District 9 (The Review)...
Ok... where were we... ah yes, the good, the bad, and the rest.
Argggggh matey... be wary, thar be spoilers ahead!
The good:
As I said last time, this was the best example of classic science fiction that I've seen in years. The thing about classic sci-fi is that it tackles some aspect of human life indirectly and draws your attention to it in such a way that you realize it's wrong.
The main point of District 9 was oppression and discrimination. Both of those subject have been beaten to death in the last few years, but this time... well... they did a damn good job of it. The thing that made it great for me is that it wasn't preachy at all and it was spot on.
For those of you that don't know already, the precept of the film is that an alien ship appears above South Africa and it's filled with weird aliens that get the derogatory term of "prawn" attached to them. Now since there are about a million of them that just get dumped on the local society, there isn't enough food or space for them, so they develop a slum area and scramble for resources.
Now since they're now draining the local areas, the locals start to resent them and of course want them to leave, all the while calling them bad things.
Here's what made it great. EVERYBODY in South Africa oppressed them and discriminated against them. White, Black, Purple... it didn't matter. They all hated the prawns, and that's what made it awesome. You see... it wasn't that discrimination would occur, it was that everyone would discriminate given the opportunity. That was great.
The Bad:
It fell into a lot of old cliches. Here we have a population of aliens with a space ship. A FREAKIN' SPACE SHIP!!! And they get oppressed by us? We, who only have, sticks and stones compared to their lightning bolt weapons? Yeah... right. If this really happened, we'd be cleaning the spoor off the floor of their mansions at lightning bolt point and saying "Yes'm".
Also... there's the requisite small child who's more intelligent than all other creatures combined. I imagine it was written by Stephen King.
The rest:
Once you suspend your disbelief, and just accept the world as created by the film maker... it's very well done. It has you rooting for people/things that you find yourself somewhat repulsed at rooting for. It also makes you feel kinda dirty. And not in a good way.
But overall... I liked it. Your thoughts??? Please... enlighten all of us. Even Tiff.
****************************
Today's mystery lyric: (Remember the rules folks, no online searching of the lyrics, if you don't know it, you don't have the answer!)
We fought him hard we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came too much for cree
Oh will we ever be set free?
Answer to last lyric: Blue Monday by Orgy. You all sicken me.
Argggggh matey... be wary, thar be spoilers ahead!
The good:
As I said last time, this was the best example of classic science fiction that I've seen in years. The thing about classic sci-fi is that it tackles some aspect of human life indirectly and draws your attention to it in such a way that you realize it's wrong.
The main point of District 9 was oppression and discrimination. Both of those subject have been beaten to death in the last few years, but this time... well... they did a damn good job of it. The thing that made it great for me is that it wasn't preachy at all and it was spot on.
For those of you that don't know already, the precept of the film is that an alien ship appears above South Africa and it's filled with weird aliens that get the derogatory term of "prawn" attached to them. Now since there are about a million of them that just get dumped on the local society, there isn't enough food or space for them, so they develop a slum area and scramble for resources.
Now since they're now draining the local areas, the locals start to resent them and of course want them to leave, all the while calling them bad things.
Here's what made it great. EVERYBODY in South Africa oppressed them and discriminated against them. White, Black, Purple... it didn't matter. They all hated the prawns, and that's what made it awesome. You see... it wasn't that discrimination would occur, it was that everyone would discriminate given the opportunity. That was great.
The Bad:
It fell into a lot of old cliches. Here we have a population of aliens with a space ship. A FREAKIN' SPACE SHIP!!! And they get oppressed by us? We, who only have, sticks and stones compared to their lightning bolt weapons? Yeah... right. If this really happened, we'd be cleaning the spoor off the floor of their mansions at lightning bolt point and saying "Yes'm".
Also... there's the requisite small child who's more intelligent than all other creatures combined. I imagine it was written by Stephen King.
The rest:
Once you suspend your disbelief, and just accept the world as created by the film maker... it's very well done. It has you rooting for people/things that you find yourself somewhat repulsed at rooting for. It also makes you feel kinda dirty. And not in a good way.
But overall... I liked it. Your thoughts??? Please... enlighten all of us. Even Tiff.
****************************
Today's mystery lyric: (Remember the rules folks, no online searching of the lyrics, if you don't know it, you don't have the answer!)
We fought him hard we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came too much for cree
Oh will we ever be set free?
Answer to last lyric: Blue Monday by Orgy. You all sicken me.
posted by LL at 10:20 PM
9 Comments:
White man came across the sea
...
He killed our Queen
...
Might be Iron Maiden wailing around in their off key way. I won't give the title to avoid killing the surprise. {*grin*}
Surprising what odd things one knows i nones old age.
I liked District 9, but it had (in my opinion) a glaring weakness. I found it implausible that out of all of the aliens, there was only the one adult and one child that were intelligent and honorable? Rather than showing a spectrum of aliens, there were only the two types - smart or feral. And apparently only two smart ones in the whole bunch. I think the message about discrimination would have been more powerful had they shown that the aliens, although they look scary and have disgusting manners and such, were really not the animals that they appear at first.
I kind of got the impression that the way all the other aliens were behaving was actually seen through the spectrum of how the humans skewed their beliefs that the prawns were disgusting and stupid. I mean, in the movie you see the people calling them names and then they show video of a bunch digging through garbage... but later you see the three that are making that thing also digging in the garbage, but for a purpose. The ones they show earlier, you don't know why they are. Just like in video where they show third world people digging through the trash... like they really want to be there? No. We put them there, then condem them for trying to make it work for them. So, I figured the prawns didn't actually come in the two extremes, just that the humans in that 'verse saw them that way and that was how they were portrayed, but once they got into the story, the adult and his boy were more representative of the prawns but we ignored that so we could treat them so bad.
Kind of like C. Columbus suddenly deciding the new worlders were idiots so he could justify stealing whatever they had to cover his own ass for not finding China and tons of gold.
BTW, its the AM so I hope all that above made sense.
Haven't seen it, tho the Things keep tugging at the ol' purse strings to see it again (they went with their dad the first time).
With that huge glaring lack of experience, I'll go with what Fermi says. She's smart like that.
update?
Prawns are good when they're breaded and deep-fried.
Dan - might be... just might be.
fermi - I think you hit the nail on the head with that. That was the exact same impression I had. Here you have space travelers and they're all feral except for a one or two intelligent ones? Didn't make much sense, did it.
P - You would be wrong. :P And I don't think C. Columbus considered them idiots so that he could steal their stuff. It was later on that the plunder began.
Tiff - You're going with fermi? Sight unseen??? Wow... I had no idea she was so Svengali like... ;)
Jenn - Updates? We don' need no steenkin' updates...
Charm - I'd probably pass on eating these prawns. Deep fried or otherwise.
I can't actually sit through a 2 hour movie in the theatre.
I have the smallest butt in America. I have to twist, turn to one side, woops I spilled the popcorn..."Oh, I'm so sorry I spilled Coke on you".
Can I sit on your lap? Yes? Well let me just clarify, I don't want to sit on your lap sit on your lap. I just need more padding.
"No, I'm not calling you fat"
"Shh".
"Hey lady, don't sush me. My butt is paralyzed.
"Too bad your mouth isn't"
Man, it's just not worth it.
pbblbbth
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