District 9 - Movie Review

[Thudz]

I'm not a fan of the faux documentary style movies but this one did about as good as it can be done. The plot was solid and moved steadily. The action was decent and well paced. The special effects were top notch and blended very well. Lots of blood and guts so not exactly kid friendly.

I give it a 8.5/10.

[Breand]

I liked it a lot but it did at parts veer into a pseduo Michael Bay land where people did things or made decisions that had no basis whatsoever in reality. It was original and interesting tho.

[Vanraw]

I just saw it, and liked it allot as well. It was fresh, which is saying something in today's movie world.

It is certainly wide open for sequels that could go in mulitple directions. In 3 years of course .

[Fretty]

I enjoyed it thoroughly and found it a very refreshing take on the genre. I recommend this for any sci-fi fan, but not for their children. =)

[Slamz]

Semi related: same director did a short intro movie for Halo. Not sure if it's part of a bigger upcoming project or what.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BaVb2TlWb0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BaVb2TlWb0</a><!-- m -->

[Fretty]

District 9 was supposed to BE Halo until they canned it due to budget issues (Peter Jackson requested over 200mil to make the movie).
This was the spawn of what was supposed to be the Halo movie (and in my opinion, it's better this way).
Halo is rumored to be back in the works, this time with Speilberg heading it, but who knows.

That short film is just that, a short film.

Neill Blomkamp also made another short film called "Alive in Joberg". A lot of that footage was actually used in the trailers for District 9, but is not seen in the actual movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Z...re=related

Those are my random tid-bits of info, enjoy! =)

[Hoofhurr]

The story brought a fresh perspective to the genre but the plot was tenuous at best in most places. I give it an A for the visuals and I like that all the characters had flaws of some sort.

[Breand]

I did like that the geeky guy was the protagonist, I kept waiting for like some hero to show up, (or maybe the black guy) and kick some ass.

[Jakensama]

Semi related: same director did a short intro movie for Halo. Not sure if it's part of a bigger upcoming project or what.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BaVb2TlWb0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BaVb2TlWb0</a><!-- m -->

Someone needs to tell the dude in that video that if you are going to pick a sniper rifle it might make sense to not fight within 40 feet of your target


I had never heard of this movie until reading this thread, did it just fly in under the radar or is missing it just a side effect of me living in krautland.

[Breand]

it did kind of come in out of nowhere, they really didnt start advertising for it until a month ago, and it made a huge splash at the San Diego Comic Con.

[Zephyrs]

Its been getting good critical acclaim up here, I am planning to see it tomorrow.

[Slamz]

Someone needs to tell the dude in that video that if you are going to pick a sniper rifle it might make sense to not fight within 40 feet of your target

Pfft, haven't you played Halo? It was basically just a really powerful rifle which, while technically capable of shooting long distances, was also fairly handy for blowing people away in one shot from 40 feet... So basically like sniper rifles in most FPSs...

And yeah, this movie did come out of nowhere. I'd seen "Alive in Joberg" before, but I feel like I saw that a couple years ago. I was entirely surprised to see that District 9 seemed to have somehow sprung up out of that short film. I had no idea such a thing was even being made.

[OrsunVZ]

As a S. African, there is a ton of political commentary in the movie that most people won't get unless you're from there. I've been out of the loop for so long now, there's a lot that I felt probably should have made more sense to me than it did, I'll have to call my cousins to see what they thought. Funny thing is the language of the aliens species is almost Zulu - really really close - it's would be akin to someone reading the english language dictionary with an accent you can't quite place, so you can kind of make out the words, but in context, they don't make any sense. Hard to explain. anyway, there are not too many thing I get to show national pride over, so I get excited every time I see something innovative come out of that tiny country.

Blair Witch was a S. African director too by the way (studied here in Florida).

[Diggles]

Although the action and SFX were great, it wasnt that great of a story. It was pretty basic and not exactly mind blowing, rather predictable. I've seen episodes of Stargate, StarTrek, Sliders that would have made better movies.

B or B-

[Vanraw]

As a S. African, there is a ton of political commentary in the movie that most people won't get unless you're from there. I've been out of the loop for so long now, there's a lot that I felt probably should have made more sense to me than it did, I'll have to call my cousins to see what they thought. Funny thing is the language of the aliens species is almost Zulu - really really close - it's would be akin to someone reading the english language dictionary with an accent you can't quite place, so you can kind of make out the words, but in context, they don't make any sense. Hard to explain. anyway, there are not too many thing I get to show national pride over, so I get excited every time I see something innovative come out of that tiny country.

Blair Witch was a S. African director too by the way (studied here in Florida).

You know an interesting thing is that the ship came in 1982, which was while Apartheid was still going in South Africa. 20 years later it clearly was not. Interesting little political perspective they threw into the movie.

[Fretty]

it did kind of come in out of nowhere, they really didnt start advertising for it until a month ago, and it made a huge splash at the San Diego Comic Con.

The viral advertising though had been going on for many months prior to that, but no one knew what it was!
Gotta love viral advertising!

[dilznic]

I'm a sucker for sci-fi with some underlying social commentary so I'm going to go see this soon :>

[Moristans]

Just saw it last night. I really liked it. It unashamedly took . The one's that made me smile the most, though, were the flashes of the Halo game experience. I'm trying to decide if the last bit of the interview with the geeky guy where he refers to the picture of his wife wedding veil as looking like she had a "halo" around her head was a direct reference to the game.

[Rallick]

I saw it. I liked it. I also think the fact that they didn't use any big named actors made it that much better. I tried picturing a big named actor in the lead role and it just made it unbelievable in my head (try picturing George Clooney or Brad Pitt as the main guy).

[Fretty]

Mockumentaries come across a lot better if you don't know the people in it, as it adds to the element of realism that they are trying to convey. I'm glad his budget was super low so he didn't even think to have known actors in it, heh.