District 9 Review
This may not be my most popular blog post ever...
I found District 9 really disappointing. A little bit of my disappointment can be blamed on the glowingly positive opinions I heard about it from friends who saw it in theatre and recommended that I watch it. I was told it was a mix of sci-fi, social commentary, and allegory. The parallels with South African apartheid were supposed to be really strong and, I was told, set District 9 apart from other sci-fi fare or action movies.
So I was ready for a really intriguing, thoughtful movie. And I got that. For about fifteen minutes.
The movie started off strong with an intriguing concept and some insightful character building and social/political commentary, but then it apparently lost confidence in its premise and decided it might make more money as an action flick. The mix of documentary-style footage, newscasts, and commentary really pulled me in. The world-building was going great. I thought I had something special here.
But then there was kind of a quick and indistinct transition from documentary-style, acknowledge-the-camera shooting to normal, there-is-no-camera cinematography. I wasn't sure exactly where the transition took place, or what I was supposed to think about it. There are ways to do those kinds of transitions that don't leave the viewer disoriented... I wasn't particularly impressed with that.
More significant, though, was that from that transition forward, District 9 decided it was bored of being creative in its cinematography, its characters, and its setting, or maybe those things were just too hard for it, and it decided, instead, that it should take its world and its characters and spin them into a generic, violent, average sci-fi action movie.
Ultimately, District 9 felt, to me, like it was a fantasy world dreamed up by an independent soul who, like so many creative teenagers before him, decided it would be cool to set a story in his world, without really worrying about how well the story and the world fit together. Even having forgiven the immaturities in the construction of the world (the clichés, the stereotypes, the tropes, the... cat food, seriously?), the original concept had a lot of good things going for it--I thought Wikus van de Marwe was a really unique and useful character, at first--but District 9 didn't capitalize on its opportunities, and because of that, I found it very disappointing.
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November 25th, 2010 - 14:55
I think D9's descent into action-movie was really just a consequence of it having gone from "short film" to "big-screen, big-budget."
Focus groups often grind most of the substance out of films which originally intended to have some. Kevin Smith always likes to point out that the higher his budget, the higher the studio oversight, and the worse his films become.
November 25th, 2010 - 16:08
During Desert Bus, at random, I asked Kate Stark what the worst movie she ever saw was. She answered, "District 9" and immediately became the locus of hate of everyone else in the room. I was sort of sorry I asked, but at least you're not totally alone.
The way I described District 9 to a friend was, "it's a movie that's good, even though afterwards you can plainly say that it didn't make much sense."
November 25th, 2010 - 17:24
@RvLeshrac: Absolutely. It's a fantastic premise for a short film. It doesn't hold up over 90 minutes. I think it could, but it doesn't, in this iteration.
@KingKool: It's definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it's one of the more disappointing ones. I think part of what makes it not make sense is that it's trying to mash together a fairly common plot with an uncommon world-building exercise, and the two elements don't gel, leading to unexplained elements.
November 25th, 2010 - 17:26
You would probably like Alive in Joburg more than District 9 based on what you have said. Joburg was the short film that was expanded upon to make District 9. I really enjoyed both, though I can see where you're coming from as the transition from documentary to action movie is an odd one.
If you'd like to check out Alive in Joburg, it goes for 6 minutes and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNReejO7Zu8
November 25th, 2010 - 20:06
I rather liked it, but have felt no compelling need to see it again since theaters. I guess I saw it before the reviews and everybody went crazy, which I imagine would color people's perceptions.
The thing about tropes… it's inevitable in science-fiction. I've watched far too many sci-fi TV series from start to finish and the one constant is the recycling of ideas. It's especially bad in Star Trek (how many transporter accidents can you have?). But the key to a successful story isn't the trope, but the characters and the setting. And I thought D9 was unique enough in both of those to keep me uncaring about the cliches present.
Nevertheless, I did have a couple gripes: the UN contracted the security of a spacefaring alien race to a private weapons manufacturer? Yeah, right. And it felt like having an over-the-top villain was ill-suited for the movie it was trying to be.
So, yeah, it was a little disappointing. But I'd still put it miles above most of the crud produced by Hollywood every year.
November 25th, 2010 - 21:34
Blog post: District 9 Review — http://timsevenhuysen.com/2010/11/25/dis...
November 26th, 2010 - 17:13
BOOOOOOOO!!!
Also, the cat food thing; it's an in-joke/reference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parktown_prawn