*************








thinking back on it, i think christopher was the one and only captain of the alien mothership from day 1. i think he knew they were stuck (but could be unstuck) the minute they landed on earth and deployed/hid the small ship so he could gather the fuel to get the mothership back to being operable. he was the only non-human shown (aside from his son) with more than basic intelligence. (even his friend who was helping him scavenge fuel didn't seem to know wtf was going on) i think he always knew that he was his species' one and only hope for survival. the fact that the mothership/small ship that had the navigation controls could be wholly operated by one non-human (without the need for any crew) also seems to reinforce this idea.




thoughts?
****************************************************

8/15/2009 1:24:55 AM

the cat food was my favorite part. oh, and the lightning bolt that explodes people.

8/15/2009 1:36:55 AM

i saw GI Joe tonight, and they had the same gun in both movies lol, that force field thing

8/15/2009 2:11:47 AM

*************






I'm still a little unclear on the fuel thing. The fuel came from their technology which they had to scavenge out of the piles. That meant all of that came from the mothership, as we obviously didn't have their tech before they came down. So that means that they could have just ripped apart all the can openers and walkmen on the mothership in the 3 months between when it came to earth and when the humans cut the ship open and took everyone out, right?







****************************************************

8/15/2009 2:21:10 AM

Just saw it today. It had a little bit of a Alien Nation (an old tv series) feel to it, but in the sense that what if the aliens where quite so anthropomorphized. It definitely wasn't the movie I was expecting when I went to see it, and it beat my expectations because of that.

8/15/2009 11:03:28 PM

I'll second that. It was a very good movie, but keep the ladies away. This one gets more sci-fi than your typical fare. That's not a bad thing, but I thought it might be a bit more mainstream so I thought taking my wife would be fine. Bad idea!

8/16/2009 6:53:31 AM

I loved this movie! Probably my favorite part is that the alien ship came to Johannesburg. It made things different and interesting.

**********************

Notice how Wikus turned into a green prawn like Christopher? IIRC the brainless prawns were yellow. Maybe the smart ones are green?

***********************

8/16/2009 8:30:26 AM

ha, im not trying to be all racially high and mighty but, i didnt notice that they were different colors

8/16/2009 10:49:11 AM

Quote :

"It was a very good movie, but keep the ladies away."

hahaha, agreed. I went to see it with a group and one of my friends brought the girl he's been seeing. We all loved it but she hated it and he had to pretend that he didn't like it too.

8/16/2009 11:10:49 AM

dweedle, I guess all prawns look the same to you, then huh? pft...

Fight the power

8/16/2009 11:32:03 AM

Very

good

movie

8/16/2009 10:16:54 PM

haha

Alien Nation was awesome

8/16/2009 10:18:06 PM

Quote :

"I don't think Wilkus ever returns to being human since Christopher should know the fastest way (3 years) to restore him would be to have him come on the ship. This is because, due to the theory of relativity, Wilkus would have to wait much longer if he stays on Earth. "

You have no idea how the ship travels through space, so you can't really say that due to the theory of relativity it'd take longer than 3 years earth-time.

It's extremely, extremely unlikely that whatever means the ship uses to travel through space is susceptible to time dilation predicted by the theory of relativity.

I'm hoping for a sequel though, even if it's a mindless action movie where the aliens come back to wage war on Earth.

8/16/2009 10:32:41 PM

saw this with the girlfriend and she loved it

maybe she's just cooler than most girls

8/16/2009 11:52:46 PM

haha couples were walking out after the gun testing scenes.

SORRY BRAH

8/17/2009 5:49:40 AM

guys, next time you should look up why a movie is rated R before taking your little snuggle-cakes there

Quote :

"Rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language. "

The MPAA doesn't give "bloody violence" unless a movie has multiple buckets o' blood. Leave snuggle-cakes at home if you see that phrase in the ratings.

8/17/2009 6:25:35 AM

indeed, you shouldnt marry lamo girls. hah

my gf and i saw it last night and we both thought it was pretty good. it did drag slightly during the action in the middleish part. good movie, though.

8/17/2009 7:08:21 AM

Quote :

"Pretty good movie, but I was disappointed at the way it devolved into a mindless, mediocre action flick at the end."

I thought it got better as it went on. The ending being a very strong point.

Quote :

"i think it was a fantastic movie. it kinda made a social statement but had enough action in it to keep the non thinkers entertained."

I dont think you can label this a movie for thinkers. It wasn't 'kind of' making a social statement. A social statement was one of the main elements of the film, and not at all subtle.

Ill be owning this when released. The more I think on it the better I liked it. I wish they had a better ending for asshole commando at the end though. A zoomed out picture of him being ripped apart by prawns that just come out of nowhere wasn't satisfying enough. Nor was any kind of horrible fate for his wifes father.

Though I guess his character could come back in a sequel.

8/17/2009 8:20:30 AM

I really liked how the movie jumped right in to the story. You didnt have to wait around for the aliens to arrive blah blah blah blah, they were just there from the beginning and the short kinda documentary at the beginning fills you in on what had happened. Pretty good story telling technique, IMO

8/17/2009 8:33:21 AM

Quote :

"saw this with the girlfriend and she loved it maybe she's just cooler than most girls"

agreed.... we both thought this was a very good flick

Quote :

"I'm hoping for a sequel though, even if it's a mindless action movie where the aliens come back to wage war on Earth."

I'd like to see a sequel, but not if it isn't on par with the quality of the first one....but the next one will probably be a bloated budget mindless action movie.

[Edited on August 17, 2009 at 9:49 AM. Reason : .]

8/17/2009 9:48:40 AM

Quote :

"Leave snuggle-cakes at home if you see that phrase in the ratings. "

or find a better girl

I loved it, and I kind of want to see it again. I'm curious if there will be a sequel...

Quote :

"but the next one will probably be a bloated budget mindless action movie."

truth

8/17/2009 9:52:39 AM

Saw this last night with a bunch of friends and the husband, I was probably the only one that actually liked it.

8/17/2009 10:07:56 AM

my wife seemed to enjoy it, but did get a little grossed out with some of the gore/mutilation/catfood... but she's pregnant so her stomach is not 100% right now.

she immediately thought there's going to be "District 10" though. i could maybe see that happening, but not sure if the necessary people would be involved.

8/17/2009 1:44:52 PM

The lesson I learned: don't let the South Africans handle first contact. Sure, they had the MNU handling it, but anyone who knows the history of South African mercenaries would look upon Blackwater as a group of saints.

8/17/2009 2:49:04 PM

For this movie to only have a 30 million budget. It made me feel like they spent 300 million. Great movie

8/17/2009 3:21:11 PM

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was the heavy accent on the main character. It was a pain in the ass to understand him at times.

8/17/2009 3:28:59 PM

I thought he was pretty easy to understand, just assume "fuck" is every other word.

8/17/2009 3:36:37 PM

Quote :

"For this movie to only have a 30 million budget. It made me feel like they spent 300 million. Great movie"

i know right. other movies all that money goes to 1 actor.

8/17/2009 3:46:18 PM

I wonder if there was any significance to Johannesburg being the city that the mothership appeared over?

8/17/2009 4:32:24 PM

I am so building an arc gun.

8/17/2009 4:36:21 PM

Quote :

"I wonder if there was any significance to Johannesburg being the city that the mothership appeared over?"

Is this a serious question?

8/17/2009 4:52:49 PM

so I saw this movie

it has more gore than I thought it would, so I will support this comment by Nerdchick:

Quote :

"The MPAA doesn't give "bloody violence" unless a movie has multiple buckets o' blood. Leave snuggle-cakes at home if you see that phrase in the ratings."

the overarching theme and storyline were satisfying enough, though

Quote :

"It was a very good movie, but keep the ladies away. This one gets more sci-fi than your typical fare."

I don't think it was "too sci-fi for chicks" as much as it was just an alien version of apartheid

I liked it, but the action scenes were sometimes unnecessarily gratuitous

8/17/2009 6:58:27 PM

Quote :

"I wonder if there was any significance to Johannesburg being the city that the mothership appeared over?"

no, none at all. I'm sure, thematically, the movie would have been the same if it was set in NYC.

8/17/2009 7:00:43 PM

^^ I agree. I'm a chick and totally loved it. ESPECIALLY all the blood-in-your-face parts.

8/17/2009 7:06:53 PM

Definitely better than I had expected, and more gore than originally thought.

****Oh what the hell, spoiler shit below****

I was kind of thinking how gruesome the deaths were originally from the alien guns and by the time the end of the movie was near I was desensitized to it. Still not bad, and Christopher constantly saying "3 years...3 years, I promise" and not resolving Wilkus's transformation makes me think of a sequel in the future. I also liked how the aliens are portrayed as being mortal instead of all-powerful and impossible to kill, along with the adaptation to human society over 20 years.

8/17/2009 7:42:08 PM

The reason this movie works is because they dont explain anything. None of the technology, genetics, space flight, nothing. They just give you all the information a citizen of that city would have.

Though, I would like more details about the leaders vs the almost mindless workers. Were there really only 1 or 2 "captains"?

8/17/2009 7:54:10 PM

just found some cool stuff on wikipedia. apprently a prawn in Africa is a type of bug, not a shrimp like we would think

Quote :

"The creatures, primarily referred to as "prawns"—a derogatory reference to the Parktown prawn, a king cricket species found in South Africa ..."

also more about apartheid that I didn't know

Quote :

"MNU's eviction and relocation of the aliens is based on District Six, a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. The district was declared a "whites only" area by the apartheid government in 1966 and the population of 60,000 forcibly relocated to Cape Flats, 25 kilometres away during the following years."

8/17/2009 8:00:39 PM

Quote :

"Is this a serious question?"

Yeah, it is. I speculated that it had something to do with Apartheid. And ^ helps answer my question.

8/17/2009 10:09:47 PM

Quote :

"I wonder if there was any significance to Johannesburg being the city that the mothership appeared over?"

i read the director grew up around that city and that he is all about some south africa being that the city is very personal to him.


but i was also thinking africa is like a pretty big landing pad and good spot to park a ship and also close to the conditions on the alien's home environment.

[Edited on August 18, 2009 at 10:33 AM. Reason : e]

8/18/2009 10:32:29 AM

I really thought they would have brought Will Smith back for the Independence Day sequel

8/18/2009 11:53:19 AM

you think this movie has similarities with Independence Day beyond both having aliens?

really?

8/18/2009 1:07:16 PM

I don't understand the near unanimous gushing response. Surprised you people aren't even a little divided... Anyway, it was fun. Definitely had some HUUUUGE problems with logic/style.



but here: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/08/17/neill-blomkamp-wants-sharlto-copley-to-return-for-district-9-sequel/



[Edited on August 18, 2009 at 10:55 PM. Reason : .]

8/18/2009 10:36:28 PM

Quote :

"It was a very good movie, but keep the ladies away."

I saw it with my stepdad and loved it... I think all the sci-fi-ness was my favorite part

8/19/2009 9:59:52 AM

watched it last night


pretty awesome

8/19/2009 10:58:33 AM

Quote :

"you think this movie has similarities with Independence Day beyond both having aliens? really?"

Someone just got trolled

8/19/2009 1:24:09 PM

I liked the concept. I loved the way it began. However, I was a bit disappointed in the end result.

***SPOILER***

It had a really cool interesting documentary style to it starting out. Then, after the begining of the transformation, the movie changed into a more generic action seen-it-all-before plot, right down to the cliche gun-toting-no-one-could-like-him bad guy.

Overall I still liked it, it just fell through.

8/19/2009 1:43:49 PM

^In the end the documentary style hurt the film badly. Should have picked a style and stuck with it more, and not had interviewees telling us what Wikus was doing and why, when we can see that perfectly well for ourselves.

8/19/2009 1:45:23 PM

script was ~

8/19/2009 2:24:26 PM

Quote :

"In the end the documentary style hurt the film badly. Should have picked a style and stuck with it more, and not had interviewees telling us what Wikus was doing and why, when we can see that perfectly well for ourselves."

Completely disagree. The documentary style was the best thing holding an otherwise hackneyed plot together.

8/19/2009 6:42:17 PM

Completely agree. But at many times they abused it badly, to unintentional comic effect.

"WIKUS HAD NOWHERE ELSE TO RUN....

SO HE WENT TO THE ONLY SAFE PLACE....

*wait for it..........*

DISTRICT 9!!!!!"


Thanks for the exposition, ass. I'm glad you think so highly of your audience that you need to
narrate what we are seeing.

8/19/2009 6:50:37 PM