Saturday, September 12, 2009

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.

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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.