Starring Sharlto Copley
Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Let me state my one big problem with this movie upfront, because, overall, it was a pretty good flick. The film starts off as a faux documentary. Everything that the audience sees is from news footage, security cameras, or documentary interviews. About thirty minutes in, however, it shifts to be a mixture of the documentary style and just a regular movie. Then, about twenty minutes after that, it simply becomes a regular movie. At the end, it shifts back to the mixture of the two styles again. I kind of wish the filmmakers were ballsy enough to go documentary-style all the way through. Now, the way the flick is written/set up, there's no way they could've done that. However, for some reason, I feel like it would've been a little more clever even though we've seen it before (Cloverfield, Blair Witch).
It's tough to discuss this movie without discussing a major plot point that happens about 1/3 of the way through, but simply enough, an alien spacecraft began hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa, about twenty years ago. The aliens seemingly didn't want to destroy humankind, but we nasty humans took them out of their spacecraft and shoved them District 9, a detainee-ish camp where they've remained for two decades (I don't know much about South African history so I could be way off base, but I'm sure there's some correlation to apartheid here [apartheid was in South Africa, right?]). Now, the government wants to move them to District 10, another camp that will be further away from the major South African city. Long story short, something goes wrong during the process.
Simply put, I enjoyed the film, but it's certainly not without its faults. The aliens looked good up close, but when they were far away from the camera, they absolutely looked computer-generated. The film takes a bit to get started as well and there's a surprising lack of tension throughout. And then there's my issue from the first paragraph.
Still, the flick wasn't too bad. The final thirty minutes were pretty darn fun to watch (I'll just say that aliens have cool guns that can do some nifty things). Admittedly, I didn't know too much about this one going into it with the exception that it has a near 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's certainly not that good (although my positive rating wouldn't be a smashed tomato on that website either), but it's a pretty decent sci-fi film.
It's tough to discuss this movie without discussing a major plot point that happens about 1/3 of the way through, but simply enough, an alien spacecraft began hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa, about twenty years ago. The aliens seemingly didn't want to destroy humankind, but we nasty humans took them out of their spacecraft and shoved them District 9, a detainee-ish camp where they've remained for two decades (I don't know much about South African history so I could be way off base, but I'm sure there's some correlation to apartheid here [apartheid was in South Africa, right?]). Now, the government wants to move them to District 10, another camp that will be further away from the major South African city. Long story short, something goes wrong during the process.
Simply put, I enjoyed the film, but it's certainly not without its faults. The aliens looked good up close, but when they were far away from the camera, they absolutely looked computer-generated. The film takes a bit to get started as well and there's a surprising lack of tension throughout. And then there's my issue from the first paragraph.
Still, the flick wasn't too bad. The final thirty minutes were pretty darn fun to watch (I'll just say that aliens have cool guns that can do some nifty things). Admittedly, I didn't know too much about this one going into it with the exception that it has a near 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's certainly not that good (although my positive rating wouldn't be a smashed tomato on that website either), but it's a pretty decent sci-fi film.
The RyMickey Rating: B
So the major flaw of the movie is that the film's scope/focus grew as the narrative grew essentially?
ReplyDeleteI get what you're saying about the CGI looking slightly fake from far away, but for a 30 million dollar budget it looked fantastic. That's 5 million dollars less than the Hangover.
I obviously liked this movie a crap-ton, borderline loved it.
There were camera angles that I absolutely loved(where the camera was attached to the front of the gun, facing the person holding it.)
I loved how they manipulated how you felt about the Prawns(they were disgusting animals at the beginning and slowly humanized them until you identified with them more than the people.)
I loved the lead actor, especially considering he had never acted before. P.S Am I the only one who thought he looked like Tim Roth?
I honestly didn't know how it was going to end 30 minutes from the end, which was fantastic by the way.
That last 45-60 minutes of action was great.
Justin - I know you too well...I knew you'd love it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, go figure, I hated something that you mention you loved...I DESPISED the camera on the gun! HATED IT!
I honestly don't care what the budget was...I still didn't think the aliens looked good from a distance...I get what you're saying, but it "took me out" of it.
I wouldn't necessarily say that the film's scope grew as the narrative grew...if anything, the scope kinda feels like it gets smaller, focusing on one guy rather than the hordes of aliens and soldiers on opposing sides.
I guess my major issue that relates to the "scope" is that I wish it stuck with one "style" of filming...I hated the switch from documentary to "regular". And the way they do that switch was really jarring to me...we've been documentary for a while (at least 30 minutes) and suddenly we're inside the alien house focusing on the aliens. That was the first non-documentary/news footage shot that they did. And then they immediately went back to the docu footage. It didn't flow at all.
Obviously, I didn't hate it...one of the better wide releases of the summer...but I didn't love it.
Also, nice to have a reader back...they're few and far between...
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoyed your vacation
First of all, I suppose you're right about the scope lessening onto just Wicus, but I guess what I meant was that when more elements were introduced into Wicus's life it slowly added them into the narrative. Which explains the shot in the aliens house, even though I didn't like that one either.
ReplyDelete"Was it when they "tried to integrate by keeping them mostly separate" a la USA 1860-1950s?" Or... Apartheid like it's supposed to be an allegory for? Which is why people are popping boners over this "decent action movie", most action movies don't even know what an allegory is, let alone making a good one.
I wasn't saying that Blomkamp was the first person to invent the camera on gun shot, I was just stating I liked it a lot.. Am I not allowed to like camera angles?
"I couldn't disagree more about the Prawns being "disgusting animals" at the beginning...."
They were digging through trash, they were seemingly violent. They're pretty damn ugly. They even ate cat food... And I didn't say the humans were who I was rooting for. Almost every human character was a terrible person. Which is basically true to form(another thing I liked.) I identified with them more at the beginning since they were... ya know my species.
"Are you seriously giving this movie props because it did what it was supposed to do?" You say "edge of my seat" you say "I didn't know what was going to happen." They're the same for me. Better translation for you? So yes, I'm giving it props for keeping me on the edge of my seat.
"Also, why the last shot?" It basically cemented the whole "just because they aren't human doesn't mean they don't have humanity" theme. Which would have been implied by the wife, but one wouldn't have known if Wicus's transformation stopped at some point or if he became a complete prawn. I see where you're coming from though, if you're going to have a open ended ending, why not go that extra step and have what they said to be the last shot of Wicus be the last shot of Wicus.
Onto the meat:
"Why put an internment camp in the middle of your largest city?" I'm going to assume you meant on the edge of the city. Anyway, they moved them there as temporary housing. I'm not sure but I somewhat remember them saying that they were planning on moving them later or they placed them in district 9 as a temporary housing situation until they could get their ship fixed. Why need signatures? By the time of the movie the people of the world were assuming that the Prawns were going to become citizens. Not to mention the human rights groups outside district 9 protesting as Wicus and the swarm went in. Since MNU was a private organization they were probably avoiding an ACLU-like lawsuit.
"you can't have a documentary, then switch to non-documentary, but keep all the same camera angles. Why was there a camera following them as if a person was holding it in the government agency when they broke back in towards the end?" I was thinking about this last night after I posted, and you're right. It's not justifiable but expect it would be jarring for in the middle to switch from shaky cam to a standard camera angle. That's all I got there.
Also, holy poop that's a long post.
ReplyDelete