This was a truly great film. Covering a multitude of political, social, and topical issues in a way that felt fresh, raw, and totally innovative, with creatures - the Prawns - that felt like aliens should feel, both distant and dissimilar from humans in appearance, yet by far the most sympathetic characters in the film - at *least* C.J and son. Wikus is also a protaganist unafraid to push past the edges of what's acceptable, and actually tear you up inside, and that is the guts I like to see in a movie. Other movies have been around at the same time, but... This is an incredible movie. To be fair, I have yet to see all of it due to lack of funds; my cousin bought it the day it came out and I missed a good chunk of the middle, but everything I've seen is absolutely incredible. Wonderful in everything it does.
Yeeeeah no. This movie had zero original ideas. Just taking stuff from other much better movies and TV shows in the past. From the documentary way of filming, to the robots blowing stuff up. Every idea and story element of this movie was stolen from other movies. Whats worse is the whole movie is utterly pretentious about it's message. It's one thing to say Military and Corporations are bad, but this goes beyond believable levels, like just being human automatically means you're the devil. To be honest, it's a lot like Avatar that way, but at least Avatar had enjoyable visuals. This had more gritty and "realistic" brown that we all get enough from video games.
So yeah, like it if you wish, but I seriously thought this movie sucked.
"Covering a multitude of political, social, and topical issues"
It only covered one issue, and that unsubtly and not very realistically. Does anybody really think world governments would leave South Africa alone to deal with aliens? And that's not just because it's South Africa. They wouldn't leave anyone alone, even the U.S., which could plausibly take all comers militarily. They'd pester us relentlessly til we allowed U.N. alien task forces in, or whatever.
Yeah, it seems a tad implausible for people to be so quick to get used to aliens. ALIENS! FUCKING ALIENS!! It only takes a couple of years for the South Africans start trying to put them in concentration camps, and at no point does any South African go "hm, this seems mysteriously similar to what we used to do with black people. Funny how we haven't learnt anything since then. Especially so, given that these are FUCKING ALIENS!!"
This film is the exact same as Avatar, albeit with different aesthetics. As I mentioned in my review, it is bad enough how quickly the "realism" goes off of the rails, and even worse how the real life political analogy ends up suggesting that there is some simple magic set of car keys that will help save all the black people (as long as a heroic white man leads them, of course).
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An Utterly, Utterly Brilliant Film
District 9 is probably the greatest film of the year, if not the greatest of the decade. It's very well-written, very good-looking, and very engaging, both for the heart and for the brain. It's also probably the most realistic depiction of a science-fiction world I have ever seen on film, picturing a shiny, high-tech futuristic society just off-camera... with which it doesn't concern itself at all, instead focusing entirely on the filthy slums of South Africa where a destitute minority of space aliens live under the oppressive rule of the human majority and the film's resident mega corp, Multi-National United. Not that they make themselves very endearing.
The film leaves relatively little to the imagination when it comes to its world's inner workings. It's blatant in its profanity, unashamed in its brutal violence, and uncomfortable questions are thrust in your face whereas a "softer" science-fiction film would be content to let you ponder them safely after the show is over. This is what makes it so shockingly realistic, and that realism makes it terrifying. Because you know, you know, that in our world, our people would react in a nearly identical manner to such a situation, as long as no outside factors got involved (which they almost certainly would, but that's beside the point).
The director, Neill Blomkamp, has stated that a sequel is very likely. This may not be necessary, per se, but given the state in which we leave the film's world and the storu unfolding within it when the closing credits start rolling, I'll be the first to say that a sequel would be very satisfying. Our two protagonists, Wikus van der Merwe and Christopher Johnson, are both fascinatingly human characters (though, technically speaking, the title only applies to the former) whose predicaments are left largely unresolved, and I for one would be very interested to see the aftermath of their actions.
All in all, this is one for the books; you just can't miss it. From first frame to last, District 9 is a rush.