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District 9

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loobyloser

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Jun 30, 2009
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Has anyone seen it yet? I went to see it last night and thought that it was brilliant, Discuss
 
I didn't like the "hero"... did not care what happened to him in the final third at all... apart from that it was great!
 
I agree; he was aweasley little shit. Loved his swearing though fook :D
 
I liked it a lot, It was different to have a protagonist who's really unlikeable at the start, that tank top was horrible, he was racist (or speciest) and a nasty little jobsworth, actually got more human the more he mutated...

Excellent effects, and it's good to see a film were the aliens don't land in the USA.

However, the Seth Efrican eccent is infeectious, fookem!
 
edited to remove a tiny spoiler!

District 9 was a great piece of film-making. Vinkus Van Der Merwe, the "hero" was unlikable for a reason - he represented the idea that even nice guys can be bad guys. The real hero of the film was of course Christopher, the prawn with the son. He portrayed many of the characteristics we would normally associate with a hero - he was strong, brave, intelligent, selfless and showed compassion, not only for his own son and the rest of his species, but also for Vinkus. It was a film which made me think when I left the cinema.

Another thing which made me think were the trailers shown before the film - Gamer, Law Abiding Citizen, 2012 (I'm sorry, but that looks awful), Surrogates. They all seemed pretty concerned with the end of life as we know it in one way or another. But they blamed that change on things like technology, the justice system, global cataclysm. Then I thought, at the end of District 9, that at least that film had the balls to stand up and say "hey, it's US - we're the problem!" You could say District 9 is just a clumsy attempt to shoehorn some political message into a sci-fi film, but you could also say it's a fatalistic acceptance of the consistency of human prejudice.
 
Enjoyed the hell out of it, the best sci fi actioner I've seen since Starship Troopers. I loved the gratuitous splatter and the character arc of the protagonist. I also liked that they didn't beat you over the head with the social commentary either.
 
It was clever how the aliens had adopted human names - do you think they were MADE to by the authorities? Or, was it just Christopher who had done that do you think - cos he was smarter than most other prawns?

And the humans had gone to the trouble of understanding the alien language, (which was similar to some Afrian dialects, with the clicks) but didn't even attempt to speak it.
 
Oh dear, some people are getting upset!


Nigeria 'offended' by sci-fi film
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8264180.stm

Handout still from Sony Pictures of District9
The film depicts aliens living in a South African shanty town

Nigeria's government is asking cinemas to stop showing a science fiction film, District Nine, that it says denigrates the country's image.

Information Minister Dora Akunyili told the BBC's Network Africa programme that she had asked the makers of the film, Sony, for an apology.

She says the film portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes.

An actor from the film said that it was not just Nigerians who were portrayed as villains.

The Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa, plays a gang leader with the nickname of Obasanjo, also the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The film is about alien refugees who set up home in a South African shanty town called District Nine.

It is a loose allegory about apartheid and recent violence by South Africans against foreigners.

It's not like Nigerians do eat aliens
Actor Eugene Khumbanyiwa

Ms Akunyili said it clearly took aim at Nigerians.

"We feel very bad about this because the film clearly denigrated Nigeria's image by portraying us as if we are cannibals, we are criminals," she said.

"The name our former president was clearly spelt out as the head of the criminal gang and our ladies shown like prostitutes sleeping with extra-terrestrial beings."

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Soweto residents tell Jonah Fisher how the District 9 filmmakers hired them

'It's a story'

The information minister said she had ordered the Nigerian film and video censors' board to ask all cinemas to stop showing the film and to confiscate it.

"I have also formally written to Sony Pictures Entertainment, the company that produced this film, demanding an unconditional apology for this unwarranted attack on Nigeria's image," she added.

She also said she had asked them to review the film with a view to remove "all offending portions that injured our image as a nation".

Ms Akunyili said said Nigeria was now hitting back with a policy of "rebranding", after allowing the international community to define the country based on the behaviour of "[a] few criminals".

She said that Nigeria's Nollywood film industry was also being pressed to help portray Nigeria in a better light.

But Mr Khumbanyiwa said Nigerians in the cast did not seem worried by the portrayal of their country.

He suggested that the film, which depicts people wanting to eat aliens to gain the superhuman powers, should not be taken too literally.

"It's a story, you know," he said. "It's not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don't even exist in the first place."
Click to expand...
 
I seriously liked this film. The Apartheid theme was heavy handed, but there was a lot of elegant satire in there as well.

I particularly liked the way the humans were so eager to stockpile the alien weaponry, even though they (we?) couldn't use it. Put me in mind of the cold war.

The alien mecha-suit battle was just fantastic. Looked like ten-times the actual budget that was spent on the film. Amazing stuff. And did I really see one of the baddies get blasted away with a levitating pig?
 
barfing_pumpkin said:
And did I really see one of the baddies get blasted away with a levitating pig?
Click to expand...

Yes, you did! I laughed out loud at that. :lol:
 
I only got round to watching this last night......very good indeed, especially the gun that makes people explode.
 
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