District 9

I'm too tired to write a long post, but I 100% agree with mrk

This is the only film I own on blu ray, and I don't even have a blu ray player yet
 
I thought this film was excellent. Agree with mrk, Luw, Evan, etc.

It also looks amazing on blu ray.
 
I enjoyed the film, what i really liked was the fact that, it wasnt set in the USA and the americans didnt save the day.
 
thought it was fantastic, one of the best films of the year for me. Not sure if some of it was down to me living in JoBurg for the last year and half, becuase all the little stereotypes etc really made it for me.
 
Saw this in the cinema last year, wasn't sure what to expect but thought it was really good, got it on bluray and watched twice already, really can't wait for District 10 :D
 
Having watched it...i thought it was a pretty decent movie in all honesty. Not something id watch again unless i was bored or something but not a bad movie in all honesty.
 
My review from another site:

First of all, this film wouldn't have worked if it hadn't been set in South Africa. Ignoring the apartheid mirroring (the film is based on the writer/director's direct experiences of it), the humour based around the naivety of the main character at the start is fundamentally South African and lacks the seriousness that a US lead would have injected, and the scepticism that a British lead would have, to the film's advantage.

The lack of sympathy I felt for Wikus throughout a lot of the movie is pure genius in my opinion. He comes across as being completely influenced by the regime he's employed under and has chosen to disregard his own feelings towards the alien 'invasion'. As the viewer we're constantly torn between his selfish ambition to escape the situation he's found himself in and his empathy to helping the Prawns. At least three or four times I felt sorry for the man, only seconds later to hold contempt for his actions. I particularly liked the idea that he could only truly feel for their plight by becoming one of them.

The acting felt more naturalistic than most films I've seen - practically genuine pain/panic responses and a lot of talking heads/documentary style interviews with the public that might as well have been set up as if they were talking about a real event. If the subject matter hadn't been aliens, for the most part it could have passed as a real documentary. There was also a clever extra layer caused by the idea that as they carried out their eviction duties they were being filmed, so the characters had to behave on camera, and react to it.

Finally, I was amazed at the fluidity and blending of the special effects. I'm told that most of the effects were added post-production and if that's the case I've no idea how they filmed it. Considering the relatively modest budget of the project, the realism of the scenes where Prawns interacted with humans, and the grimy feel of the alien technology was better than any I've seen in a big budget film. It felt seamless. The final scenes were incredibly kick-ass, and at no point did I stop to think 'how did they do that?' - I just took it at face value until I stopped to think about it afterwards.

I'm struggling to think of a reason not to give this 10/10.
Click to expand...
 
Enjoyed it but disliked a few things.

1. The accents, sorry but the south African accent is not easy on the ear.
2. The unashamedly forced message, not a big deal but it made the movie seem a bit up itself, not as bad as Book of Eli though.
3. The "documentary" sections, yes they were well done and probably important but I found that they ruined the flow of the movie.

Everything else was superb, probably 8 or 9/10.


Will probably get it on Blu-Ray one of these days.
 
Last edited:
Well it's certainly a film that polarises opinion ;)

I haven't seen it yet, but I really liked what Jackson did with LOTR:SE so I will be getting this soon.

P
 
I find it interesting that everyone focuses on the apartheid message and completely misses the additional subtext, which is quite obviously about illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.
 
Love it. Watched it several times on Blu now, sober and smashed, and it doesn't dull with repeated viewing.

The wife on the other hand, she lasted 10 minutes before ordering me to turn it off! Me and my mate were most disappointed, whereas my good lady wife and his wife were most unimpressed.... let them watch The Proposal instead I reckon.
 
xiphrex said:
****** prawns!
Click to expand...

I recently watched this on blu ray and yes it is an excellant film. After watching it I did a search for the main discussion thread about it I'd remembered seeing on here just to see what other people were saying at the time it was released. Well, the main thing which stood out was the literally hundreds of **** this and **** that, and **** the other, all fully spelt as above or variations thereof. It seems you are allowed to fully spell out swearies as long as you type them in a south african accent :) I'm not taking any chances myself in this post though as you never know when a more trigger happy don may wander past.
 
Bubo said:
I recently watched this on blu ray and yes it is an excellant film. After watching it I did a search for the main discussion thread about it I'd remembered seeing on here just to see what other people were saying at the time it was released. Well, the main thing which stood out was the literally hundreds of **** this and **** that, and **** the other, all fully spelt as above or variations thereof. It seems you are allowed to fully spell out swearies as long as you type them in a south african accent :) I'm not taking any chances myself in this post though as you never know when a more trigger happy don may wander past.
Click to expand...

I think it can be overlooked if it's not overused, and only used in threads with the title 'District 9' :p
 
District 9 is the thinking man's Avatar. It's the movie James Cameron could have made if he'd been more focused on substance than style.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom