervene if they treated them poorly - look at all the stories of alleged abuse committed by blackwater mercenaries in iraq
they probably felt the aliens were incapable of productive economic activity and so there was no benefit in trying to treat them well, just let the nigerians and border patrol keep them in order, control their population, and skim a few off the top/confiscate some weapons for research now and then
They kept them in the middle of Africa because it was right below their mothership. This was blatantly obvious.
Governments hired this corporation to move the aliens (specifically the South African government) because they didn't want to do it themselves and have the "blood on their hands".
There were 1.8 million (or more) aliens in District 9. Are you seriously going to tell me that it's that easy to control them, keep them from living in slum-like conditions, and stopping crime from running rampant in a slum of 1.8 MILLION?
It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
The plot is perfectly believable, you obviously just didn't watch half the movie or it'd be blatantly obvious as to why.
Why does it matter whether they are under the mothership? at no point are the aliens like, "we want to stay under the mothership even though nothing has happened with it for 20 years". its not like they are being nice to them by doing it. they shoot 5 of them then are like, "what are you complaining about, we let you stay under the mothership and eat goat heads!"...another thing..where is the food? epic fail Um yes, it would be easy to control them. If First Contact was made 1.8 aliens could easily be accommodated. governments would spend billions. Have "blood on their hands" ?, why does there have to be blood in the first place? just don't be a dick about it and tell them your going to take away their children..
They kept them in the middle of Africa because it was right below their mothership. This was blatantly obvious.
Governments hired this corporation to move the aliens (specifically the South African government) because they didn't want to do it themselves and have the "blood on their hands".
There were 1.8 million (or more) aliens in District 9. Are you seriously going to tell me that it's that easy to control them, keep them from living in slum-like conditions, and stopping crime from running rampant in a slum of 1.8 MILLION?
It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
The plot is perfectly believable, you obviously just didn't watch half the movie or it'd be blatantly obvious as to why.
Why does it matter whether they are under the mothership? at no point are the aliens like, "we want to stay under the mothership even though nothing has happened with it for 20 years". its not like they are being nice to them by doing it. they shoot 5 of them then are like, "what are you complaining about, we let you stay under the mothership and eat goat heads!"...another thing..where is the food? epic fail Um yes, it would be easy to control them. If First Contact was made 1.8 aliens could easily be accommodated. governments would spend billions. Have "blood on their hands" ?, why does there have to be blood in the first place? just don't be a dick about it and tell them your going to take away their children..
i'm done with this thread
Keeping them under the mothership is convenient. Not only does this mean not moving the aliens very far, it means that they're close to the ship in case they need it.
Honestly, all I see here is an idealistic dreamer saying, "Well they SHOULD'VE done this." Well, too bad. This movie portrays what could more realistically happen. Humanity is greedy, selfish, and fairly evil at most points.
On September 02 2009 10:03 Stratos_speAr wrote: It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
no it isn't...first contact was in 1982 and the events of the movie were in august of 2010, you can check the footage on the cameras
They kept them in the middle of Africa because it was right below their mothership. This was blatantly obvious.
Governments hired this corporation to move the aliens (specifically the South African government) because they didn't want to do it themselves and have the "blood on their hands".
There were 1.8 million (or more) aliens in District 9. Are you seriously going to tell me that it's that easy to control them, keep them from living in slum-like conditions, and stopping crime from running rampant in a slum of 1.8 MILLION?
It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
The plot is perfectly believable, you obviously just didn't watch half the movie or it'd be blatantly obvious as to why.
Why does it matter whether they are under the mothership? at no point are the aliens like, "we want to stay under the mothership even though nothing has happened with it for 20 years". its not like they are being nice to them by doing it. they shoot 5 of them then are like, "what are you complaining about, we let you stay under the mothership and eat goat heads!"...another thing..where is the food? epic fail Um yes, it would be easy to control them. If First Contact was made 1.8 aliens could easily be accommodated. governments would spend billions. Have "blood on their hands" ?, why does there have to be blood in the first place? just don't be a dick about it and tell them your going to take away their children..
i'm done with this thread
humanity doesn't have a very good track record with dealing with new cultures, they tend to get marginalized if not outright genocided - as soon as we found out they were useless for giving us any technological advances, literally all we would need from them would be enough bodies/contraband to experiment on
sure there is some concern that if they were found by a group of aliens that had its leadership structure intact we would be invaded and conquered, but they were probably under the assumption that that would happen regardless of how well we treated the aliens
what is the incentive of a government to spend billions of dollars on a group of individuals who will be strongly disliked by the existing residents and aren't able to make any contributions to that society, other than altruism (and it's not far-fetched to think altruism for a group of violent, unruly bug monsters will be harder to come by than altruism for other humans)
not to mention my earlier point, when the aliens landed it was the middle of the cold war. nato and warsaw pact were probably at a standoff for where they should go and while south africa was far more on the side of the west, keeping them where they were was probably the most diplomatically appropriate action. the US/USSR probably had access to them early on and quickly discovered the same thing that south africa did - they were of no use to us (and again, for all we know they had their own clandestine alien research programs which wouldn't be discussed in a documentary and weren't central enough to the plot to be discussed).
They kept them in the middle of Africa because it was right below their mothership. This was blatantly obvious.
Governments hired this corporation to move the aliens (specifically the South African government) because they didn't want to do it themselves and have the "blood on their hands".
There were 1.8 million (or more) aliens in District 9. Are you seriously going to tell me that it's that easy to control them, keep them from living in slum-like conditions, and stopping crime from running rampant in a slum of 1.8 MILLION?
It's 30 years in the future. Like I said, the corporation was hired by the South African government and not too much changed from what it's like today (realistically, in 30 years we won't change that much).
The plot is perfectly believable, you obviously just didn't watch half the movie or it'd be blatantly obvious as to why.
Why does it matter whether they are under the mothership? at no point are the aliens like, "we want to stay under the mothership even though nothing has happened with it for 20 years". its not like they are being nice to them by doing it. they shoot 5 of them then are like, "what are you complaining about, we let you stay under the mothership and eat goat heads!"...another thing..where is the food? epic fail Um yes, it would be easy to control them. If First Contact was made 1.8 aliens could easily be accommodated. governments would spend billions. Have "blood on their hands" ?, why does there have to be blood in the first place? just don't be a dick about it and tell them your going to take away their children..
i'm done with this thread
They aren't keeping them in Africa to be near the mothership. They are keeping them there because nobody else wants them. What are you suggesting? Countries want to take in 2 million prawns to be responsible for and to have to house and feed 2 million people? There's a reason why in the movie every South African wants them relocated and the plot of the movie is built around the relocation. I'm not sure why you have this idea that countries would spend billions to inherit a slum of 2 million crab people, especially in the 80s when America is in an arms race with the Soviet Union and is already cutting funding for tons of social programs that house/feed their own citizens.
damn i wonder what would the alien do after that alien returns home. I bet they would come back with mad army and take over us lol. then we will be the slave
Watched it yesterday and still recurs in my thoughts periodically.
In the middle, I was like "Is this Steven Spielberg?". And then, "hmm, nothing sucks so far, so no, this is sb new". At the end I was sure they spent 200M-ish on the movie and was pleasantly surprised it was "only" 30M.
Just watched this. Fantastic movie, the only complaint I had was probably the transition between documentary and the bulk of the movie felt pretty awkward for me. I really didn't think there were any plothole problems that weren't answered by subtle cues or minor inference.
The fuel for example, I thought the director did a good job showing that the liquid needed to be REFINED, let alone find. The 20 years could have simply been required to treat a component not shown. Anyone familiar with fusion or fission should not be surprised by how little amount of the fuel it took to power what was needed.
What a great movie. Really liked how it drew parallels to modern life. Bit disheartening to know that that would probably be the reaction of humans if aliens came to earth.
Just a thought, do they taste like prawns? If they do, they are basically like lobster right? Human can farm them! They should be glad that their mothership didn't land on Japan.
They're named after Parktown Prawns which are large crickets that infest parts of Johannesburg, not the prawns which are commonly associated with being eaten.
People seem to overthink this in some manner, and in a faulty manner everytime.
Indeed why did they land in South Africa... Well where would you land at the first sight of a foreign world? Why are they all in the same place? Would you want them to be spread out in small portions all across the globe? I think not.
Why is it a slum? Because the aliens are counter-productive and violent.
Just seems to be alot of bad feedback from a lot of people complaining about the plot, when all in all it's not too complicated, it's just pretty damn original... And that's what we need these days... Originality instead of remake after remake after fucking bleeding remake -_-
Nigeria's information minister, Dora Akunyili, says that "District 9" is not welcome in Nigeria because it portrays Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals. She has asked movie houses to stop screening the film.
Akunyili says she requested an apology from Sony and wants them to edit out the Nigerian antagonists and the name of the main Nigerian gangster Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
This news comes just days after Nigeria complained about a different Sony product. In a commercial for PS3, an actor states: "You can't believe everything you read on the internet. Otherwise, I'd be a Nigerian millionaire by now."
Nigierian government officials demanded an apology from the cmpany as well as the immediate removal of the commercial. Sony has since replaced the line with: "You can't believe everything you read on the internet. That's how World War I got started."
One of the worst movies I have seen recently, as expected, totally overhyped movie, with lots of marketing leading to even bigger disappointment. It is another of this movies targeted to 12 year olds like Volcano or w/e where they tell that "lava is very hot thus it's dangerous"
The biggest problem is the plot, which is utter crap. It's so full of holes and blatant moralization that it makes me sick. I think this film is supposed to be "a lesson about racism", yet it depicts nigerians as human underclass.
But this leads to even more questions, how did "nigerian gangs" enter a militarized zone? How come the "militarized" zone doesnt look militarized at all? Why is there no concrete and guards at each corner? Humanity managed to build concentration camps and guantanamo, so this whole "tents on desert" thing is complete bullshit. I could understand that humans would evacuate all the aliens from the ship in order to prevent them from using it, yet how were weapons allowed? No searches? No terror? Only pussies like the main "hero"? (who was absolutely unlikeable)
Were there no "talks" with the aliens? Ok, perhaps there were some sort of "talks" since the humans obviously could understand them, thus didnt they ask "guys, what are you doing here?". In real life if they'd refuse to reply/didnt provide any reply that made sense they'd probably be nuked. Not to mention that the aliens looked like some primitive society that could not organize any form of government/civilization in the camp... how could they build a spaceship?
The 'pseudo-documentary' style at the beginning of the movie sucks; yet later on, when the movie changes into a shooter it becomes even worse. Two guys easily running away from a militarized zone...
I didnt like the visuals too, brown-yellow aliens on brown-yellow background.. Not to mention 'mutagen fuel'...
I give this film 3/10 since there are worse movies. I havent read the thread, but I think that lots of kids will like it. Im like 100% sure that incontrol will like it too.
PS. I wonder, if this is supposed to be a political movie that is supposed to make people like immigrants? Because it completely fails.
On September 22 2009 00:51 closed wrote: One of the worst movies I have seen recently, as expected, totally overhyped movie, with lots of marketing leading to even bigger disappointment. It is another of this movies targeted to 12 year olds like Volcano or w/e where they tell that "lava is very hot thus it's dangerous"
The biggest problem is the plot, which is utter crap. It's so full of holes and blatant moralization that it makes me sick. I think this film is supposed to be "a lesson about racism", yet it depicts nigerians as human underclass.
But this leads to even more questions, how did "nigerian gangs" enter a militarized zone? How come the "militarized" zone doesnt look militarized at all? Why is there no concrete and guards at each corner? Humanity managed to build concentration camps and guantanamo, so this whole "tents on desert" thing is complete bullshit. I could understand that humans would evacuate all the aliens from the ship in order to prevent them from using it, yet how were weapons allowed? No searches? No terror? Only pussies like the main "hero"? (who was absolutely unlikeable)
Were there no "talks" with the aliens? Ok, perhaps there were some sort of "talks" since the humans obviously could understand them, thus didnt they ask "guys, what are you doing here?". In real life if they'd refuse to reply/didnt provide any reply that made sense they'd probably be nuked. Not to mention that the aliens looked like some primitive society that could not organize any form of government/civilization in the camp... how could they build a spaceship?
The 'pseudo-documentary' style at the beginning of the movie sucks; yet later on, when the movie changes into a shooter it becomes even worse. Two guys easily running away from a militarized zone...
I didnt like the visuals too, brown-yellow aliens on brown-yellow background.. Not to mention 'mutagen fuel'...
I give this film 3/10 since there are worse movies. I havent read the thread, but I think that lots of kids will like it. Im like 100% sure that incontrol will like it too.
PS. I wonder, if this is supposed to be a political movie that is supposed to make people like immigrants? Because it completely fails.
Because someone has a differing opinion than you do makes it ok for you to look down on those who are not on the same wave lengths as you? Im all for you not enjoying a movie and having an opinion on it but to pretty much say that you are a kid or have diminished mental capacity because you like something that you don't is just silly. As I get older I care less and less about what others think and say but sometimes I have to say something to such thoughtless and self centered ... thoughts ^_^
On September 22 2009 00:51 closed wrote: One of the worst movies I have seen recently, as expected, totally overhyped movie, with lots of marketing leading to even bigger disappointment. It is another of this movies targeted to 12 year olds like Volcano or w/e where they tell that "lava is very hot thus it's dangerous"
The biggest problem is the plot, which is utter crap. It's so full of holes and blatant moralization that it makes me sick. I think this film is supposed to be "a lesson about racism", yet it depicts nigerians as human underclass.
But this leads to even more questions, how did "nigerian gangs" enter a militarized zone? How come the "militarized" zone doesnt look militarized at all? Why is there no concrete and guards at each corner? Humanity managed to build concentration camps and guantanamo, so this whole "tents on desert" thing is complete bullshit. I could understand that humans would evacuate all the aliens from the ship in order to prevent them from using it, yet how were weapons allowed? No searches? No terror? Only pussies like the main "hero"? (who was absolutely unlikeable)
Were there no "talks" with the aliens? Ok, perhaps there were some sort of "talks" since the humans obviously could understand them, thus didnt they ask "guys, what are you doing here?". In real life if they'd refuse to reply/didnt provide any reply that made sense they'd probably be nuked. Not to mention that the aliens looked like some primitive society that could not organize any form of government/civilization in the camp... how could they build a spaceship?
The 'pseudo-documentary' style at the beginning of the movie sucks; yet later on, when the movie changes into a shooter it becomes even worse. Two guys easily running away from a militarized zone...
I didnt like the visuals too, brown-yellow aliens on brown-yellow background.. Not to mention 'mutagen fuel'...
I give this film 3/10 since there are worse movies. I havent read the thread, but I think that lots of kids will like it. Im like 100% sure that incontrol will like it too.
PS. I wonder, if this is supposed to be a political movie that is supposed to make people like immigrants? Because it completely fails.
From someone who's entire family has been in a refugee camp this is very accurate. Gangs tend to form anywhere and everywhere and try to imagine the humanitarian (or alien in this case) disaster if the government had zero tolerance. It'd be all out war. Mistakes happen, people sneak in, hell my parents sneaked out from a de-militarized zone to a FRONTLINE, past an area known to have land mines and crossed a border that was guarded by snipers. Believe it! When humans are desperate all sorts of things can be accomplished. I'm sure sitting in your comfy chair in (I'm not going to assume you're american) wherever you are playing halo or CS you could go "bullshit, sif they wouldn't just shoot them". That's not real ife.
To answer your questions about the aliens being stupid --> they were "worker class"
Put together a million average "joe" americans and see what happens. Have you ever seen the slums that rednecks live in? Yep... yet they're perfectly capable of driving a manual car or light airplane. Well, I can't imagine a spaceship would be any harder to fly especially given the fact that it was probably programmed to fly itself and had an appointed "arbiter" or some kind of authority figure on-board.
I think you're giving humanity way too much credit for waaay to much intelligence.
Forget how "plausible" the movie can be and try and enjoy it for it's unique cinematography and story line.
Personally, I wasn't impressed (at first) either, because I expected Independence Day. However, when I walked out of the movie theater and really sat down to think I started liking the movie. Not 10/10 but definitely 7 or 8 through sheer uniqueness alone.
On September 22 2009 05:43 closed wrote: Well, everyone likes Britney Spears, Twilight and GW Bush too. And since everyone likes them, they must be great. So let's hop into the bandwagon!
We should eat shit - millions of flies cannot be wrong.
My fucking god, could you strawman any more? He said it was wrong of you to say anyone with a differing opinion is an idiot, he did NOT SAY that the populous was always correct.
Unless you were talking about Inc... who said it wasn't that sick because everyone liked it where sick was a good thing. =/
nope. I was commenting that he made a generalization that was fairly safe because it was a very popular movie.
Closed is trolling.. coming way over the top in a thread that is mostly comprised of people who enjoyed the heck out of the movie. It'd be one thing if he had a legitimate gripe with the movie but his "constructive" post was mostly bitching about shit he simply doesn't appreciate/understand.
Not really worth addressing point by point.. no more than a healthy debate with a 3 year old on the merits of his invisible super hero friend "danny"
On September 21 2009 10:57 zoLo wrote: From WorstPreviews.com:
Akunyili says she requested an apology from Sony and wants them to edit out the Nigerian antagonists and the name of the main Nigerian gangster Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
When I saw the movie, I thought it was pretty funny that they named the Nigerian gangster after a former Nigerian President. Maybe if it's a common Nigerian name it would be OK, but otherwise I can see why they'd be a little upset. (I only recognized the name because I went to college with one of his sons.)
On September 22 2009 05:43 closed wrote: Well, everyone likes Britney Spears, Twilight and GW Bush too. And since everyone likes them, they must be great. So let's hop into the bandwagon!
We should eat shit - millions of flies cannot be wrong.
My fucking god, could you strawman any more? He said it was wrong of you to say anyone with a differing opinion is an idiot, he did NOT SAY that the populous was always correct.
Unless you were talking about Inc... who said it wasn't that sick because everyone liked it where sick was a good thing. =/
For every one person band-wagoning with popular opinion, there's another person opposing it solely because they think it's the "cool" thing to do.
After watching the film (but before discussing it with anyone), I thought it was decidedly "meh". I was honestly shocked by the number of people who thought it was exemplary.
threads like these show why the argument from authority is a time honored practice. it is simply the most effective way of getting the ignorant to shut up with minimal effort.
Anyway, I thought that the aliens left their home planet because it was already destroyed? So CJ might be looking for a new planet to be their home. Yeah, and how the hell can CJ restore wikus back to his human form? Does that mean he has done it before at some other planet? And they just got to earth by accident.
On September 22 2009 00:51 closed wrote: But this leads to even more questions, how did "nigerian gangs" enter a militarized zone? How come the "militarized" zone doesnt look militarized at all? Why is there no concrete and guards at each corner? Humanity managed to build concentration camps and guantanamo, so this whole "tents on desert" thing is complete bullshit. I could understand that humans would evacuate all the aliens from the ship in order to prevent them from using it, yet how were weapons allowed? No searches? No terror? Only pussies like the main "hero"? (who was absolutely unlikeable)
Were there no "talks" with the aliens? Ok, perhaps there were some sort of "talks" since the humans obviously could understand them, thus didnt they ask "guys, what are you doing here?". In real life if they'd refuse to reply/didnt provide any reply that made sense they'd probably be nuked. Not to mention that the aliens looked like some primitive society that could not organize any form of government/civilization in the camp... how could they build a spaceship?
A lot of these questions can be described by failure of government. Governments completely fail in every way imaginable all the time. It's all over the news and the history books going back 1000's of years.
And then the rest of it can be answered by the nature of international law. Just because some government out there exists that could interact with the aliens in a better way does not matter if they do not govern the land the aliens are in. Yeah, there can be intervention. But it's a bitch
On October 12 2009 21:28 BookTwo wrote: Mega bump?
I liked it. As a plot for a video game, this has an incredible amount of potential, especially, + Show Spoiler +
with the gaping hole at the end, whether Wikus is going to be healed. Not to mention many uber alien bio weaponry. Fry some MNU soldiers
Interesting you mentioned video game. D-9 was what happened after The Halo film fell-through. D-9's director NeilBlonkamp was set to direct the Halo movie; it subsequently was abandoned and so producer Peter Jackson went to Blomkamp and offered him $30 million to make whatever he wanted. The result was this film which is based on one of Blonkamp's previous short film Alive in Joburg.
Another interesting thing about this film is that the lead role is played by a man who is not a professional actor. This was his first film role and the majority of his lines were ad libbed.
I really enjoyed this film. It really illuminates many of humanity's worst features.
Another interesting thing about this film is that the lead role is played by a man who is not a professional actor. This was his first film role and the majority of his lines were ad libbed.
On October 13 2009 02:30 mRSCV wrote: why can't I create threads? i tried searching and it im not comingup with any results, can someonee tell me why?
there is a period where new accounts cant create threads. the reason for this is the same reason we don't like it when new people post stuff that is totally unrelated to the thread
The main character is a good image of human personality. He's definitely not a hero, he doesn't give a shit(till the end) about the aliens, all he wants to do is save his life. That's a good thing they put a character like this, it fits so well with the apartheid's image and the alien's segregation.
This film was not what I expected for the most part, I thought it would all be shot as a documentary. It was a very very good film though.
On September 26 2009 07:00 Machine leg wrote: Entertaining movie but didn't like the main character. Nice CGI and action though. 7/10
I don't think you were supposed to really, he was a bit of a twat at the start.
On October 12 2009 21:54 omninmo wrote: Peter Jackson went to Blomkamp and offered him $30 million to make whatever he wanted. The result was this film which is based on one of Blonkamp's previous short film Alive in Joburg.
Another interesting thing about this film is that the lead role is played by a man who is not a professional actor. This was his first film role and the majority of his lines were ad libbed.
I really enjoyed this film. It really illuminates many of humanity's worst features.
Never knew this. He did a damned good job if he was an amateur and ad-libbed nearly the whole thing! I wish the Halo film had never fallen through though. The way that D-9 was done would translate extremely well into a Halo film. Those Halo shorts Blomkamp did were immense.
Excellent film. Was really surprised because I don't like alien movies (only went to see it because I went to watch a movie with a friend and there was nothing interesting to watch).
EPT
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