It is really hard for me to respect and (less important) like a film with a “story” that it’s not more than just a reason to desplay CGI and special effects. And that is exactly what happened in this one….. i have to give it to them the idea is more than a little interesting, the whole thing about aliens in need are treated like second class citizens was a great opportunity to turn into a great script.
The result: a pretty bad script, probably thought to like hollywood and mainstream viewers, for a movie they wanted to direct to look like The Dark Knight with the type of action you see in Transformers. Bad actors, (except por the alien, he deserves an oscar), and poorly developed characters.
I started the movie anxiously waiting for it to kick in, but quit after over an hour of a pretty flat and predictable display of resources, and the had to top it with the scene of the guy with his new alien look crafting a flower made out of junk.
These bitter tasting experiences happen to all of us because we tend to keep some of our faith in the wrong people, who happen to be the ones making, once again, mainstream cinema.
And lastly, inspired by the last thread, i’m not watching it again either.
With all the hype around this film, i have to admit that i was very skeptical. i watched it yesterday and i must say, i was really surprised at how much better it was than your typical summer sci-fi blockbuster. I thought the cgi was fantastic and i also liked how it combined both documentary and dramatic elements seamlessly. The fact that the director/screenwriter chose Johannesburg as the location was no coincidence – allegorical references to apartheid were pretty evident in this movie, which i thought was an interesting idea. I was also surprised how sympathetic i was towards the “prawns.” I thought the director was able to do this without being condescending to his audience which is rare in a movie such as this.
Armond White’s influence is far-reaching.
It’s not Armond Influence dude. It’s the fact, that it is not as great as people say, there have been way better movies this year. And someone actually called this the best of the decade. WTF they must obviously not watch movies. This was EXTREMELY hyped up. And still bothers me thats continuously hyped. Certainly not the best Sci-fi I have seen. And certainly not the best in a while.
I thought District 9 was pretty amazing.
I thought it is was excellent.
Pretty much everything Ryan said above—except I don’t know if I’d go so far as calling this a good movie.
Currently watching the upcoming Blu-ray release and I thought the movie was good not great (HD fans will love the PQ and AQ for this film). Special features-wise, tons of features in the Blu-ray release but one thing that I didn’t know was that the film was primarily improvised. For film students, actually very good insight to the director’s mindset, being put in the position of working on his first major film, the environment that he had to work with and more.
Why did I never EVER feel dirty for loving this movie so much until I found this site? haha
I honestly thought it was amazing, I felt like the flow from political to action-packed was quite interesting and intriguing, as was the transformation of the protagonist. I loved the acting, I felt attached to the main character by the end of the film, regardless of how much I disliked his personality at the beginning; I also loved the fact that I became emotionally attached to Prawn that were ugly and couldn’t speak english almost as much as I did to the human characters. I felt the story in its self was completely originally and beautifully presented.
In all honesty, if you went into this film not expecting some sci-fi action, then you were quite delusional. This movie met, and exceeded my expectations in leaps and bounds. Regardless of what people will say, I loved it.
I found it interesting in its coverage of the issue of how immigrants are handled, cynicism v the establishment and media, but then it had to go into macho violent thriller overdrive like so many dumber films. Still, far from the worst up for Oscar best picture.
I finally rented it tonight, and I’m disappointed. The idea had a lot of merit, but I could believe what I was watching unfold.
It could have done without all of the Afrikaaner “fooking” this and “fooking” that. This movie almost tied ‘Kane & Lynch’ for “fooks” per second. It was impossible to take the man seriously. This film would have been more aptly titled ‘Napoleon Dynamite becomes a Terminator… with aliens."
Also, I get the apartheid parable. I got it after about 10 minutes of the movie. They didn’t have to keep beating the audience over the head with it throughout the movie. The MNU flying in WHITE helicopters and riding in WHITE vehicles carrying WHITE weapons and wearing WHITE body armor on their way to oppress the BROWN aliens and the BROWN Nigerians in their BROWN ghetto.
Oh, and by the way, MESSAGE.
We get it! >.<
It started with a pencil-neck, emboldened by an armed escort, taking to the streets of an alien ghetto bent on forcibly re-locating an entire race. This is what drew most audiences in. Then, it ended with the genetically-disfigured Steve Urkel running to the aid of said aliens through said ghetto in a super-suit originally sold to Nigerians for 100 cans of cat food; all the while detonating soldiers like water balloons. What the f*ck, over.
Peter Jackson has been, and will always be god for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy; but sometimes, I wonder if the majesty of those films was just an accident. >.<
The idea had, and still has merit, but it was poorly executed in my opinion; and I do mean executed.
Ryan Estabrooks
The thing that bugged me the most was the story. I knew about it before hand (an alien-styled apartheid) but I didn’t realize how much it would rely on this gimmick. It’s really annoying when filmmakers take a standard story/plot device and think they’re being original by replacing the humans with another lifeform. They could have easily used vampires or werewolfs instead of aliens and it would’ve been the same thing. I know! Why don’t I make a movie about a group of aliens who live in Louisiana and when they get hit with a massive hurricane, the government/other humans don’t help them out! What a great, original idea!
On top of that, I didn’t feel anything for the main character. The filmmakers didn’t give me a reason to care about him. They showed no insight into him at all other than the I-love-my-girlfriend/wife angle that’s the norm in pretty much any movie. I actually felt more for the alien guy because I could sense his desperation of wanting to get home along with his massive frustration. It’s hard for me to really like a movie when the person I’m following doesn’t give me a reason to become interested in them.
I did like the action in it but that wasn’t enough. Action means nothing to me if I’m not involved in the story. Compared to some of the other summer movies (Transformers 2, GI Joe) this looks like an oscar-winner. But as a film, it just failed to impress me. It came across as very gimmicky, which is an immediate turnoff. I will say that it is a GOOD movie and would actually recommend it to people because I’m sure most people would go for this stuff, but for me, I never want to watch it again.