So I Just Watched: District 9

Naturally, spoilers to follow!

Yes, yes I am late to the party. But with so many 9 related projects last year, I just decided not to watch any of them until now!

I found the movie very good and I liked the "mockumentary" style of it (though it did come off as two different movies at times). I dug the early panic aspects of the movie better than the action set pieces of the final act, but I still enjoyed things exploding. I like Wikus's tranformation, both physically and mentally. Some elements were cliched, but it all came in a slick, sleek package so I can't complain. Definitely interested in the next movie, whether it be a sequel or prequel.

I just have a few questions:

Was it the fuel that sprayed Wikus and started his transformation or was it part of the defense system for the canister? Why would the fuel do that? Maybe it ties into the bioengineering the aliens seemed found of?

Did MNU see that sort of chemical before and hence knew what was happening to Wikus or was that based on their own unsuccessful attempts to create a hybrid? They mention that MNU had tried genetic engineering, but it all failed, so I can see how they would know, but it seemed like they knew a lot for being unsuccessful.

So what was the purpose of the dropship? Did it drop before the mothership was breached or did it drop during the shuttling of Prawns off the ship, in order to "hide?"

What was Chris Johnson's role on the mothership? If he had control of the dropship and was able to hide it, he must have been someone important? Or at least smarter than the average Prawn.

Well, I don't have any answers for your questions, as I saw the movie a year ago when it came out. And frankly, I have no interest in seeing it again. It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but I didn't really find it to be as good as everyone was making it out to be.

Then again, I loved Transformers 2 and Star Trek XI, so take it for what it's worth.

I really liked this movie...as I tend to like most scifi that makes a little bit of sense.

Also Capt Foamerang very good breakdown......





edit for spelling....

Rather than simply explode the thread with my usual bit, I'll respond nicely.
and leave most the hyperboles out even though that is fun to do.

LJ the pod was never seen taxi-ing people you are either remembering a helicopter going up to the ship OR the shuttle dropping and it was clearly stated as dropping and being lost.

Considering that it has nav computers and is needed to get the rest of the ship working it probably is some kind of mini-bridge that they used for emergencies.

It was done during the exodus from the ship when Chris saw how the Prawns were being treated. He wouldn't do it before because no need. He wouldn't do it after because too late.

The "fuel" if i remember right was either never called fuel and was given that name by the audience or was referred to that was by MNU, not the Prawns. Either way, just because it is needed to make the shuttle/ship go does not mean that it is fuel. It may be any number of types of things.

I loved this movie, because it was at LEAST trying to be a LITTLE bit original. I am so fed up with Hollywood's "safe gambles" on remakes and sequels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus This entire post should receive some kind of award for being both hysterical and fantastic. Well done.

The reason Chris was smart was because the queen prawn had died and the remaining prawns collectively "allocated" a new leader who then grew smart. This isn't mentioned in the film as it isn't needed but the director stated so in interviews, likening it to how bees become fertile when cut off from their queen.

The fuel was some sort of biological fluid that they used in every day life, so it powered their ships and weapons but also mutated Wickus when he got contaminated by it. It isn't an uncommon idea in scifi.

caught it not too long ago and it was much better than I expected given the nerdhype(tm).

Not amazing, but a throwback to the 'good old days' when the movie industry reliably turned out thought provoking, well crafted 'low budget' genre films that had a more ambitious agenda than just turning a buck.

Well it starts and ends as a documentary, it's in the middle where they showed the audience what was really happened, a story that those doing the documentary couldn't know.

I didn't find it jarring at all. By the end you should realize that the documentary was about the events that led to the Prawn's ship leaving. They were able to piece together the start of the story from the ride along with Wikus but then shifts from that footage to let the audience see the events from Wikus's perspective that led up to the departure. They then conclude with Wikus's wife thinking he's still out there and we seeing that she's right.

It's different from films based on fictionalized real life events because they don't need to do the backstory unless it happened long enough in the past that a refresher is needed. I'm thinking of movies like United 93 and World Trade Center. This structure allowed them to give us the backstory of the Prawn's arrival, the formation of the district and MNU without an uninteresting voice over, wall of text, a history class set in a school or forced conversation from a couple of main characters remembering back when.

These comments are interesting. Here are my comments.

Was it the fuel that sprayed Wikus and started his transformation or was it part of the defense system for the canister? Why would the fuel do that? Maybe it ties into the bioengineering the aliens seemed found of?

[Didn't the Prawn say he labored to create that little bit of fuel for like a decade or something? The Prawn did his work in isolation. I don't fully understand why it reacted with Wikus but his broken arm was the catalyst. ]

Did MNU see that sort of chemical before and hence knew what was happening to Wikus or was that based on their own unsuccessful attempts to create a hybrid? They mention that MNU had tried genetic engineering, but it all failed, so I can see how they would know, but it seemed like they knew a lot for being unsuccessful.

[I don't think MNU had any clue whatsoever about the tech from the Prawns. The reasons they hounded the Prawn was because they wanted access to their weapon tech. All of those awesome weapons were laying around that they just couldn't use. This told me everything. The humans were so stupid that the Prawns could "trade" weapons with the humans for food and survive but had control of the the humans by their desires. Everyone wants power weapons, right? This was insurance against the humans killing them. The Prawns were hiding/suppressing their full power from the Humans and making sure they didn't get access to knowledge from their advanced society. The humans were trying desperate to reverse engineer their technology but it was just beyond them. Wikus became wanted because he could activate their weapons. In one of the experiments, MNU had Wikus shoot another Prawn to see if the Prawn technology could be used against them. I think the fear here was that the weapons might be useless against the Prawns if it could detect genetics. ]

So what was the purpose of the dropship? Did it drop before the mothership was breached or did it drop during the shuttling of Prawns off the ship, in order to "hide?"

[The Dropship had the command module to power the bigger ship which was damaged and that's what stranded them on the planet]

What was Chris Johnson's role on the mothership? If he had control of the dropship and was able to hide it, he must have been someone important? Or at least smarter than the average Prawn.

[Stop with the foolish assumptions that the Prawn were stupid. That crew powered a spaceship to the planet earth. Each was probably a specialist in some area. My point is that knowledge isn't enough. A technology/science tool platform must be place for you to use your knowledge. For example, lose your house, car and computer and see how successful you can be in the world. You'll lose time and energy at every step. You'll be exposed to the changing enviroment 24x7. You'll have to walk everywhere(that 5 min car ride is now 1 hour). No access to computer...do I need to even say anything about this? Here, no City of Heroes :-) Tools speed progress/productivity. They lost access to their tools. Think!! The MNU were making rounds regularly to inspect and make sure they couldn't not regain their advantage. Didn't they outlaw Prawns using or even possessing high tech? The Prawns were like the Homeless person you see around town. You wonder why but you don't look deeply at their situation enough to really understand the reasons behind the homelessness. Most just say their lazy or ignorant or mental and go back to their empty life of looking for fun.]

Specifically, about Chris. His previous role doesn't matter. What he represented is all that matters. He represents the indomitable will in all of us. He was working hard to overcome his circumstances. He had a Son. He must of had a wife. He just didn't want to accept his current existence. The other Prawns had just given up hope and had accepted their circumstances.]

Finally, I really enjoyed this movie. I hope Peter Jackson will make a trilogy out of this where they'll talk about the before and after.

Okay. First, I have edited my comments a million times. I think I have my grammar correct. I have never talked to anyone about this movie ever. It came into the theatre and no one really paid attention to it. I caught it at a dollar show and have been watching it over and over again ever since.

About Chris, maintenance is everything in the world. Maintaining your health, your mind, your relationships. Ignore the maintenance or prevent maintenance and you will be able to see a person become something else. Animalistic is what I wanted to say. For example, Prisons. The longer someone stays in prison the less their chances are for reform because they can't maintain any of the things mentioned above. They becomed "Hardened" due to their new circumstance. This is what the Prawn experienced. Chris found an assignment that allowed him to maintain his mind...trying to get his son back home.

I didn't mind what of it I actually watched.. By around the middle of the movie (When the guy was turning into a Prawn) the movie made me extremely motion sick and I had to leave the theater.. I'm guessing it was the shaky camera work..

However I don't get motion sick in a plane, car, or even on a boat in bumpy water..

instead of partially agreeing with LJ in that i think the movie is entirely overhyped i'll simply go with, i didn't like it. though the big action sequence at the end was pretty cool, the movie was annoying. i find it odd so many other folks found it so original, but hey, compared to a lot of crap that's been peddled out, it's close enough.

also, what he said.

Regarding the whole world watching the dropship drop, I don't know if that is entirely true. For one, the whole world might have been watching the mothership and not the particular section the dropship was located in. Two, I forget when they said the dropship appeared, but if it was during evacuation of the mothership, again, the attention would be else where. And three, we saw only one, grainily shot footage of the dropship descending. It is entirely possible that a small group of people saw that event and recorded it but from the footage alone it was hard to gauge what was happening (much like real life UFO sightings). I don't think it was the military recording it, so any response to the dropship would be at least a few hours later (line of communication and mobilization), plenty of time for it to hide underground.

And looking for a spacecraft underground would be like looking for a sea ship on land (The Black Rock notwithstanding). Probably not high on the likelyhood of being thought of. Do an aerial search, do an on foot search, but probably not anything that would penetrate the surface. It would also be hard to use a metal detector, though not impossible, because I would imagine a lot of that scrap metal is lying around and some is probably buried as well. Plus, we saw human rights activists protesting the reassignment of District 9, I would imagine crew on the ground, going through each shanty with a metal detector (because remember, the dropship was buried under CJ's shanty) wouldn't be politically advisable. Also, because the ship hiding underground probably wouldn't register, I can see them searching for it in the usual, common ways, then deciding to give up and concentrate on what they can easily find: the weapons.

I think those who disliked District 9 were upset at being blindsided with a morality tale when they thought they were going to see a bug hunt. Plus everyone talked funny.

Sort of like all the parents who got upset when they took their little ones to Bridge to Terabithia thinking it was going to be another Narnia. It wasn't the movie the trailers implied.