District 9: What Did You Think?
Monday, August 17th, 2009
District 9 is now in theaters. What did you think about it?
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so how ’bout that District 9?
I actually didn’t love it. I thought the screenplay was a little clunky, the score was often wrong for the scene, and the documentary angle was not well done. It’s a good movie though overall.
I felt about the same. Loved the last 1/4th of the movie, after they ditched the lame documentary style stuff. Before that I kept thinking about how I wasn’t enjoying it.
They ditch the doc stuff earlier than that. It really doesn’t make it much past the first act (the MNU excursion into D9), after which it’s obligatorily trotted out occasionally.
It’s not the doc angle itself that I dont like, that’s been part of the concept since Alive in Joberg (which I wish this film were more like). But it’s executed halfassedly, like he couldn’t figure out how to make it fit in the movie but didn’t want to scrap it. It’s really just a bookend that gets over extended.
But conceptually the film is pretty strong, it seems much more thought out than your typical big budget scifi actioneer. It doesn’t have the last act problems that plague those movies. I loved the use of the locations. I’d like to see more hollywood productions abandon the typical New York, LA, mayyybe Paris or London comfort zone and seek new settings and environments.
And NB has instantly declared himself the leader of the pack in terms of intelligently integrated fx. That last action scene is great because he FILMED an honest to god action sequence, rather than just drop in some expensive effects and hope that if you shake the camera and edit quickly no one will notice you suck at directing. The scene had geography, pacing, stategy, everything.
I would say that right off the bat he’s got an eye for effects that rivals S. Spielberg. He is the guy to beat right now, the yard stick against which others should be measured.
Randy, District 9 or Transformers 2, name your favorite.
Transformers 2, easily. District 9 isn’t even in my top 5. It may not even be in my top 10. It was decent, but nothing spectacular. Unfortunately, I also saw Ponyo last night, and felt about the same with it. Good, not great.
Dont you think that District 9 was a huge step forward in effect work though? Not necessarily in terms of sophisticated fancy-pants effects that cost the most, but in terms of sfx intelligently integrated into the scene.
I think in terms of effects I care more about the utilization of effects more than whether or not they’re the most sophisticated. That’s why I think King Kong (’39) remains a better effects film than Transformers even though the work might not be as realistic. The robots in Trans never ascend to actual character, they remain background effects like explosions and space ships. I do think that Bay has a lot of talent in this one specific area (working with effects artsits and convincingly composoting his shots) but his films remain failures even when considered as straight spectacle.
And is Tranies 2 really one of your five favorite films of the year?! Good heavens! Have you seen any of the following?
Hurt Locker
Up
Adventureland
Drag Me To Hell
Observe and Report
Paper Heart
Away We Go
Moon
Star Trek
That’s about 8 films (I still haven’t seen Ponyo but will this week) that are all much better than Trannies.
brothers bloom rounds it out to ten
Unfortunately for me, there are several movies on Rusty’s list that I want to see, but never made it/won’t make it into theaters here, so I’ll have to wait for DVD. That said, these are my top 5 favorite movies that I HAVE seen this year:
1. Up
2. District 9
3. Star Trek
4. 500 Days of Summer
5. Coraline OR Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (depending on the day you asked me)
I’d love for Transformers to have effects on District 9’s level. I’m not sure it’s possible, though. Transformers would be a lot more difficult to pull off, given the fact that such a large part of the movie is giant robots. District 9 was great, but there wasn’t a lot that they had to do. The mothership wasn’t shown for most of the movie, and neither was the mecha. Beyond that, there was only the aliens. While the aliens are impressive, they aren’t as hard to pull off as transforming robots and such.
I’m not quite sure how my top ten movies fall. I should probably do that soon. But I think Transformers would be right around the top 5. Star Trek and Harry Potter would definitely make the top 5. I think 500 days of Summer is probably in there too. Moon would be top 10. Up and Hangover were great as well. Lots of movies I really enjoyed this year. But I sincerely enjoyed Transformers, yeah.
Trust me, transforming robots aren’t necessarily that much harder to pull off….just flashier. Look at all those shiny metal parts!
I was more impressed with District 9 than you two were. I loved every second of it, and I thought the guy playing Wikus was fascinating to watch. I think that his performance, more than anything, is why I enjoyed D9 to the degree that I did. He goes from being a dimwit to an ass to a victim to a semi-hero, and the whole thing still felt believable to me.
The FX work was amazing. ILM should bow down to Weta right now because they haven’t done anything this impressive in years. The aliens all look different, and they are integrated into the footage so well that you almost feel they are real. I liked how they looked so grungy that you could only imagine how nasty they would smell.
Also, I have to give the film bonus points for including a death caused by flying pig.
I had a lot of fun with District 9, and I plan on seeing it again. It’s definitely in my top 5 of the year, although I’ve probably only seen a dozen films or so thus far.
Yeah, I loved the main character’s performance. It was hard to tell that it was the same guy when you compared the beginning and end of the film. And as mentioned, the special effects were very well done. I just didn’t care for a majority of the plot.
@ I loved every second of it, and I thought the guy playing Wikus was fascinating to watch.
yes, I agree. Sharlto Copley is quite good and reminiscent of an early p.jackson protagonist.
And apparently the majority of fx work (all the aliens) were done by a Vancouver BC fx house. And I agree, you can smell the aliens through the screen.
I read somewhere that 99% of the mocap performance work for the aliens was done by one guy. If true, that would have been a ton of stuff for just one guy to wrap his head around, especially in any scene with several aliens interacting.
I think the performance was mostly one guy, but multiple motion capture artists worked on rendering it. I’d have to go back and read which ever interview it was though.
I liked District 9, but I felt it was flawed… same with half the movies I’ve seen this year, anyone seen IB yet? That’s an odd movie.
Nope. Inglorious Basterds opens this upcoming weekend in the States.
I ADORED District 9! It might be my favorite film of the year so far. After watching D9 and Star Trek and Moon; three fantastic science fiction movies, I’m really excited about where the genre can (or might) go in the decade to come. Transformers to me isn’t even relevant. It’s like talking about a Big Mac or something.
Who’d have guessed it, my favourite film me the year is Funny People, typical but I loved every minute of it.
jack, has Inglorious Basterds opened in England?
Yeah it has. It’s got both Quentin’s best and worst qualities. I think it makes me angry to know that there is a great film to be made there but because nobody has the balls to restrain the director or tell him to hire an editor the movie suffers. Sigh, the last line is ‘You know, I think this is my masterpiece’, no Quentin, no it isn’t
This is TOTAL fucking BULLSHIT. It is my god given RIGHT as an american to see movies before the rest of the shithole. That’s our reward for single handedly winning world war II.
Did the germans get it too? I’m gonna be fucking irate.
And did you just tell me the last line of the movie? Why would you do that? That is grossly inconsiderate.
I guess you’d be pissed to know it opened north of the border as well then?
hahaha
@ I guess you’d be pissed to know it opened north of the border as well then?
New Foundland has it?!?!!?!
This is a classic example of how Americas stature abroad has fallen during the Bush years. When did America become a third world country?
i think it was right around the time you voted W in for a second term
Gentlemen, let’s not hate on George Bush. The man was my Wal Mart greeter last week. Nice dude
hahahahaha seems like a good place for him
Dude! Funny People, yes! Loved that one as well!
District 9 fans should check out the latest episode of http://www.slashfilmcast.com to hear a discussion/review, with comments from Fanboys director Kyle Newman and Sin City co-star, Jaime King.
oddly enough those were the two people whose oppinions I care about the most.
When I want the latest views on the world of science fiction cinema, I turn to Jamie King
First off, i didn’t post this article…secondly Randy if you think Transformers 2 was better than this you may start a GSE civil war. Rusty I don’t even have anything to say to you;)
First off, yeah you did. It was called, “Two Geeks 102: Coming soon” or some similar statement that ended up being untrue. When the conversation broke down into a District 9 discussion, I changed the title to reflect something accurate.
Secondly, I do think it was better. And you missed your chance for the Transformers 2 bashing. Take that to the correct thread so I have one place to ignore all of those opinions at.
Not sure how I ended up on the wrong side of this. I’m mixed but overall positive on D9
Overall, I’ve got to say, it might be pretty budget at times, but I actually prefer Alive in Joburg over District 9. Perhaps AIJ was responsible for misaligning my expectations.