movie review: District 9

[lagilman]

So. District 9. A lot of people talking about this movie, and I can understand why.

On many levels, this movie made me sad, it made me wince in empathy, and it made me seethe in anger, at and on behalf of the characters. It felt real and painful and horrible, in the emotional sense. Not the usual recipe for a summer blockbuster, even with blow-em-up-real-good and special effects.

Unfortunately, there were also many levels where, the moment I started to think about anything beyond the moment, it all fell apart, either on a plot-logic basis (did all the other prawns devolve? or were there others still using their brains that weren't shown? If all they needed was gas, why was only one adult working on it, etc) or on a philosophical/moral level (Nigerians? Really? We couldn't have seen more than one nationality feeding off the corpses of the slums? Because I can't see that being a single opportunist market.)

So not perfect, no -- not even as good as it could have been, had it dug deeper. But we walked out of the theater talking about South Africa, and Palestine, and the Watts riots, and where the movie worked and where it failed in talking about the human condition, and so I call it, overall, successful science fiction -- and successful moviemaking.

And I really hope they don't try to do a sequel. It's done what it needed to do. Anything more would... be unlikely to do so well. But blockbuster marketing will doubtless have its way....



a note of interest: Despite or perhaps because of the amazing effects, all I kept thinking was not "tentacled aliens" but "what lovely eyes." Alien, but lovely, more than any amount of ew.

Comments

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

The movie hinted that the fellow looking for the gas and his child were from the elite class and smarter than the rest of them.

[lagilman]

Still doesn't work for me -- of all the howevermany aliens, there were only two adults and one child of the elite class left? And only he (were there no shes?) had the ability to think, rather than play rat?

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is a hole in the story.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

On the 'she' point ... who knows if they were shes or not. Who knows if Christopher and his 'son' were actually 'he's, really, since sexuality is probably way different for an alien race. The sexism probably lies more in the naming then in the creatures themselves.

Also, I agree, there were a ton of plot holes (why in the world did the main dude hit Christopher and try to take over the ship? How the heck was he going to fix himself? That was ridiculous!) but on the whole an awesome movie. Hard as HELL to watch. I bawled during several parts, and was nearly physically ill during others. Fingernail things really bother me!

[lagilman]

Yeah, I had thought that (re: the naming conventions) but without information one way or t'other I figured I'd take it as-stated, rather than infer something that was not intended. Would have been cool if that had been implied in some way, though.

[and there we have one of the reasons why books are better than movies; text allows more subtle shadings of information]

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

They did have eggs, so they were either asexual, or there was a reproducing member of a compatible sex in d-9 somewhere.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

That "Here have this to commemorate your first abortion, feel like you participated" was one of the more screwed up parts of the film.

[lagilman]

Oh yeah. Although it was also a logical and allocations-appropriate (in a sick way) reaction -- controlled breeding, with permits required. On the one hand it's a perfectly humane way to prevent overcrowding, and on the other... ugh.

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Oh totally, I'm all about population control (outside of the irony of humans who can't manage to control their own population attempting to manage someone else's), it was more the manner. Which is understandable, since there was no respect for the aliens at all, but it would be like giving out ... I don't know ... the umbilical cord to someone after a forced abortion and laughing, YAY! It's a party!

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I've explained this before, and people shot me down for it, but here I go again anyway.

In South Africa Nigerians = bad guys. I'm not saying it's a good or right viewpoint, but for a South African film, the fact that there were drug-dealing mafia-type Nigerians as the bad guys is wholly plausible.

please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[lagilman]

Because my point wasn't that they used Nigerians, it was that they only used Nigerians. That's lazy storytelling, and undercut the potential larger statement the movie could have made.

[and if I tried to use a similar explanation for something I did in one of my books, people would (rightfully) take me to task for it.]

Re: please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

it was that they only used Nigerians

Ah. Fair dues then.

Maybe with District 10 they'll include some Moroccans, Egyptians, and Zimbabweans and spread the xenophobia around some. :D

Re: please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[cathellisen.livejournal.com]

Also, I should probably be honest and point out that I haven't actually seen the film as it doesn't open here 'til the 28th, so perhaps when I do see it I'll understand why everyone is so worked up about it.

Re: please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Ah, if I might add, after twenty years, maybe the Nigerians were all that were left. The stereotype of Nigerian gangs is that they are the toughest and the most ruthless, they are vile, they will commit any base act for the slightest reason, blah blah blah. Though stereotypes have to be taken with a grain of salt in real life, in a movie ... well, we're handed stereotypes all the time in movies ... especially in the summer. If you follow that stereotype, maybe the Nigerians ran everyone else off, and by 'ran off' I mean 'killed and/or ate.'

Re: please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[lagilman]

Then a single line could have clarified that. Like much that bothered me about the story, it wasn't that it couldn't be explained or story-supported, but that it simply wasn't. And that made it less than it could have been.

Re: please read the complaint before you respond to it...

[arouraleona.livejournal.com]

Very true.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

But blockbuster marketing will doubtless have its way....

Any successful movie is free advertising for a sequel, so it's hard in our multimillion-dollar-ad-campaign world to walk away from that. Remember what William Goldman famously said about the movie business-- Nobody knows anything. So they leap at anything they can know.