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Anyone else pumped for this movie?

The best trailer I've found is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PDlMggROA

The Yahoo movie summary is as follows:

Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.

Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare -- they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.

The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable -- he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809961221/details

It sounds awesome to me, and with Peter Jackson at the helm, how can you go wrong? 

Interesting, but it looks a bit B-movie-ish to me.

I will wait to hear reviews.

Right on top of my "movies I need to see" list at the moment... The storyline looks good (for one involving aliens anyway) and the action scenes look pretty intense in the previews. I'll probably pony up to see this at the theater.

You put up the wrong link.

I'm not sure this sounds like my type of movie though.

I want to see it and am already on Team Aliens.

Fixed.

I'm skeptical cause most of PJ's movies suck serious ass! Other than Lord of the Rings and a few campy horror flicks he hasn't done much. I think he's the next George Lucas, outta touch and lost it. And don't even mention King Kong!! How you can stretch out an 1.5 hour movie about a big ass gorilla into nearly four hours is crazy retarded!!

Watched this movie last night and was extremely disappointed.  Nearly turned it off once, in fact I did turn it off and then thought "maybe it will get better" and turned it back on.  I should have left it off.

This movie had so much potential, I can't believe it turned out this bad.  It doesn't even stick to the basic premise of the movie which is that not all alien landings are about special effects, superior weaponry, large explosions and lots of chase scenes.  Apparently they ARE all about that, just not necessarily in the first hour.

I can't begin to list the problems with the story.  They are everywhere.  Practically nothing in the entire movie makes any sense whatsoever.  I could never figure out if they were trying to make a serious movie here or a dark comedy it was so bad at times.  I'm still not sure.  The acting is atrocious.  The special effects are anything but special.  There's no message or meaning or anything to take away from the movie.  I couldn't find a single redeeming facet of the movie.

I had several people tell me this was a good movie. Did any of you enjoy it?  If so, what did I miss?

I freaking love this movie.  It says a lot to me about how people treat each other without being heavy handed.

I agree this movie was pretty bad.  For all the hype it got, I was expecting so much more.

Go watch the Day the Earth Stood Still.  Not the remake in 2008, but the original from 1951.  100 times better movie than this with basically the same message.

I didn't think it sucked, but I won't watch it again.

There was no message? The message was so in your face that South African complained they were being targeted. If you could not get the message out of that movie( here is a hint it has to do with putting someone who you do not understand and different into "special camps") then I cannot image how to explain it to you.

I loved this movie.  It was one of my best films of the year.  I think it will stand as a classic.

I enjoyed it enough to watch it multiple times...thought it was an excellent movie.

I loved the weapon systems the aliens had. You have to love a movie that launches a pig out of the cannon on a alien battle suit.

what?

Its amazing to me that people can watch the EXACT same film and get completely different reactions and opinions.  wow!

Good movie. But it was only a one-timer for me. Nothing special.

Excellent movie. I watched it multiple times and got the DVD. Unless you just dislike sci-fi movies, it's crazy how you can't like this.

I think those two statements wrap up how I feel about District 9....I sort of got the same thing with Avatar, For as much hub-bub,hoorah,you've got to see it...It left me a little .....Really? That's it?

I really like District 9. It made me cry, too which doesn't happen because I'm a cold-hearted bitch.

I thought they could have made it more serious. It seeemd to kind of make fun of itself. Maybe it was just the bad acting. I don't know. I found it entertaining but it left me wanting.

^ Bad acting? 

I'm so surprised to hear you say that.  I think that the lead actor carried the film.  That guy was awesome.  I also thought that while there were some humorous moments early, that the film was very serious in tone.

This was an alien movie that was nominated for best picture.  That's a pretty big deal.

So what was the last hour and a half of the movie about?  That was all explained in the first 30 minutes of the movie and not very well I might add.  If he wanted to do a 30 minute documentary on South Africa, that's what he should have done.  No surprise the South Africans were upset about it.  I would be too.  Guess I should have done a little more research on what the movie was about before watching.  Had I, I doubt I would have watched it at all.

Maybe I just don't see enough movies.  I usually only watch a couple a year and only the ones that I expect are the best.  Maybe if I watched a few more I would see some really horrendous movies and appreciate movies like District 9 a little more.  I expected a lot more than a bad sci-fi mockumentary.

The movie definitely had a message.  It was pretty in your face about it.  District 6 was a real life camp, where thousands of people were forced from their homes to live in slums.  This was a parallel to that story, and how one man made an unlikely friendship.

Ok, so what was the message?  That apartheid was a bad idea?  Really.  I didn't know that. 

You don't get it.  That's what was so disappointing, is that the movie had a really great premise.  Show just how cruel people can be.  But instead they decided to make it into a b-grade sci-fi and going for laughs.  Yeah, apartheid was really funny.  I'm sorry, but I didn't find it humorous nor did I find any *message*, I found it insulting.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Yeah, you could be.


IMDB's Top 200: #126
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Academy Awards: Best Picture Nomination

Of course, these aren't the end-all-be-all, but it shows that the trifecta: public, critics, and Hollywood all loved this movie.  So, while you're entitled to your opinion, you're certainly in the vast minority in this particular case.


As for the message being "apartheid is bad", I'd say that it's quite more than that, reflecting a theme that we're destined to continue to make the same mistakes and mistreat others, unless we learn from those in the past.  ...as well as the simple message of trying to walk a mile in someone else's shoes before judging them.

Also, the film has great technical merit, as the style had not yet been seen and they came out with a great film on a relatively small budget.  They used creativity (the mockumentary format) to tell a story in lieu of big budget effects and it was better off for it.

I'm hard pressed to come up with very many better sci-fi films, ever.

The beautiful thing about opinions, there is no right or wrong for them. They just are what they are.

I didn't really care for this movie. It definitely did not rate the hype I thought.

And this is a different message than one that has been done already?  I don't give you points for stating the same message that has already been stated a dozen times.  If you want me to walk away from the movie with a message, you must come up with something at least slightly original.  Another way of looking at it.  Something that hasn't already been done or at least done in another way.  Yes, the first 30 minutes of the movie attempts to do this, but then it devolves into typical sci-fi gobblety gook and any possible message is lost along the way.  What a waste.

Avatar blows this movie away in every way.  Better "sci-fi".  Better story.  Better characters.  Better acting.  Better message...and it didn't have to reference Apartheid for the message to be understood.  It's good vs evil.  Traditional values vs war mongering.  Religion vs Science, etc.

I disagree with this as there are plenty of wrong opinions. But that's just being nitpicky.  ;D

^

I liked Avatar, as well.  I disagree very strongly that it had better acting or story, though.  And I think that District 9 is pretty original in the story (or at least the way that it's told), while I think that Avatar is pretty unoriginal and derivative, though I'm OK with that.  I think what made Avatar so great wasn't the story or acting, but how technology allowed for actors to give their emotions through 3D models where you were really capturing the performance.  I think that they took a very commonly told story (Pocahontas) and put it in a new setting.  But, they used special effects to do this in a way that wasn't possible before.

Wait a minute...the message in Avatar was more original than the one in District 9?

I think both are modern takes on some very tried-and-true messages about how people should deal with other people.

I really liked both movies quite a bit...and would consider both to be top-5 for sci-fi movies over the past decade. I'll likely watch Avatar more times than District 9, but that's just because I have a thing for gargantuan sexy blue aliens rather than ones that look like bugs.

Not more original, simply better presented.  Avatar was original in it's presentation and consistent with the message throughout the movie.  District 9 had an original concept, but didn't follow through with it.  It fell back onto big explosions, high tech weaponry and car chases in the end and totally lost the point of the whole movie.

How so?

It was original in its setting, but it has the same presentation as Pocahontas, The Last Samurai, and Dances With Wolves.  The story plays out the same way, in the same fashion.

Well it's odd then that you praised Avatar for it's story in your review.

http://whatwouldjesusview.com/avatar-2009.html

"Special effects aside, though, I found the story engaging, interesting, and pretty magical."

and

"With that out of the way, Avatar is a pretty amazing movie-going experience, and one that succeeds in just about every area"

No mention of it being unoriginal or derivative there.

Also you wrote that glowing review of Avatar but strangely, I don't see a review for District 9. Then in a piece about the 2010 oscars you barely mentioned District 9.

http://whatwouldjesusview.com/thoughts-academy-awards-2010.html

"I didn’t see several of the big Oscar-buzz movies this year, but I saw the big three: Inglorious Basterds, Avatar, and The Hurt Locker, which, though there were 10 nominees, were the only ones with a shot to win big. …and even then, it only felt like a 2 horse race. I also saw Up in the Air, Up, and District 9, which were in the conversation"

Looks to me like you enjoyed Avatar a bit more than District 9.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Only in that it's on another planet and the reason for the conflict is a fictional mineral that is highly valuable.  No, it's not a completely original story, but it is slightly different.  And it was consistent throughout the movie.  Had District 9 stuck to it's premise, I would have enjoyed the movie a bit more.  That's what I was expecting.  That's what I was wanting.

The other disappointing thing about District 9 was that I thought part of the premise was that not all alien landings are about the aliens trying to take over the world and the resulting conflict that it causes.  So why in the world did these aliens have all this high tech weaponry in the first place?  And why didn't they use it even when their race was starving to death?  Not even to go kill a few cows?  And why didn't the government while clearly trying to exploit the alien weaponry to their own advantage, actually go through the trouble of you know removing the alien weaponry from the aliens?  They just leave it all lieing around for it to be gobbled up by the black market?  And if the aliens really wanted the cat food, why didn't they just use the high tech weapons to take the cat food?  And oh yeah the black market guys are trying to use the weapons by drinking the blood of the aliens?  And why is it exactly that humans turn into aliens when drinking their fuel anyway?  So I guess if aliens landed on earth and drank rocket fuel they would turn into humans?  And if this rocket fuel is so hard to come by, why is it that the aliens missed the sign that read "last spaceship refueling station for the next 100 million miles"?  And why is it that when the spaceship ran out of fuel it didn't crash into earth, just simply came to a stop hovering over the Earth?  And finally why didn't the government just give the aliens rocket fuel instead of cat food and turn them into humans?  Problem solved.

Sorry, I just didn't get it.

Not to be a stickler, but wasn't it the South African government? Things are probably that bad because aliens arrived and there was no organization to speak of because aliens just arrived. Who knows, not every story has every single question answered. Their leaders could have been killed and they're just drones, like the Borg, who can't do anything about anything without them. I dunno. It didn't matter.

Yes, sorry.  Fixed that.

That's true.  It was all of those things.  But I don't think it was original.
 

I don't think that unoriginal or derivative is bad.  I think that Avatar re-told a popular archetype.  I don't think that's bad, though.


I did write a District 9 review, but it was lost.  I also wrote a piece about 5 great Sci-Fi films that year (Avatar, Moon, District 9, Star Trek, and Avatar) that was also lost.  The site was pretty new at the time and it would crash and I would lose posts.  I've since started saving everything to word docs before I put them up.


Every word of that is true.  My favorite film of the year was Up in the Air.  When I say it was a two horse race, I meant that Avatar and The Hurt Locker were the only ones that had a chance of winning.  I think that Avatar deserved best picture, because it's a film that's important to film-making and is one that we'll be talking about for a long time because of its technical contributions to how movies will be made.  It's also something that was an event, that could be enjoyed by lots of different ages.  That said, I personally enjoy District 9 better.


I did not.  Although, I did like Avatar quite a bit, so I'm not going to dog it.

Calling the black stuff "rocket fuel" misses the point.  The whole point was that it's not fuel in a traditional sense, that their weaponry and technology is powered by organic material.  You are actually doing a good job as expressing another theme of the movie -- trying to cram conventional thinking into non-traditional means.

As for how ridiculous it is to think that drinking alien blood or eating their flesh will give them powers, that is already a prevalent problem NOW in those parts of Africa.  The amount of superstition, especially surrounding what you eat and what it does to your body (all over Africa and Asia) is a big issue.

So in other words anything goes.  I asked in my first post for those of you that liked it what I missed.  This is apparently it.  That anything goes in this movie.  I don't have a problem with a little suspension of belief especially in a sci-fi, but personally I like a little more than just anything goes.  First and foremost, I gotta believe it to like it.  I didn't.  And no amount of suspension of belief was gonna fix that.

I made a similar connection with Harry Potter.  "Anything goes" took the intensity away from some of the films.

As for District 9, I didn't feel that.  They set up those rules very clearly and followed them.  The power for their technology was DNA based.  The guns, "rocket fuel", way to control their ships, etc.  ....they all adhered to that basic rule, that was well established.

But I don't really know what we're arguing.  You didn't get it, like you said.  I did.

I think I'm a bit harder to sell than you.

Make sure you let me know the movies you don't like.  I'll be sure not to watch them. :)

Dave, I went and read some of your reviews from some other movies just to see how we matched up overall and surprisingly you and I are not off as much as it would seem.  Aside from a few notables, like District 9 , Kick-Ass and Inglorious Basterds, I think we are mostly on the same page and I think there might be some commonalities with the movies we disagree on completely, but that's not the point of this post.

I saw how you weren't a big Mel Brooks fan and someone had suggested Blazing Saddles.  You hit the nail on the head with your review.  It was kinda funny in it's time, but now it's just ridiculous. I also for the most part agree with your review of Space Balls.  But there is one of Mel's movies that does deserve merit and stands the test of time in my opinion.  I can still watch it today and laugh when it comes on.  If you haven't seen it you should really see Young Frankenstein.  In my opinion it's Mel's best work.  Gene Wilder is great as is Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman and Teri Garr.  Gene Hackman even has a small role and is pretty funny teamed up with Boyle.  There's a few stupid jokes thrown in here as well, but there's also a lot of very funny comedic stuff.  Give him one last try.  If you don't like it, then don't watch another Mel Brooks movie, because nothing of his is better.

And you're just now seeing Pretty Woman?  For shame.

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