movie review: District 9
Aug. 19th, 2009 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanSo. 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.
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.
