See, again I’m wondering about framing versus content. Jazzahola, you state that Blomkamp develops racism in ways that are predictable and obvious, but I do not think that the movie itself was predictable or obvious—in fact, my friends and I were discussing when we got out about how we didn’t immediately know what the endgame was going to be in this movie. However, you’re right in that the racism itself was very, I’ll call it, familiar, but that’s because that was the point. He’s using Apartheid and racism as the FRAME, not the story arc, and you guys are complaining that he didn’t use a new grain of wood. The story itself, while making a not-new point about racism, is still a strong story in that it makes a point about humanity’s treatment of the Other, and in its science fiction conceit EXTENDS that relatively acceptable point into the realm of extraterrestrial alien confrontation, and does not over-simplify it by making the aliens perfect little victims or giving the aliens affinity to black people, i.e., which are two ways in which the movie could have quickly fallen into sentimentality and sensationalism without creating what I consider was a very good story with a man so eager to please that his actions become evil (already discussed) until he’s sent out of his normal world (already discussed) and works to return to normality (already discussed), matched with the foil story of a characters that are alone on an alien planet and simply want to go home. That’s good storytelling, with a good point about the possibilities of human/extraterrestrial relationships that has not been seen in cinema, that is made familiar and understandable through the concept of racism and Apartheid, which you complain it makes no new statement about.
I suppose we’re reaching the point in this argument where it just simply comes down to what you WANTED from the movie, which is something that we will not ever meet at. You wanted a unique, telling statement about racism, whereas I wanted a movie that explored the idea of what would happen when aliens landed from a new perspective of already endemic racism. I got what I wanted, and you didn’t. That’s the difference of opinion, here.
—PolarisDiB
I’m pretty saddened that this is what fellow ‘cinephiles’ degrade themselves to; grade school bickering. I’ve had more civilized conversations about film with people who liked Daredevil. too bad, this site could be so awesome.
Hey Boss,
Just ignore the comments you don’t like and try to add some thoughtful commentary to make this the kind of site you would like. I’m all for discussions that are civil, but thoughtful and spirited, too.
Tomstradamus
I don’t know where that damn Nausicaa thread went?? I cant find it.