I haven’t been to the theatre all summer and now it’ll be five times over the next two weeks to see Ponyo, The Goods, Inglourious Basterds, Moon, and District 9.

I went more by the strength of the trailer than where its being promoted.

Usually, as with most trailers the best parts are shown in the trailer…USUALLY with weak, rip off ideas from cartoon series. District 9, ya, that shit is tight, rus.

This movie will open at $27.5,I’ll be shocked if it open’s with less.

One frustrating thing among the few naysayers is hearing some of the same bullshit we heard after Children of Men, complaining they didnt get full needless exposition about everything regarding the motives of the aliens, why they came and were stuck, etc. – pfft to that.

I wonder if I’ll see any Wikus costumes for Halloween, just get an alien arm, dirty yourself up and a yellow contact lens.

Yes it definitely used Black Hawk Down as a reference point for a lot of things, and a lot of those other movies popped into my head as well. Still, I agree that it ended up feeling wholly original.

Seriously from the “how does the ship keep hovering? can we look inside the ship please” crap to the (seriously) “the documentary only shows people who hate the aliens. where are the alien cults? some people will worship the aliens, I wanted to see more of this” things i saw here and there, just like CoM we end up with so much desire for needless bullshit that would have made this thing 3 hours long, and complaints about things that aren’t even remotely considered plot holes.

and this doesnt even address the ‘too much action’ horsey set.

^^^^ Yeah, like his follow up to Cloverfield. His one paragraph review already contains this sentence.

“A few Michael Bay type action sequences”

No there aren’t… the fuck

Vern has found TMB thread.

I’ll add that actually did not love the film. I’d give it a passing mark but ultimately felt disappointed. The problems that jumped out at me the most were first the score, too bombastic, too dominating, it had the lame chanting from The Mist. It was all wrong for the movie. It was score for a bruckheimer movie. I would’ve appreciated something more nuanced and intelligent. Something more mellow.
Secondly, I was surprised by how badly done the documentary angel was. It really was just a bookend that they dragged out too long before awkwardly abandoning halfway through.
I still appreciated watching a “summer blockbuster” with very different sensibilities. I thought the south african setting was well utilized. I liked that the government building they worked in actually looked like a gov building whereas in hollywood films every gov building is a superhightech fortress. I liked Sharlto Copley multifaceted performance. And there were some great action sequences.

@ “Everyone else who disagreed with me who should “man up” and admit I was right.”

Yeah that jumped out at me too. The dude’s got some meglomeniacal personality disorder.

I had to research to find out who Vern was. I pay little attention to AICN and so other than Harry, the only writer on there I know by name is Moriarty.

I can see elements of “Dead Alive” in this film…perhaps as a nod to Peter.

I feel only a very picky critic, or artistic snob, or a jealous wannabe would attack this film. This film had everything, gore, sci fi, awesome effects, great pace, action, some suspense, comedy (without ruining the seriousness of the film), cuteness (baby prawn), mystery, and very memorable combat scenes. This was a perfect film. The elements were blended so very well.

I want to comment on the comedy balance and some of the softer elements. I enjoy a “popcorn movie” from time to time, and those usually have enough comedy to render the film “unserious”. That is fine, and I usually know what I’m buying up front.

Serious doesn’t always have to mean “dark” or “profound in message” either, just “adult”. The comedy in ‘Independence Day’ ruined it for me because I was expecting serious…I went in blind having been overseas.

This movie had funny and cute moments without ruining the seriousness of the film. There were some messages and themes in the film, but the viewer was free to discard them without diminishing the piece.

If anything, the theme I took away is that some cultures are so different,and mutually harmful, they might be better off living respectfully separate from each other..like the native americans and europeans.

The combat sequences were superb. Take away the alien technology, and they were still excellent and yes, very Black Hawk Downish. The South African mercenaries did everything right. It annoys me that there are so many poor depictions of close combat and tactics on TV in film these days, this was a real treat.

Those guys did everything right: they didn’t linger in doorways “fatal funnels”, outside entrances and corners, they “cut the pie”. They use cover and concealment in a realistic way, they use containment shooting, they used rear and side security on the move, they stayed “on sight” when holding the weapons and they didn’t sweep each other with loaded guns….these are just little details but very pleasing to those who can recognize it. I would be very surprised if those guys were not former or current military/police. The white SA military was renown for the quality of it’s soldiers.

I liked that the alien tech was powerful, but not overwhelmingly so.

There are tons of questions left unanswered, but the answers can easily be imagined. I don’t think it mattered to the enjoyment of the film as this was just a portion of the whole Prawn story.

The pacing of this film was fantastic, it flew by very quickly. I didn’t realize it was nearly two hours long. The only slow parts were the trailers.

I hope Neil gets another movie quickly and I hope he continues with this anti-lunkhead film strategy, there are too many of those lately.

the canister itself may be a maguffin (however you spell that) but i find the circumstances around the fluids existence, that is CJ and Lil CJ being smarter prawns – TECHNOPRAWNS even, that collect it and construct it over so many years… and its other effects, to be much much much more compelling then the circumstances/consequences surrounding red matter in Star Trek.

Something about the characters actually being directly involved in collecting it, that it was so precious and integral to these very few characters lives/fates that we are following, weighs more to me than this massive doomsday macguffin blowing up worlds full of people.

Keep in mind my comparisons to the other films was about the “mundane pleasures” and not really the mundane details. When stuff blows up in GI Joe or Transformers, there’s no ‘aw shit’ brutality to it the way you get from people exploding in D9, and the things in this movie like the cat food addictions, pig launching, spawnfighting..

When Lil CJ is asking Big CJ about the moons on his planet, that CGI creature ends up with more character and even yes, humanity, for me than any other character from these summer blockbusters. I became more invested in that baby prawn and his daddy’s need to look out for it than anyone in Star Trek. Sometimes those little touches are all it takes, and its those little touches that this summers action blockbusters have not done for me.

@ When Lil CJ is asking Big CJ about the moons on his planet, that CGI creature ends up with more character and even yes, humanity, for me than any other character from these summer blockbusters

Actually, for me CJ jr. is one of the low points of the movie. When he’s piloting the ship I cringed.
He was ET. The cute alien sidekick there to move the plot forward while being adorable. Yuck.
Though, like the rest of the movie, I like it in concept. I like that they made CJ a father (er.. parent?), it was a good way to add dimension to the aliens and set him apart. But when he’s behind the control console I’m thinking “Mack and Me”.

CJ was smart enough that CJ Jr would also probably be smarter than the drone prawns, and CJ Sr certainly had enough time to train this kid to do some tricks. Certainly easier to buy than the little girl hacker of Jurassic Park – but even then, like I said, theres a balancing act of taking something seriously and just being fun, and for me Blomkamp came out on the winning end.

@ Certainly easier to buy than the little girl hacker of Jurassic Park

See, to me it’s the same thing.

Maybe TMNT mutagen or “ooze”? The technology was def. bio tech based, maybe the catalyst was bio based, maybe it was like an alien fuel additive that was going to transform something they stored up into their usual alien fuel (something that is secreted by a queen like royal jelly?) and that is why it transformed him? CJ seemed to be familiar with the problem/solution.

Maybe the name CJ is given to him or chosen like the aliens in Alien Nation?

Your not a snob.

I was jarred by the eating of the guy at the end, a reminder that they are not cuddly.

What would you guess happens next? CJ comes back with help and they evacuate the Prawns back home or they get payback? They eat everything on Earth like locusts?

“Who wants to make a wager (besides Dave, obviously) on how long before Campea puts up a post tempering his positive D9 review called “Why District 9 is not the best movie of the summer””

I’m not allowed to mention him by name anymore. I’ve been told if the online film community collectively stopped talking about him his site would dwindle into non existence and he would just go away.

Incidentally, I’ve got a bit planned for the next RotCast that is called “Why District 9 Is Not The Best Movie of the Summer” as delivered by a gentleman named Johan Stampea.

They allude to CJ jr being a genius early on. He is the one who rebulit the hologram of their planet and he has a short bit of dialogue saying something about how he fixed it even though CJ couldn’t.

I also liked the tie in between the genetic requirements of the Prawn technology and the fluid. It is pretty easy to assume that the fluid would have similar genetic requirements and as such, its not a big leap to think that the fluid is powerful enough that it will mold other organisms to fit its requirements. It leads to a lot of questions on just whether or not the prawns all are actually prawns. Perhaps even the whole species was created by another species.

@ It leads to a lot of questions on just whether or not the prawns all are actually prawns. Perhaps even the whole species was created by another species.

I think you meant that as a defense of the movie but it comes out as a criticism. These are much more interesting ideas than the ones present in the movie

“I think you meant that as a defense of the movie but it comes out as a criticism.”

Not to speak for Gamble, but how? A good film leaves room for discussion and this can true for a sci-fi piece. How is thinking about the film beyond what is given on the screen criticism when it is presented in a way that is not “WTF is this bullshit all about?!”

Just came back from this, and I’m probably like Rusty on this, the triumph didn’t happen for me, but it was a good movie. I think the mockumentary-style-to-make-crazy-things-seem-real is completely done though, it didn’t do anything for me. It actually confused me quite a bit in the beginning, to just have random talking heads without any context spouting off exposition, and I don’t understand when the cameraman that Wikus told off stopped and the films invisible cameraman started.

The father/son relationship was the strongest part of the movie for me. I appreciated Wikus’ despicable character as a main protagonist, but I was trying to find something to cling to and of course it was the kid. The only thing that got in the way of loving the kid was the Wesley Crusher style wizkid-saves-all, which had it been a human, I think people would be much harsher towards. But I did feel for the dad. And he’s a monster. Goon, I have a question for you since you’re the animationfreak: Do you think the aliens in this were overacting? They were posturing like crazy, pointing and physically expressing themselves beyond what would seem reasonable. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that nobody watching will be able to understand them, but it does seem like a cheat. I’ve heard from people that Pixar is no.1 because their characters don’t overact in this way, and I can see it. TMNT, the characters overact immensely, The Incredibles not as much. Did you not notice this in this movie? I only ask because I’m curious, you don’t have to indulge me.

The fluid made somewhat sense to me, since they established very clearly the link between technology and DNA, and the fluid essentially loaded Wikus with alien DNA. It makes sense to me that the fluid would contain a lot of DNA, if that’s what all their technology is based on. It’s also cool that Wikus is not wanted for anything scientific, only for war. Again, makes a whole lot of sense.