If you know me, you know this really isn't my type of movie. I'm not huge into sci-fi, but I like it on the occassion that it's done right. I'm not huge into disturbing films, either, but same condition. and I'm not a fan of action really, I do enjoy watching it on a pure entertainment level, but the genre is so often done poorly, it's one of my least favorites. So basically all of the things that this would be classified are not things I particularly enjoy.

I loved this film. It was shocking, grotesque, intelligent, relentless, unforgiving, dramatic, poignant, and sometimes even a little fun. The FX were incredible for a film that was only 30m, (and I thought Knowing was efficient with it's money). The mockumentary style works like a charm and the lead actor, Sharlto Copley is just magnificent. Truly a remarkable film on every level. Not the best of the year or anything, but it's somewhere on my list, an excellent film.

5/5.

I agree that it was perhaps not quite the intellectual experience you may hope from this sort of film, but I don't consider it just an action flick. I felt it had very real drama and incredibly fleshed out characters (including a couple that became the most human characters that are completely inhuman since wall-e). That pushes it past the border of just "action/sci-fi".

I think its plenty smart. I spent 45 minutes last night talking to a professor who has expertise in African culture and lynching and she had a LOT to say about it.

I didn't understand the sex trade deal. All the prawns looked alike and there never seemed to be any female ones or noticeable difference.

The splatter was unwasted and correctly used. You say they made this for 30 million? That's unreal considering the level of quality that we get to see.

I thought of the Fly too.

I thought it was a slow start giving us an introduction as to how they got there and so forth and then the evictions start, but it was interesting and kept my attention. The last half of the movie really left me saying "wow". The action and intensity going on and suspense was impressive. You never really knew who was going to die at any moment and then the film leaves you with unanswered questions but I didn't mind that.

Great movie and definitely gonna see it in digital and thx this weekend. mmmm

That 30m is a little suspect since they used PJ's digital effects house. Deep discount perhaps?

We talked about the seemingly lack of female Prawns.

At the Q&A with the director last week he mentioned he'd prefer to do a prequel vs a sequel because some pretty fucked up things happened onboard the mothership.

My mind thinks up wild scenarios where all the males were eaten and those that were in District 9 were in fact female.

I'd prefer a prequel to a sequel too. Tons of questions as to how they ended up the way they were. Why they chose earth. What did they do on that ship. Ya, so much more interesting.

That'd be pretty weird if the prawns in D9 were really females considering they seemed like males and

Maybe the males carried eggs or were both sexes. Interesting stuff.

And one of the Prawns urinated standing up.

It certainly lends itself to either being both sexes or male. But the lack of a clearly defined female gender is interesting.

The smartest, most exciting film to come out this year so far. Though I do need to see The Hurt Locker...

What a great movie. Other than the intriguing concept and other assorted elements that I gleaned from the trailers, I did not know what to expect or where it would go, but suffice to say it met my high expectations and then some. After a wonderfully zany opening the movie gets a little more serious and you come to care about the plight of the aliens, especially Christopher and his kid. There's a moment when he shows the little dude the brochure and tells him that's where they're going to have to live now and that they can't go home that just breaks your heart. So when the shit finally hits the fan, the audience is fully behind these two and Wikus, which leads to some intense, thrilling and emotional sequences. And the film is a technical marvel, both in visual effects quality and design. That last action scene with the mech had my audience cheering, because frankly it was just fucking mindblowing. Bring on the sequel/prequel.

A

It does a good job of world-building. I believed the universe.

But it was soooo fucking boring. I wanted to leave within ten minutes. Clearly, WETA and company just needed some place to cheaply toss all the costly-but-completed Halo pre-production stuff.

That is a sad scene.

I hope that when I see it tomorrow night I get an audience just as excited as yours.

Yoshue once again is wrong.

Poor Yoshue

So I'm not really sure what exactly I expected, but it wasn't this.

The whole documentary-style for half the film was surprising but it worked really well. And when shit hit the fan, it really hit the fan. Humans blowing up = cool! The characters were great. So many points where I loved Wikus and hated him, too. Seemed like a nice guy off the bat (with a hilarious accent), turned into an a-hole, and then comes back and saves the day after originally knocking out and ditching Christopher. Christopher and his awesome little alien offspring were great.

The special effects were incredible for what it costs. And yeah, I like the whole life that the director created, where the people interacted with the aliens - even engaged in trade with them. It was all really interesting.

The movie, overall, was pretty freakin' great. If there's one thing that disappointed me, it's just that I expected the war between aliens and humans to actually happen in this film. But I'm pretty okay with waiting until District 10.

I wonder why and how (maybe not how) they could make weapons that only they could use but never used them. They seemed to be drone like. Maybe I'm wrong there too because Christopher was such a leader but I guess 20 years living in squalor would make at least one or two of them want to Change things.

Saw it for a second time, and loyal is right, it's even better when you're not completely blindsided. I think it's now my favorite film of the year.

BTW, did anyone else catch the One Ring easter egg thrown in?

it was pretty awesome, that's about all i can say

District 9 wasnt anything like I expected in the trailers. It actually doesnt do the film justice because if you arent reading the synopsis, you would be expecting an acton flick at that. If you were to strip away the sci-fi elements and aliens in district D9, it could have been easily a winter academy drama flick. Im glad they added the politics and spiritual intrigue to the film instead of making some mindless action flick like Star Trek, Transformers, and GI Joe. Neil Blonkamp really pulled it off. The ending would leave you with a very bittersweet feeling knowing that at least CK? the prawn and his son made it out but that Wikus is now stuck in prawn form while pondering about his wife. It does remind you of The Fly but the sentinal struggle reminds me very much of Alien Nation too. It indeed is this year's TDK. Im a real sucker for plots involving being an underdog living in improvished conditions were the main power lies in a rich elite who brainwashes the masses to believing something that isnt ok is ok

I missed it. Do tell

That's AWESOME.

Now I have to see it again, lol.

I'm already seeing this again tonight so I'll look out for that. Really cool.

Very imaginative and creative, with lots of kickass action scenes along the way. The movie accomplishes balancing social commentary with people exploding via alien ray gun, so that's pretty nifty. It also was the complete opposite of what I was expecting going in, since I was expecting the aliens to be evil and trying to take over the world or something...clearly, I underestimated the movie's intelligence, since this is not what it is. Also, the effects are astounding considering the $30m budget. Well-done. B+