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I just got back from it and my head is still reeling. This film packs such a punch that I'm gonna have to recuperate before I can post at any length about it. For now I'll just say that I'd be hard pressed to name a better sci-fi film. It's profoundly disturbing in the best possible way.

Go see it.

I'll be waiting for spoilers.

I haven't seen it yet, but understand it's an small budget film with a non-known director. And that PJ has said this film is amazing.

I can't wait to see it.

I IMDB'd it Ang and it looks promising. It's due out in the UK in September.

PJ produced it. The director is Neill Blomkamp, and this is his first full length film. He gained a lot of attention (including PJ's) with some short films, and PJ was going to have him direct his film of the videogame Halo. Fortunately (in retrospect), that project fell through and he and PJ did this one instead. The budget was only $30M.

The film begins in a faux documentary style, recounting the arrival of an alien vessel over Johannesburg, South Africa. The aliens are stranded, in poor health and low on supplies. A multinational organization is put together to deal with the extraterrestrial refugees, who end up in a camp (a slum basically), the titular District 9. Tensions rise between the "prawns", as they are derisively nicknamed, and the locals, until a new camp is built far from the city and a civilian contractor is hired to forcibly evacuate the prawns to District 10.

This is about 15-20 minutes into the film, at which point it begins to intercut between the documentary style and a more traditional style. The transitions are seamless in the moment, but very effective in making the whole film seem real, like a piece of history. But that's not the important thing about this film. What's important is how the story unfolds from here on out. I called it "profoundly disturbing" earlier, and it is. It grabs your attention and yanks you right out of your comfort zone, making you think and feel things that you probably didn't want to think and feel. But you probably should anyway. Even now, after a good night's sleep , I still can't put words to it very well.

But I'll try.

D9 isn't just a great sci-fi film. It's a great film. But the sci-fi part is important. because what sci-fi is supposed to do is show a world that almost, but not quite, reflects our own. See, we know what we think about our present reality. We carry preconceived ideas and assumptions (schemas, to be geeky about it) that color our judgement. So when someone show us a reality like our own, we judge it based on what we already know (or think we know). But sci-fi allows the storyteller to show us a reality that is different enough from our own that our prejudices don't quite fit, but still be close enough to show us something about ourselves. D9 is hands down the best example I personally can think of for a film doing this. Just be forewarned, what it shows us about ourselves isn't very pretty. The humans really aren't the good guys here. And the thing is, no reasonably informed person can look at how the characters behave and tell themselves that people just wouldn't do that. Because people have done that. They've done exactly that. To other people, no less. You seriously think that we, as species, would treat a bunch of giant bugs from outer space better than we've treated other people? Not likely.

And yet somehow this little film manages to not be preachy or heavy-handed. Yes, it's violent, even gory. But none of it is gratuitous. The camera, like the story, never blinks, never flinches, never yields an inch. It simply shows us a very real possibility, I think the probability, of how we would act under these hypothetical circumstances. And as much as I'd like to believe Blomkamp is wrong, I can't quite make myself believe that. History just doesn't bear it out.

I haven't seen it yet. From what I read in the newspaper, PJ saw a 6 minute short film, liked it, and expanded it to a full movie. Here's the link to the short. I haven't watched it, so Ang, you'll have to watch it and tell us if it is a spoiler.

Here's the original short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8 entitled "Alive in Jo'Berg"

laureanna wrote:

I haven't seen it yet. From what I read in the newspaper, PJ saw a 6 minute short film, liked it, and expanded it to a full movie. Here's the link to the short. I haven't watched it, so Ang, you'll have to watch it and tell us if it is a spoiler.

Thanks for the link. After watching it, I'd say Alive in Joburg is a shorter and lower budget version of the first 15-20 minutes of D9, which is mostly spent creating the world in which the story occurs. The short film creates a very similar world and then stops, so there's nothing spoilerish there. But it will give you a good feel for what D9 is like.

I HATED IT, way too dark and violent and the manner in which it was filmed also made it hard to follow.

Granted, I went into this movie knowing practically nothing about it, TJ's dad asked us if we wanted to go, since he thought it was a typical sci-fi flick.

We left after an hour and 15 minutes, it was way too intense for both me and TJ, it made Aliens look like a romp in the park.

I recognized immediately all of the associations and connections the film was trying to make, to me, they seemed like I was being hammered on the head with it.

To each his/her own, I strongly do NOT recommend this film except for adults with very strong stomaches, there are several really disturbing scenes in this film and I left midway being very creeped out. If you like the horror/sci fi genre, this will be right up your alley, it is not at all mine.

Uh-oh. Now I'm wondering if I'd like it. I don't get easily grossed out or anything, but, for example, I did not like the violence in The Passion. (Couldn't watch it.) Is it alien violence or people violence?

LalaithUrwen wrote:

Uh-oh. Now I'm wondering if I'd like it. I don't get easily grossed out or anything, but, for example, I did not like the violence in The Passion. (Couldn't watch it.) Is it alien violence or people violence?

Trying not to spoil it too much, but it is mostly human against alien violence. There are scenes where they blast "alien hatcheries" with a flame bomb and make jokes about the eggs exploding sounding like popcorn, other scenes where aliens are executed in cold blood, other scenes where an "infected" human is going to be offered up for viviscetion, need I go on?

It is extremely dark. It tries to draw parallels to the worst conditions in SA during the apartheid years, which one gets right from the start, but, man, I can handle cinematic construct violence, this made me ill.

It is like Peter Jackson has gone back to his original roots, the maker of dark creepy horror or really disturbing movies.

Lali, I doubt you would like this, and if European standards hold for violence, this film would definitely be rated for adults only over there.

I think you're probably right, Watcher. I like a good sci-fi movie, but I really don't like very dark and violent movies.

My friend Christine saw this last night and she said it was good. I know enough about the film to know basically what it's about. But, as is always the case with me, my common old common sense intrudes.

Spoilery question in white:

So we are to believe that an alien spacecraft comes to Joburg and the US and the other great nations do not get involved in this story?

vison wrote:

My friend Christine saw this last night and she said it was good. I know enough about the film to know basically what it's about. But, as is always the case with me, my common old common sense intrudes.

Spoilery question in white:

So we are to believe that an alien spacecraft comes to Joburg and the US and the other great nations do not get involved in this story?

Yeah, I thought of that as well, after twenty years, the aliens are all locked up in a camp, their spaceship stilll hovering overhead (how?) and only now is anything being "officially handled." The movie gives some really lame explanations for all of this, my question is why did the aliens ever submit to this to begin with, and if they really are leaderless and so poorly off as to be conquered by humans, why after this amount of time does everything change? I mean, supposedly the aliens' leaders abandoned them all here as the sort of "clean out the worst of their race"' or sumptin, but, still they had vastly superior technology, and there is no way humans on this planet would wait twenty years to figure that stuff out.

Yack, vison, your friend might have liked it, I still stand by my own opinion, I did not at all.

DSFDF and all that - I still say it's brilliant. Yes, it's disturbing, sickening even, but that's the whole point.
But it does get better after oh, say, an hour and fifteen minutes or so.

As for any logical plot holes, I can find none. And I watched the whole film and discussed it at length with my wife after. The humans do what we've always done with "the other". We do as little as we can and tell ourselves that it's okay because "they're not like us." And when that becomes too inconvenient (in this case, after 20 years), we move them even further out of sight. If this sounds unrealistic, go talk to a Cherokee.

As for the technological issues, (spoiler white) the humans are doing absolutely everything they can do to figure it out. And they're getting desperate at their failure (hence their willingness to vivisect Wikas). And I don't recall anything about the aliens' leaders "abandoning" them to clean them out. I thought their ship just broke down over Joburg. What you find out later (after TW left) from Christopher (the alien with the black fluid) is that the ship is hovering on reserve power but they have no fuel to do any more than that. Christopher, who apparently has some technical expertise, has spent 20 years collecting and distilling enough fuel (the black fluid) so he can go home.

I think I'll wait for the DVD....

Ang-

(Good to see ya BTW )

I simply said that I did not like this movie at all. Yes, there is merit in it, quite a bit, but I personally disliked intensely the way in which it was portrayed. I am a wuss when it comes to overly graphic violence, and given that this movie was presented more or less in a "documentary" style, it made it more intense for me. The humans as portayed were simply horrible, and PJ made the aliens as hard to like as possible on purpose. Something between a six foot tall sized shrimp and an ant is hard to find empathy with. But I did, which even made watching this movie worse.

Yes, granted I left before the movie was over. I promptly googled for a synopsis off of imdb and pretty much learned the outcome. I cannot say I am sorry I left early.

I have a huge visceral reaction to overly graphic violence, no matter if it is human in origination, or supposedly against aliens in this case. I KNOW that is what PJ was trying to portray, but for me, it was simply too much.



Some of you may absolutely think this film is fantastic. I agree that it was not "made badly" but only that one needs to be prepared for how intense and violent and possibly upsetting it might be.

Yes, it's definitely not for the faint of heart (or stomach). But if you can stand it, it's worth it. A synopsis can't convey how truly moving this film ends up becoming in the end. The final shot of the film is a true classic.

I know I probably sound unreasonably adamant about this film, but I don't want people to dismiss it as some kind of "gross-out flick." This film simply takes a very ugly issue and depicts in in all its realistic ugliness. But there's also some truly inspiring stuff in there, too. If anybody out there wants to avoid this movie because it sounds like it's too violent or graphic, that's fine. Like I said, DSFDF. Just don't avoid it because you think it's a bad film.

Good to see you too, Watcher.

Oh, and one little nitpick - PJ didn't make this film. He produced it, but Neill Blomkamp directed it. All the artistic choices were his.

Ang, you were spot-on in your descriptions to how I reacted to this movie as well. I loved it, and I'm not really even a huge fan of the whole sci-fi genre for the most part. I saw it because a couple of friends insisted on it, and I'm so glad I did. I was nearly in tears at several points throughout the film, it was so heartbreaking. An excellent (and terrifying) exploration of humanity's terrible capabilities. A very classic road-to-hell storyline as well: a would-be humanitarian effort going horribly wrong.

I'm normally not a big fan of heavy violence, but I thought in this movie it was very well done. It wasn't a turn-off at all for me.

I liked it. The violence was intense, but it didn't seem gratuitous. In fact, it came off as a logical consequence of the situation. All of the disgusting bits came off that way, actually. And as for human-alien relations, well, we have a hard time recognizing groups within our own species as us. Why would we treat something so blatantly other any differently?

A lot of the criticism I've seen directed at District 9 (here and elsewhere) seems to boil down to the fact that the movie doesn't make you feel good. There's no redemption for mankind and the aliens themselves are hard to wrap your arms around initially, though somehow they become real. For me, it was the moment we got a clear shot of an alien's eyes. They looked kind of human. But you have to remember, this movie isn't trying to make anyone feel good. It's a slap in the face, the anti-Star Trek. We make first contact and find that the creatures are wretched. And so we treat them like wretches.

There's something oddly profound about it coming out of South Africa too - I almost felt like if there were any people who could tell this story, and tell it so well, it would those who've witnessed apartheid.

According to the Wiki article, the film was indeed based on District 6, a real-life area in Cape Town during apartheid. Thousands of residents were forced out when the area was declared a "whites-only" district.