So I Just Watched: District 9

I think a good way to picture this and the world that the movie is portraying the humans and Prawns coexisting in is this: when the humans realized the only way to get anything from the mothership was to do it themselves and cut into the spacecraft, that "we" had to do all the work just to get to them, the aliens stopped being this source of "wonderment" and "ZOMG" to a nuisance.

From that point on (and reinforced when they found the aliens malnourished and sickly. "They didn't come here to help us. In fact, we need to help them!") any romanticism of extraterrestials vanished and in the world of District 9, as you said, resentment and disappointment grew.

I like a good morality tale and wouldn't mind being blindsided with one. I'd say a good morality tale would have to perforce have some good morality in it somewhere, though, and I didn't notice anything but bad morality in the movie.

But I didn't go into the movie expecting a "bughunt", rather I went in hoping for an interesting story with at least one likeable character. Instead I got a movie with a story that potentially could have been interesting if it were told better and driven by a character who wasn't a detestable weasel. And the main character became less likable as the movie progressed, whilst all the supporting characters that were introduced were equally detestable in their own ways. Meanwhile, the style the story was being told in seemed to be suffering from MPD.

I was expecting a story centered on a land of make-believe myself, and instead got blindsided by an ultimately depressing tale. But it wasn't a bad movie.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

This very much.

I didn't say it was a bad movie just that the trailers were misleading if you didn't know the story. The thing is it was based an award winning children's novel that came out 30 years ago.

Sadly it's one of the books some parent groups target to ban from schools and public libraries due to it's themes.

It's poorly made, there's nothing to debate. Yes you are enjoying crap if you like district 9. Transformers fans can atleast admit that its a loud noisy film. This like the blair witch project. Overhyped when it came out, now everyone says it sucks that the bandwagon is gone. People will look back and go what was I thinking.


You love poorly explained stuff, hence your love for batman and his awful writing. You seem go with the rule, I like it doesn't matter how braindead it is. I'd be fine with that if you could atleast admit it's braindead.

No stuff was intentionally funny because it was poorly done and awkward. (hence the Bum review even stating the same thing.) The movie is suspect not the review. The review far more intelligent than the material is covering, your cop out fails.

Well given the whole freaking world was watching there needed be an explaination for how that just managed slip by. You assume too much or give waay too many free passes to them. I udnerstand there's time constraints and they can't explain everything, but they just out and out failed deliever any logical comebacks for the mountain of stupid they gave us.

I can only go ok whatever so many times till I hit my limit break (Spiderman 3 came really close pushing me past that point. I still left the movies torn when i was done.) really ticking me off. District 9 blew out that in first 20-30 mins. I just was waiting for it to end because I never walk out of a bad film so if it manages to actually get better I dont ever need rewatch to see what someone was talking about.

That still doesn't warrent the planet collectively jumping off a cliff. Even at the end of the film they re like, well they might come back and kick our butts. So yeah they screwed up big time, that would have dictated them laying the smack down on whoever was that, and worlds super powers tkaing control of the scene to save us all. No other way would have been acceptable in this era. If it was in the 1800s, then yeah this could have happened, and the rest of the world might never known or cared to have gotten involved. This is the information era, this is imposibility. Allowing bugs to get abused so their bosses kill us all is not an option.

No I was upset because I was told it was good, and it out and out sucked.

It's arrogant in the extreme to make a dogmatic statement like that, “there's nothing to debate.” Sorry, but you are not the final arbiter of all things film. In fact, your support of Transformers shows just how far from an expert you really are.

You're entitled to your opinion, but don't try to ram it down everyone's throats as more than just your opinion.


This was clearly explained. You're either not remembering it correctly or not wanting to see it. They very clearly stated that when the ship arrived a smaller piece detached and came away, but it was not noticed at the time. It was only spotted several days later after analyzing a single grainy film shot from miles away. The “whole freaking world” was not watching a random spot a few miles away from the capital city of a small African nation. Not until the ship was there would anyone have cared. The ship was far away from downtown, nobody was expecting it, and everyone at the time kinda had a lot on their minds. It all happened fast and by the time everyone reacted, the pod was already gone. There you go.

Now I too found it a bit of a stretch that the pod remained hidden in the middle of the camp for many years, but that is a far cry from saying “there was no explanation.” There was, and they provided it. Watch it again if you don't recall.


This paragraph is hard to follow, but I think you're saying that the World's superpowers wouldn't allow South Africa to control the Prawns, and that everyone would be afraid of the dire consequences if other aliens came and were upset about our abuse of them. Therefore we would treat them better.

Perhaps. But you're forgetting two things: Metaphor and Suspension of Disbelief.

The entire film is a metaphor for Apartheid. It's really heavy-handed as these things go, in my opinion, but metaphor it is. The suspension of disbelief is necessary for the metaphor to work. Sure, it's not realistic, but so what? It's SCIENCE FICTION. In science fiction we accept warp drive, transporters, aliens who want/could mate with humans, (or any aliens at all for that matter), anti-gravity, time travel, superheroes, and yes, even absurd giant transforming robots. The best science fiction is that which makes one think. It's not that which has the most realistic scenarios. You're willing to accept giant transforming alien robots in one film, but not world governments respecting national boarders in another? Hum.


As for the treatment of the prawns, in one sense I found that the most realistic part of the film. They look really weird, and they're all really stupid (except for Chris who was a different caste). Humans look down on weird humans and treat them badly. Why wouldn't we do the same to apparently useless and stupid aliens that eat cat food and chew on tires? Because at some nebulous time frame in the future something bad might happen because of it? Sorry, but short-sighted governments don't think that way. Global warming, the risks of deep-ocean drilling, and the clear danger of insane banking gambles are obvious recent examples.

And the film even talked about this as well, right at the start. “There were a million of them. We put them in a temporary camp. Before we knew it the camp was permanent. And then it was a slum.” The humans were overwhelmed, and stuff just happened, and then everyone became complacent. This sounds like a very likely scenario to me.


Opinion once again. One clearly not universally shared. If you said, “Showgirls sucked” or “Catwoman sucked” or “Battlefield Earth sucked” you would get more of a universal consensus. Here, not so much.



And regarding the unlikeability of the main character, I thought that was actually pretty cool. He was a schmuck thrust into a world-shaking situation. Why would someone in such a position have to be a handsome, noble, a$$-kicking heroic figure with chiseled features and cool hair? No reason at all.

And did anyone else sense the tiny sub-plot of the guy's Father-in-law setting him up to fail? The camp evacuation was doomed to become a blood-soaked fiasco. Therefore, the leader of the relocation was going to end up a scape-goat (especially since he commanded no respect or authority from the security forces, and therefore could not control them). He was clearly in waaaay over his head, and that would have been apparent to his father-in-law before even assigning him the job. So why did he do it? My guess is that the father-in-law felt that his daughter had married beneath her (she being such a hawt bombshell and her husband a funny-looking milquetoast). So it may have been a scheme to break up his daughter's marriage.

I think very understated things like that in a film show a depth to the writing and directing. That's a far cry from “poorly made, there's nothing to debate.”


DISCLAIMER: The above is intended to be a discussion of the relative merits of the movie, and in no way a personal attack on you, Lastjustice. Just wanting to be clear.

And others will continue to like the movie. As much as i dislike the movie, it really isn't a poorly put together film. It's just done in a style that I (and obviously you) incredibly dislike. There's lots of things to dislike about the movie that have nothing to do with it being a BAD film.


okay, stop that. my turn to point the finger and go 'wrong!'. we get it, you don't like Batman because someone cranked his kick ***-o-meter to 12 and folks really seem to resonate with that, yet it REALLY pisses you off. but frankly the character's been around since the 1930s and had more well written tales than pieces of krunk. if it was really crap, he wouldn't have endured nearly as long as he has.

i have the BatAnti-Nerdrage spray, dont make me use it on you!



i agree. i think the scope of the movie was far too limited and it got lost in the 'message' it was trying to sell instead of making the story seem coherent. but then, look over at Robocop, no one doubts OCP is the big evil corporation bent on trying to take over the world. but i think the message would've gotten lost if they tried to explain EVERYTHING. what torqued me about the film was that i found not one single person redeemable in it and that there were far too many points where i was outright bored. also, i get aggravated when we get slammed by the "Gragh! Humans evil!" hammer over, and over, and over... and over again.

i don't like it, you don't like it. other folks do. don't assume defectiveness in their taste for disagreeing, especially in the case of this thread where they've spelled out the reasons why in an intelligent 9alright, mostly coherent for some of us) fashion.

I just assumed the pod was either the basement that Chris was working in or storage for all the alien weapons they had, maybe the humans found it and got some maybe not. Its been a while since I've seen the so I could naturally misremember some details.

I'd say they were same quality. on a 1-10 scale they re both 3s. They just were same idea coveying the exact opposite message. Battlefield earth humans are awe-some and have heart and defeat stupid bad guys who are charicture of ebil CEOs, while district 9 humans are D-bags and the humans are the ebil CEOs who probably could graduated from the psyclow school of conquest. Both shows ridicilous extremes to prove their point.

I actually enjoyed Battle field earth when i saw it because it reaches a point of being so bad it becomes amusing. The logical side of my brain stepped out for a smoke real early into this dreck so I found it ok. It's by no means a good film, just awesomely bad as VH1 would say.

District 9 never reache a point it was amusing beyond the cover story for wilkus actually made me laugh. It mostly just makes my head hurt.

No it was a BAD film. People like the blaire witch project, its still a horrible film. district 9 waspoorly actted, poorly written. What was high quality about it? (the props from the Halo movie that got scrapped perhaps. I mean seriously if you really feel that isn't not low quality, feel free point out it's strengths in your eyes.) It was disjointed as it tosses aside the mockumentary angle when they werent clever enough make it work anymore.

There's things I dont really like that I have concede have some quality to them. This isn't one of those times. (you know how little I like the Dark knight due to its overhype, but I can't say with a straight face its a low quality film. Even if I low ball it it's a 6 on a 1-10 scale.)


Was more just to rattle foamy. I'd probably downplayed that statement but I was rushing off to work and didn't spend as long as I'd liked on the post. I probably should have waited till I got home and finishing my thought.

Yeah I definitely had a problem with that as even in the ugliest periods in human history there's always been people who were noble and just fighting against the idea. They might only been rebels or a resistance group but humanity very rarely fully embraces a terrible idea.

They spent so much time showing us what a piece of crap wilkus it was like how are we supposed accept this massive 180 that he suddenly has courage, some semblance of intelligence and pair by end of the film? He was too pathiac to believe he'd done anything more but lay in a corner crying about his life and accepted defeat. (which killing people wouldn't have gotten him anywhere. Even if he became a human again he'd be a wanted man...so he's king of being stupid and short sighted.)



I don't assume they re defective. Again have enjoyed films that aren't the highest calibur.(as I say in this post i enjoyed battlefield earth for being so bad its good.) if people aren't getting that (which they dont seem to be, which is annoying." I will state it again. District 9 is CRAP, pure horrible crap. You are not for liking it, but be honest for what it is. Thats all I stated. There's nothing wrong with finding enjoyment in something I don't. But the facts dont lie that it's a disjointed poorly actted dreck that really offended me it was ever highly regarded by critics at all.


Last I knew I was the Lastjustice actually, so final arbitor isn't too far off haha. No district 9 is poorly put together as your post. I might be conceited, but I do usually make some points that ultimately stand regardless if people like me or not.(which tends annoy them further haha.) If you actually had a real thought you'd counterpointed better, as I clearly state I am biased to Transformers.(which I conceded it's by no means a highly crafted anything. Making that an irrelevant point to mention futher against me.) I can actually go however and counter point the supposed plot holes of said. The same can not be said of district 9 as they glossed over too much and took too much for granted. Best respond I can get is from Foamy, well stop expecting a movie that's supposedly thought provoking actually answer anything intelligently.


And that Metaphor doesn't work. The people in that situation weren't valueable to the collective planet or a threat to us all if they were oppressed. The aliens are. They have technology people would want and would have gladly paid for them to have plenty of food to study them and their gear. Capitalism makes this movie not work.

In order for this to work youd had to given us aliens who lacked any value or threat to the planet. Say some critters who crashed on earth on a piece of their world when it exploded as an asteroid. They lacked any tech or way of attacking us for treating them like dirt then yeah humans could walked all over them. (even then I see them being deemed too important as a discovery and taken into some sort of habitant.)

For science fiction/fantasy for the setting can be fantastic, but the ultimate human element has ring true for the metahpor to work.
(why alot of marvel titles tend do well since the characters are humans with super imposed problems as an extention of their powers.) District 9 doesn't ring true. Just presents us with alot of mustache twirling jerks and tries claim this humanity. I'm sorry we dont all collectively roll that way. We're a mixed bag. it fails give us anythnig more than a poorly set up guilt trip.

I mean really what part of the world would actually deem tossing aliens with superior tech into a shanty town is a good idea? You'd be hard pressed find many that would not see as a terrible idea for countless reasons. For the cross section you could find, theres too many that would stop them for the wrong or right reasons. (even greedy evil people would deem this plan poorly profitable. Theyd just killed all the prawns and said none of them survived the trip instead of wasting time halfass attempting at helping them.)

Your examples are weak for reasoning for it. If anything these example would prove exactly why I'm right. If people are willing hinder themselves for those thing, you think they re not going knock over whoever they have to get a new generation of technology?

None of those would lead directly into certain doom as ticking off a race of superior tech would. Think back to when Japan got nuked. They intiatially were like , you cant do it. And got a power demostration to see how wrong they were. The moment they saw that they gave up because they realized there's no way they could continue fighting that.

In district 9, we have seen their advantages over us. There's no question if they can snuff us out, its a question if they will? Unlike other races they dont live here, and we have no way atm of counter attacking if they hit us first. Kissing their insect butts and working with them to unlock their technology is tactically the only smart thing to do. (possibly backstab them later.) If we figure out how make their ship work, and build one, we can build our own. Humans are too smart and greedy to less a goldmine like that just slip by as this movie displayed.


So a single sub plot somehow validates it as good writing? Both Transformers movies had several subplots. I dont see many people considering them a hallmark of writing for it.(hackers, the rangers, S7, all weaved together into the main story and connected at the end to fight off the Decepticon threat in the first film.) District 9 might been founded on a skeleton of good ideas, but it failed take advantage of any of them in a truly meaningful way, I suppose what is so maddening about it.

That might very well happen, but as a stand alone film it's a weak entry. if the second movie builds off it into something worth while may be I can forgive it.(and I can have my PM box explode with I told ya so lastjustice.) That at the moment remains to be seen.

I've never seen the Star Wars Christmas Special. Thus: terrible things that have been avoided are better than terrible things that have been endured.

Not going to debate the rest of your responses, since you've obviously chiseled them into your brain and just can't let go, but I have to respond to this.

You missed the entire point of the movie. It's not supposed to be like every other movie, that has well defined Hero and Villain archetypes, or plot devices that explain everything down to the last detail. It's a slice of time. The Aliens are supposed to be mysterious. They've only been around for 20 years. Do you realistically expect people to know that much about an alien, it's technology, or anything else about it in such a short time? I'm surprised they even know enough about their language for the common person to understand them, or for the aliens to understand humans.

Reality DOES contain mustache-twirlers, and that really is a possible reaction to an alien presence. Individuals can do good things, but when you put them into a mob, their morals go right out the window. You also missed that the alien ship decided to hover, out of all possible places, in Johannesburg, not exactly the finest example of humanity in the first place. The reaction to them would have been different if they'd decided to camp out in L.A., or New York, or London.

You think the movie sucks because they didn't tell the story the way you want them to. That, in no way, means the movie was horrible. It just didn't resonate with you. You expected A, and got B.

The acting was fine, the effects were good, the air of mystery about the aliens wasn't totally removed. it's not a 5 star movie, but it's definitely not lower than a 3.

Fair enough, as that would be the bottom of the barrel. No I can't argue with that. I did state was a 3 of 10. Meaning there's room for things still manage to be much worse heh.

Oh ok, you really want to debate THIS of all things? Sorry you re dead wrong on this front. I cant even fathom how dense this statement is. Humans with 30 years can figure out alot of stuff. (the movie said 28 I believe but I'm just rounding.)

Given the fact these critters would likely be under a microscope and they have WORKING MODELS. You don't have invent anything, just rip it apart and figure out how it works. (at very least would result in us making knock offs of their tech if we couldn't copy it perfectly.) There's enough back ups laying around you don't have be too worried about breaking one. It wouldn't take 30 years figure that out, so no this falls flat on it's face. Humans are waaay too smart to buy that load.

There would be little mystery left to them in that time table. This not like we're studying a long dead race of critters with broken artifacts, They re very much alive and their stuff very much works. We can speak to them and REASON WITH THEM. (something the movie never did.) How are they supposed be a mystery. If was only 2-5 years fine you'd have a point, but at 30....absolutely not. Your point fails as hard as this movie.

I guess I also missed the part where America doesn't exist because that;s only way this story could have happened. They've gone and punted dictators for less. (such as oil.) You really think they'd let some scrub government get in their way of new tech and allow them to potentially get our planet wiped out? This the country takes it upon itself to put armed forces bases all over world and get in middle of everything...they'd never sit this out. It's simply too big of a game for them to stay on the bench.

I'd picture the UN locking down the area removing all the locals. (and I could see them getting screwed, but not the prawns.) Bad PR on an intergalactic scale isn't something that would be allowed.

No, you re assuming something I never stated. I could taken several different stories, the one they gave me sucked. You're grasping at straws to validate this crap film.

Yes there's tools who do horrible things. But they also need maintain a guise of usefulness to the world or not openly do things to point they get removed from office. (such as the former Ceo of BP.) These people ultimately do wish make money, and if the gulf wars for oil have proven anythnig, these same people would kick people's butts if they got in the way of scoring new tech, not stuff them in a corner and waste a highly profitable situation.

I mean seriously who would profit from leaving the Prawns in district 9 and have it so halfassed ran? Who in the right mind would ever consider this insane plan? I could understand some sort of projects happening if the local government ran out of cash, but lets be real there's tons of money to be had. You're mad if you think otherwise. (just look how much money a new Iphone goes for. Imagine what their tech would sell for. )

Do you not know how capitalism works? Even in the film the bad guys wanted the tech..which just about every other movie with aliens such as Predator, transformers, alien nation; humans want the aliens toys since they re shinier than ours.(which even in city of heroes they took Rikti tech in a few years and made the hospital system and new tech.) Supply and demand. Which is profitable. The prawns are willing barter for cat food, and are fairly easy to appease. I fail see how they couldn't just bribe their services with housing and food, avoiding the whole mess the movie gave. That's a cheap price tag for new tech. (Especially since the land in South Africa likely would be cheap enough buy all the surrounding area of the ship up.)

Is it possible, sure but there's so many far more likely things that would make infinitely more sense. Anyone who believes that scenario is plausible simply does not think big enough to realize just how huge of a scale issue that is.The sigifiance of racial problems pales to the ramifactions to ticking another civilization that can waste us.(Steven Hawkins went on record to say we should avoid contact because its such a huge threat to our existence.Allen Moore thought the potential of an Alien invasion was such a big deal it could stop World war 3, and bring people together.) There's no profit in what they did in the movie. Anyone evil and out for profit wouldn't bother doing what they did. Just put a bullet in the prawns and claim they didn't survive the journey to the world, and they can't say we mistreated them. Then take their stuff. (or just bribe them for their stuff.)

To apply something that is acceptable to minorities(from stand point the powers that be don't have any major movitatation to jump down your throat for screwing up.) to world does not hold water. If you think it does you really need open your eyes. That's like saying someone being bully as a kid is same as them being a serial murderer if we re just going apply massive over generalizations to everything. Their metaphor simply does not work for this.


Why is an air of mystery somehow a strong point? There's leaving well thought out plot threads, then there's just glossing over everything for sake of laziness. Sure they didn't write themselves into any corners, because that would have required more structure and substance, something this film was very lacking in. I suppose they re quite safe there.

actually this was a bone of contention with me about the film as well. the idea that the ship was simply left hovering above johannesburg, they kept the prawns right under it, that they couldn't figure any of the tech out after 20-30 years... yet some low-level government tool can obviously communicate quite well with them. that there wouldn't be others, or that they would ALL be kept in such close proximity for so long. if this were only a couple years, sure, but it had been long enough that all we figured out that to turn their stuff on, they needed a living bug.

also, the operations pod landing in the middle of D9. everyone knew it was there, buried. yet they piled the prawns right on top of it?

no, it's not a bad film. but it asks too much and gives too little.

For someone who makes the sort of spelling and grammar atrocities that you do, I'd be careful saying things like that. It appears that you are a non-native English speaker. This is fine, of course. I mean no disrespect toward your language of origin. Just don't throw stones like that when your own house is made of very thin glass. My post was fine. You just refuse to acknowledge any point that disagrees with you.


A bias toward the empty eye-candy deck that is Transformers is totally relevant. One film is full of mindless crap spoon-fed to the audience, the other requires a bit of thinking, some knowledge of history, and the filling in of blanks. That your bias is toward the former rather than the latter is very telling.


Black South Africans weren't valuable to the collective planet? Let me be sure I understand you. Black. People. In South Africa. Weren't. Valuable. Under. Apartheid.

*headdesk*

TELL ME that what you REALLY meant was lost in translation! Please!


You have got to be kidding. There is soooo much incredibly wrong with this concept that I hardly know where to start. I'll just say that District 9 was intended to be intelligent SciFi and leave it at that.


My examples were of human beings collectively doing short-sighted, stupid things for petty short-term reasons, while ignoring the potential long-term harm that can come of them. You did not refute any of them. In fact, I cannot decipher this paragraph of yours at all.


The rest of your post is nothing but variations on the theme of, “Other aliens like the ones in this film could come along and kill us all if they wanted to, so we need to be careful how we treat these.”

I already addressed this in my examples of short-sighted human behavior. But I will also add that this is precisely what makes the metaphor work (heavy-handed as it is). At the end of the film, the audience is left wondering “What will happen if/when Chris gets to where he is going? What will the other aliens do about our treatment of these on Earth?” This is the “thought provoking” part that I mentioned before. The idea that a seemingly stupid, useless, and easily manipulated minority might some day turn tables on their oppressors is exactly what happened in South Africa.


Again, you are perfectly free to dislike the film. You're free to say why. What I object to is your dogmatic way of stating it as if it's blatantly self-apparent like the law of gravity.

And I actually agree with some of your criticisms. For example, the way the control pod went undetected for so long. And yes, all the humans in the film are nasty, petty, and awful. It has its flaws, but few films are perfect. But I enjoyed it and bought it on Blu-Ray. I find it compelling. My opinion, not a self-apparent fact.

All of this really shows how little you understand about how technology works.

The alien technology is at least several hundred, more like several thousand years more advanced than ours. Here's a thought experiment: Go back in time 500 years and give an iPad to the Europeans. Heck, give them a whole box. See how much progress they can make in “rip[ing] it apart and figuring out how it works” in 30 years. Remembering, of course, that the Europeans have no electricity, no plastics, no optics, no concept of the microchip, no quantum mechanics, not even Copernicus, Galileo, or Newton at this time. There wouldn't even be a concept of DATA as such. And remember that an iPad is at least made by HUMANS for other HUMANS to use. Sure, they'll have a factory set up to crank out knock-offs after 15 years or so. Sure they will.

And the prawns in the camp were all of very low intelligence. They would have been of no help at all in deducing the scientific principles of the technology.

Oh yes, and the stuff doesn't even work unless you're a prawn.

The bit here is very much like your bizarre idea about aliens arriving on Earth by clinging onto an asteroid which was a piece of an exploded planet. Sorry, but your knowledge of basic science is obviously lacking. Because of that you proceed from misconceptions that will not serve in the case of an intelligent SciFi film that tries to get the basic science premises correct.

I think D9 heralds back to older written science fiction, and to classical fiction in general*. It's not really about the literal story, but a means to create a message or present an idea wrapped in a fictional (or fictionally scientific in the case of SciFi) world. For an obvious and forthright example, see Animal Farm. For something more subtle, see War of the Worlds.

* D9 is not the only modern visual or textual SciFi to do this, it's just the subject of discussion