You think?

das ist ja mehr als peinlich.

The quote above does not accurately portray the storyline of District 9. I went in expecting greatness based on the great WOM this has been generating but I was very disappointed.

I love scifi movies so this one should have went over well with me but I just have way to many problems with the script and logic of this movie. Too much was left unexplained.

1. Why were the Aliens stranded, malnurished,and how and why did the control module fall?
2. When the control module/ship falls why doesn't the government look for it?
3. So we are to believe that the Prawns are intelligent enough to create,fly, and repair technology but mostly we are shown them behaving like animals with very little intellect?
4. So the Prawns will sell their weapons that they some how smuggled from the ship after the government rescued them from it. And the best buyer they can find is a crippled warlord who cheats them out of cat food? What the governments/corporations of the world could offer a better deal?
5. With what appears to be far better weapons and technology and over a million in their fold they just willingly accept slum conditions?
6. So in the 20 years they are here on earth they finally create a sparkplug that somehow mutates humans, but nothing esle that we came into contact with while researching we find nothing?

I could go on with 20 more but I'll stop just to say I loved what Peter Jackson has shown what we can do with a small budget, I just hope they can find a better script next time.

C-

There are too many things wrong with your review for me to even write something proving almost every point invalid.

And the sparkplug was fuel for the ship, not to mutate humans.

I understand that the sparkplug was the key. My point was so the aliens ship has been floating over a major city for 2 decades and you mean to tell me the government never scoures the entire ship and runs across the substance they may mutate humans? And the Aliens somehow painstakenly create less than an ounce of the stuff right here on earth in a slum and only 2 Aliens know about it as their only way home.

You cannot explain any of my points above with any clarity or logic that the movie presents to us. But I could continue to shoot more plot holes than an UZI does in 2 seconds. I think we may have too many Peter Jackson name lovers attached to this movie. If you didn't know the budget or director I wonder how most would have felt about this movie?

most of those problems were actually explained in the film and you just didn't pay close enough attention to hear the explanation.

this movie is very offensive and i hope it will be censored by the governments for the folowing reasons:

1. aliens do not exist and this film is a lie because it says they are in south africa and they are not really in south africa, only howard carpendale is on south africa and he is a bit an alien but this species in the movie is NOT in south africa and therefore i think they want to fool the viewer in believin this it also looks alot like news report so that is a way to try to fool people into thinking this is what it is like in south africa and i have been in south africa and it is very different there are only black and white people and howard carpendale not this aliens!

2. a person who drinks alien fluid does not mutate that is a scientific fact and it can be proven in a laboratory in toronto with very easy methods and i think blokampf thinks the viewers are stupid and therefore think this can be real but it cannot i think he's laughing at us (not me) for believing this lie

3. the movie is very inhuman because it shows people exploding like the aliens and therefore it shows that aliens and humans explode in the same way and are the same value, but in reality humans are much different from aliens because a) aliens do not exist and b) god created humans and therefore they are the strongest and coolest (with the best music etc.) and better than aliens and they should not be mixed up with them in this way because frankly god would be pissed if he creates his masterpiece (people) and then some guy says people (god's masterpiece) are shown as similar to aliens in the way they fuckin' explode!

4. the alien child is the smartest charackter in the movie and i think that is a lie because usually children are mainly small and i don'T think htat it would be different for alien people and children to be totally different from people in this way (but in every other way because of what i said in 3)

5. i think it is offensive to dutch "people" because wikus is dutch and he is at first a nazi and then an alien and never cool and i think there are some dutch "people" well a few at least that might be cool and i think it is very degrassive for them to be shown in this way, because in south africa dutch "people" are already ridiculed by other people and now they think this movie is a proof that dutch "people" are really like that and they usually are, but not all, there are 5 or 6 cool ones of dutch "people" and they will cry.

6. i think this movie is offensive to black people because all black people in this movie are gangsters who cannot talk and i think it is offensive to white people because white people in this movie are evil or stupid or turn into aliens and it is even offensive to aliens because aliens in this movie are trash and then the people are turned into aliens and they are trash too and then there is the soldier who is an idiot because he can only shoot and not talk and then there is the father in law who is just a caracature of evil and so on, so in the end everyone in this movie is bad and this is suppose to be a representation of the real life (documentary look) and so it is offensive to everyone because everyone represented is represented as bad.

Watch out for flying allegories - - they're skimming right over Passionate Thug's head!




The accumulated effect of the overlapping thematic layers in District 9 is one of cognitive dissonance. It is through this perturbing mechanism that Blomkamp manages to sneak in his true message... a recapping of the underappreciated work of the first millenium muslim philosopher Ibn al-Haytham. His foundational work in optics is so obviously cribbed by the District 9 visual effects team, that they might as well have have attached flashing LED lights to it! What a joke. With this level of impropriety underlying much of the film, should we even deign to examine it's legitimate underpinnings? I think that a case can still be made for leniency in this regard, but each individual viewer nust make the call. (Heaven help those already struggling with the Spetzl-Heisenberg dichotomy.)

Ultimately, though the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of screenwriter Terri Tatchell. Without the perpendicular references to Shakespeare, none of this would have mattered one whit. But no, it mattered so much that no one cared. It'd be preposterous if it wasn't so foolhardy.

If only they had hewed the line more closely to the core. all would have been copacetic. As it is said: "Only after the damage has been done can the cows return to the herd."

I realize what a sad state of affairs is embodied by these deeper principles of District 9, but it is emphatically critical that they be dusted off and sorted out. Without that, only empathy remains, and I think we all know what that means...

Sorry for late review, but I liked it too much to let the thread rest undisturbed!

Two weeks ago, I walked out of District 9 feeling elated, since I was convinced that I had just witnessed the "completion" of science fiction. Not in terms of sci-fi cinema, but in terms of the genre itself. Wing Commander, Dune, Space Invaders, Red Mars... you name it; I felt that it had all been a dry run for District 9.

In retrospect, that might be a bit much but I mention it as an indication of how thoroughly I enjoyed this film, and just how hyped-up I was when I left the cinema.

In the cold light of day, a lot of the story seems seriously hokey. The implausible plot points and sequel-baiting finale, nine times out of ten, would have been a deal breaker for me. The human-shaped prawns, admittedly, weren't as bad as the blue guys out of the Avatar trailer, but giving them recognisable father/son-style relationships should have lost me. In fact, now that the buzz has worn off, it's almost hard for me to believe just how impressed and engaged I was during the film, since (on paper at least) it's common-or-garden sci-fi.

However, I have still given it an A, since that's the only sincere mark I can give it. In fact, it's in my all-time top ten. I don't find it hard to justify this to myself, because at the end of the day, the heart wants what the heart wants. Very few other films have astonished and affected me this much.

Ultimately, it isn't the narrative that makes District 9 special, so the plot holes aren't about to sink the boat. The grist of the film is the astonishing lead performance, which elevates sci-fi staples from The Fly, Enemy Mine, and even - I'm thinking of the alien weapons and immigration angle here - parts of Men in Black to the level of superb cinema. I'm not a "crier", but I teetered on the edge of tears at the giant robot suit scene towards the end. Equally, I had a lump in my throat during the much earlier (technically fairly silly) weapons test, and that's purely because of Sharlto Copley's performance ("no sir, I will not"). The emotional punch stuns you to the point where you are unlikely to think, "Why don't they just chop the alien's hands off and use them to operate the guns, if it's about the DNA?" - or even, returning to the first example, "Wow, how cheesy is a giant robot suit?"

It's not a con. I don't mean to suggest that the emotional journey distracts you from otherwise fatal plot holes. It's simply that the film is the emotional journey. Watching District 9 for a watertight narrative is like watching Eraserhead for the acting. It's simply not what the film is about.

Ebert complained that, "despite its creativity," District 9 "remains space opera and avoids the higher realms of science-fiction." He thinks that the third act is "standard shoot-out action." He's missed the point. The success of the film is proving that space opera and standard shoot-out action, when directed properly and acted well, can be as emotionally rich as anything else you care to mention. Compare and contrast with "standard shoot-out action" like Transformers 2, Independence Day, or War of the Worlds. Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley between them have raised b-movie subject matter to the level of great cinema. So ultimately, I'm not going to lose any sleep over how the ship remained airborne for twenty years.

I just hope they don't make the sequel they've been hinting at. In fact, if I absolutely had to criticise something about this film, it would be the fact that it ends in a kind of expectant limbo. I don't want to take a gamble on a sequel to get closure. The universe of District 9 isn't coherant enough to survive being extended into a trilogy.

By the way - judging from my peer group, this film has struck a chord with people who don't give a crap about sci-fi.

At least I understood why people drank the kool aid and adopted The Dark Knight. This District 9 nonsense, on the other hand, can only be rationalized as the result of a complete lack of decent fanboy options this year.

´
Basterds? Watchmen? Star Trek?

I guess it cannot be rationalized then.

I think you've missed the point of the film's appeal. The positive word of mouth I heard from my extended network was mostly "mainstream people" downplaying the sci-fi elements and rushing to explain what they or their partners had loved about it. The people who were keenest to encourage me to see it were the kind of people who would see Night at the Museum 2, and they almost felt like they had to apologise for the fact that they were pimping a sci-fi to me. If anything, District 9 is exactly the kind of film that your typical "fanboy" would hate, 'cos the plot doesn't stand up to their kind of semi-autistic scrutiny.

Personally, my favourite films include Ghost Rider, Guest House Paradiso, and Constantine. My least favourite film of recent years is Watchmen. So it would seem that options or lack of them doesn't really affect my scores!

Hmm, okay, now I disagree with yosh on this film (d'uh), but it is a fanboy film. No doubt about that. Half of all internet film nerds were orgasming over it.

Oh and Ghost Rider? Seriously? I mean I am a big Marvel fan and all...but Ghost Rider...

Huh. Well in that case, I suppose couldn't honestly comment on what the fanboys were orgasming over, 'cos I was out of the online movie fan loop for quite a while. I wasn't really aware of District 9 until the word of mouth started spreading in my real life network (which is not really made up of your typical movie enthusiasts). I went to see it based purely on what gym and drinking buddies were telling me. So if it was a fanboy favourite, I'd say it definitely crossed over!

Oh, it certainly did, otherwise the legs would have been way worse.

I mean it's no Ghost Rider, but it's awesome.

Night at the Museum part deux was so much better than District 9.

What a coincidence!

...that was the name of the boy band I used to belong to back on Xatar!




Whenever a film stoops to the level of it's audience, it is a sure sign of the ethical depravity of it's production team. District 9 is one such beast, in the theological sense. The madness that saturates the middle third of this film is just one more sign that Blomkamp took directionlessness as his compass. Ultimately, the bridge structure of the thematic crossover is a first class failure. Descending through District 9's fallacies is like taking a twenty floor elevator ride down a ten story building. My only wish is that were subliminal instead of superficial.

Even those concerns remain minor, however, compared to the gaffes created by second unit director Paul Grinder. The teleological nonsense that passed for continuity in his segments are nothing less than horseshit. I mean literal equine feces - - you can see it still smeared on the edits in the finished film. Why wouldn't Peter Jackson have a guy like that fired? What could be his motivation for placating a peon such as that? I can only guess it has something to do with his unhealthy weight loss.

Still, we must be thankful for the remaining dignity we were allowed to walk out of the theatre with. I mean they could have gone for the full biltong! You'd think a film made in Africa would retain a modicum of southern hemisphere counter clockwise spin, but sadly it has all been exorcised from the product shoved down the throats of paying customers. If modern man had the cajones to stand up for his abysmal human rights system, he may have had some hope of walking away from this unscathed. And the answer to that unstated hypothetical question is unabashedly: NO!

In the end, we must simply vote with our derrieres and sit out thye next round of foolishness promulgated by this unsavory crew.

i didn't read your review but i think you are lying.

that said, i think the movie has still not been censored and only god knows why, but he will only tell me if i ask him and i won't because i'm busy right now. i'm drinking lemonade and typing this mesage so please god, don't interrupt me with my wishes because i'm very busy don't you thjink? BY THE WAY i hope that this movie will not win an oscar for any catergory such as best movie of all time or best schraubenzieher because it does not deserve it. it only deserves to be banned from the cinema in peru because they cannot show it completely because their screen was covered with daddy long legs, a whole living wall of daddy long legs, crawling like a carpet across the screen and therefore it (the movie) cannot be shown there because you would only be able to see half of it and we, the people of toronto, don't want this to happen because the movie is short. and of course one time the movie will be seen in the imax theater by many kids andthey will appear and cheer but that day the cinema will close because it cannot handle the noise, the neighbors called the police and said "HEY, MISTER, THEY ARE TOO FUCKIN' LOUD, IT IS ALMOST AS LOUD AS IN THE POMMESBUD WHEN THE OIL SPRINKLES VERY LOUD IN THE FRITTOISE! COME HERE AND STOP THEM WITH YOUR POLICE POWER FORCE AND WITH YOUR STICKS WE CANNOT HEAR OUR OWN WORDS OF HONOR WE WERE WATCHING TV, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN STARRING LEE MAJORS AS THE BIONIC SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (by the way six million dollar would not be enough for bionic equipment these days, it's alot more pricey now, probably even 6 billion) AND THEY WERE SO LOUD WE COULD NOT HEAR THE SOUND OF LEE MAJORS RUNNING IN SLOW MOTION WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE EXTREMELY FAST, THE ECHO WHOOSH SOUND SO TO SPEAK, SO COME HERE AND ARREST THEM ALL AND CLOSE THE CINEMA OR WE WILL CALL THE POLICE!", and then the police came in an ambulance (don't know why it was probably a trick) and officer marshmoses will step out of the car and SCREAM "HEY KIDS, COME ON OR YOU WILL BE RAPED" and then he holds up a puppet with the big penis and the kids will be scared and run to aserbaidjan, where they are shot by the military police led by yusuf marmeladesjan, but that's another story, they kids are shot and the cinema is closed by marshmoses and his gang of rapists and THEREFORE i think that the movie should be banned from theaters because this shall never happen again, neither in this world nor in any other, such as the moon, vega or hcoasdln.

Dr. Lecter,

I think it's time to clean up the trash that's cluttering up this thread - - can you please delete the post above this one, and allow the discussion to continue on topic. Your moderation is welcome here.

Thank-you.





Hypothetically, the basic conundrum that faces the viewer of District 9 is the age old mystery that has confronted armchair philosophers since before the invention of the armchair. It is the ultimate question in a verdant universe of random choices, it is the pen that writes that question, and it is the paper on which it's written. Sadly, D9 fails to reward viewers with any kind of satisfactory answer, let alone a means by which to pose the question, and one has to walk away frustrated by the dithering flaccidity of Blomkamp's transparent ruse. It is only through repeated doses of over the counter pain medications taken in their recommended configurations that allows many District 9 fans to even look themselves in the face anymore (...anyone who has visited a friend's house in which all the mirrors are covered with towels, will no what I'm talking about). This is not monkey business, this is mockery business!

Seven times have I watched the opening sequence, and seven times have I psychically vomited my mental dinner. It is an abomination of the first degree. What follows is filmic ipecac syrup. If you held down your cerebral chowder before - - you're gonna explosively expel it now. The significant factor here is the simplistic use of a cinematic double negative. How could it have gotten past the S.A.F.D.C.? Bribery, that's how! Peter Jackson has deep pockets, and he needed to dig all the way down past the stale pizza crumbs to pay off the requisite officialdom for this malediction.

I'm a moderator too, and it seems to me that Jesus Christ isn't doing anything that BKB doesn't do 50 times a day.

Put another way: I don't think any moderation is necessary here.

That's the type of moderation which has brought KJ to the illustrious postion it's in today!





In the end, District 9 is a triumph. Despite all the egregious philosophical crimes it is guilty of, it remains the one film daring enough to put the cart before the horse. They even put the letter "t" in cart before the rest of the word, so that in the District 9 universe cart is spelled "tcar" - - it is so far ahead of the competition that it is lapping itself, like a cat cleaning it's anus. If a great film exists, it is this one. It stands on the mountain peaks of Switzerland yodelling it's vibrant heart out. It swims to the bottom of the ocean to get fresh giant squid for it's viewers. D9 transcends the very frame of the film it is made on, and spills out of the projector in all directions. If you want to have the complete D9 experience, you must bribe your local projectionist to let you lie on the floor of the projector booth and let the true glory of the film permeate your very being. This is no longer a movie, it is the foundation of an entirely new hybrid of entertainment and philosophy - - it is philotainment and enterosophy. It will change the way that baby's are conceived. D9 is the root of a whole new branch of the great apes. It is the found link.

Even then, we must dig deep to examine how this momentous event came to pass. Was it a simple work of man, or were the aliens portrayed in the film actually real and helped write the script. Perhaps we'll never know, but with the help of decades of study, perhaps we'll catch a glimpse of the rainbow at the center of this remarkable film. District 9 is a showcase for the diamonds of South Africa - - it's as if De Beers wanted to make a corporate promotional film and hired David Lynch and Sam Raimi to collaborate. It is the very essence of nobility and truculence.

Henceforth, when I watch District 9 I shall forever be in it's awe. I will climb a thousand stone steps on bleeding knees to let it into the cinema of my heart. I will then claw open my own chest to have one last look at it as my blood pours out onto the door jamb. Oh, glorious District 9, you are my true love, my idol, my new best friend after you killed my dog. I will njot sleep until I have watched you a hundred times tonight. D9 is D-lightful!

I think Jesus Christ would be funnier if he just used the "Search" function to find posts where people had blurted out "Jesus!" or "Jesus Christ!" in frustration. Then he could pop up and say, "Yes?" as if he thought someone had called him. It would be a kind of public service to the forum and would probably make newcomers laugh their tits off.

STOP being mean to jesus christ or you will be shot in one or maybe two kneecaps. thanks cabuche!