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Vlad!
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« on: August 16, 2009, 10:19:00 PM » |
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As always, this thread is going to be chock-full of spoilers. You have been warned.
Honestly, I was disappointed. As a science fiction flick, it was pretty weaksauce--the effects were great, but though the technology was there and was cool, I didn't really have any reason to care. This would have been OK if it had a compelling plot or even inspired more than the usual amount of thought, but the plot was wafer-thin. I keep going over it in my head to see if I missed something, because a ham-handed allegory for apartheid and a look at man's inhumanity definitely doesn't require two hours to unfold and certainly shouldn't be the basis for a feature-length film. However, I don't really see anything else there. I'm certainly willing and able to enjoy a pure-sf space opera--Star Trek showed that--and I'm also perfectly OK with things set in the future/an alternative present but which aren't strictly science-fiction so long as they have a meaty plot or an interesting social issue (the PKD movies such as Minority Report come to mind for this, or even Gattaca). What gets me about D9 is simply that I don't feel like it needed a feature-length film.
The special effects were unquestionably first-rate. The tech--what we saw of it--was cool. The writing was solid, the score adequate and occasionally epic, the casting for the main character Wikas was brilliant, and I feel like the world that the film creates is indeed a worthwhile one. However, the story that the film tells is lackluster and unsubtle almost to the point of being insulting. Spike Lee told the same story better in Do the Right Thing 20 years ago. Unless there's some deeper thread there that I just plain missed, I'm going to have to write this film down as a tragedy: all style and no substance.
Honestly, I should have seen the Ghibli film. If I'm going to see something mindless without much meat to it, I should at least see one that did it on purpose.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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Brenden
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« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2009, 12:01:16 AM » |
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Personally, I loved it. I was hooked the whole time and felt that it did a good job stretching out the plot of a short movie without seeming like it was just padding the runtime.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2009, 10:10:28 AM » |
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Personally, I loved it. I was hooked the whole time and felt that it did a good job stretching out the plot of a short movie without seeming like it was just padding the runtime.
Sure, at no point did I feel bored, but at the end I didn't feel like I got a whole lot out of it. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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spacebrat311
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« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2009, 02:50:43 AM » |
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I felt that it was a scifi-actioner that happened to have some social implications, rather than a social commentary that happened to involve action, and as such, I thought it did a very compelling job.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2009, 09:12:40 AM » |
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I felt that it was a scifi-actioner that happened to have some social implications, rather than a social commentary that happened to involve action, and as such, I thought it did a very compelling job.
I guess my problem is that, when taken either purely as an action/sci-fi movie or purely as social commentary, I find it lacking. Possibly I've just been jaded by films that go very heavily in either direction, but there wasn't enough action or cool tech to really justify it in the former genre, but it lacked depth and was far too ham-handed to justify it in the latter. I enjoyed it while watching it, but after the credits rolled I wasn't left with the "wow, that was cool" factor that I expect from action movies, but there wasn't anything to sink my mental teeth into when considering the social or philosophical implications. I find myself comparing it to Iron Man on the one hand and Moon on the other, two films I've seen this year that I think exemplify either ends of this spectrum. I certainly think that there's room in the middle (I mentioned Minority Report in my original post), but District 9 does not manage to settle into that niche. The pacing of is more in line with a cerebral or socially incisive film but the depth just isn't there. I guess I just feel as though such excellent CG, such a great setup, and such excellent directorial work were all wasted on what at the end of the day is a shallow film that walks already well-trod ground. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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spacebrat311
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« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2009, 01:00:41 PM » |
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See, I like it better as an actioner than Iron Man, and was left significantly more wowed, because I actually believed in the tech and politics of District 9, whereas Iron Man, just by nature, has a very comic book take on these things that while not a flaw, will automatically cause me to disconnect somewhat.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2009, 04:43:42 PM » |
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Obviously we want different things out of our action movies  I had a bit of trouble accepting the tech, politics, and logistics of District 9 at face value. They've got the slum area fenced in with freaking ground-to-air missiles and gun emplacements all over the place, but they don't care that the aliens are piloting freaking mechs around? They can sortie attack helicopters to the area in no time flat but can't stop a single armored vehicle? They have guard posts and fences but when Chris and Wikas feel like getting out and into the city, they have no difficulty in doing so? The mech can stop bullets...but only when it feels like it? Wikas can grab an RPG round out of the air with the mech but can't run and shoot at the same time? Obviously in an action movie these aren't really things that you question, so I wasn't planning on bringing them up...but this is where I feel like the "comic book take" has an advantage. "He built an arc reactor..." "Wait, what's that?" "You know, a glowy thing. Anyway, he built it out of like an old washing machine and some weapons." "So he's an alcoholic MacGuyver. Why did he build it?" "To keep his heart going" "How does that work?" "Um...I think it keeps shrapnel out of his heart maybe?" "Why doesn't he just remove the shrapnel?" "Because then he wouldn't have a freaking arc reactor in his chest and wouldn't be Iron Man" "Oh." I'm not saying that I couldn't suspend my disbelief for District 9. On the contrary, I was very willing to accept it at face value. But I wouldn't say that I actually "believed in the tech and politics" by any stretch of the imagination. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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spacebrat311
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« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2009, 07:43:11 PM » |
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There's going to be a level of that no matter what, simply because filmmakers are not engineers. Complaints about the inconsistency of the abilities of the mech seem a bit silly- Wikas has just hopped in a piece of alien technology for the first time. The fact that he can get it to move at all is commendable. He's certainly no expert pilot in the space of a few minutes. And complaints about inconsistency of security seem to ignore the fact that frankly, real security in similar situations tends to be inconsistent. I didn't personally have a problem with this. Also, the only piloting of a mech I see elsewhere is when one is being given to the Nigerians. I'm not sure that that was supposed to be happening in linear time with the rest of the film, and frankly saw it as something that probably happened before military crackdown on the Prawns became as intense as it is.
I would compare this less to Moon or Iron Man, and more to, say, Aliens.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2009, 08:30:45 AM » |
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There's going to be a level of that no matter what, simply because filmmakers are not engineers.
Sure; as I said, I wasn't going to complain about it, but I used it as an example of why I don't find it "believable" in the same way that you apparently do. Complaints about the inconsistency of the abilities of the mech seem a bit silly- Wikas has just hopped in a piece of alien technology for the first time. The fact that he can get it to move at all is commendable. He's certainly no expert pilot in the space of a few minutes. And complaints about inconsistency of security seem to ignore the fact that frankly, real security in similar situations tends to be inconsistent. I didn't personally have a problem with this.
Sure, but before either it was able to do all that stuff automatically (which makes sense; the more complicated the machinery, the more automatic systems are needed to control it) or it was being remotely controlled by the kid alien. If the former, why couldn't it still do the same when Wikas was piloting it, and if the latter, why didn't the kid keep controlling it? Also, the only piloting of a mech I see elsewhere is when one is being given to the Nigerians. I'm not sure that that was supposed to be happening in linear time with the rest of the film, and frankly saw it as something that probably happened before military crackdown on the Prawns became as intense as it is. It's possible. I would compare this less to Moon or Iron Man, and more to, say, Aliens.
I'm not sure I've seen Aliens (I saw Alien and Aliens 3 many years ago, but I think I gave the second one a miss for whatever reason). In any case, I don't remember enough about any movie in that series to speak intelligently about how District 9 compares to it. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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Ian
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« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2009, 06:46:31 AM » |
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I thought it was a pretty badass movie.
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NinjaRob17
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« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2009, 10:15:06 AM » |
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I thought it was a pretty badass movie.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. |
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