District 9

[Swordlol]

You have probably noticed the posters at Bus Stops, or Advertisements about "Reporting non-human activity to MNU" - and an actual phone number to call about reporting non-humans. (The movie web site actual posts these calls on a corresponding interactive map.) The movie web site is actually very interesting, including a blog of a "Wanted Non-Human", it mixes a Resident Evil theme with Human interaction.

District 9 produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is based on Alive in Joburg (video), a short film directed by Neill Blomkamp.

-=I'm spoilering the following because this is the Storyline, although it has been released officially, some of you may not have read it, and you can't really piece it together from the commercials so read at your own discretion.=-

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The basis of the plot is Alien refugees landed in Africa, the World waited to either be attacked or given great advances in technology - neither came. Eventually they contracted a company called M.N.U or Multi-National United, to "regulate" them and learn of their technology. MNU basically propogandizes that they are treating the Aliens kindly, whiling enforcing harsh guidelines , such as giving them name tags with "Christian" names, no socializing between non-humans and humans, and establishing set boundaries Non-Humans are permitted.

MNU has basically failed at understanding the Alien technology, and their contract is about to expire - and there are rumors that the contract will be handed to another company. A MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), contracts a virus that begins changing his DNA, the key factor in the effective use of the Alien Technology. MNU begins to go after Merwe as he flees in to District 9.

I for when, am anxious to see this movie. I plan on seeing it the day it comes out: on August 14th.

[Badgercloak]

This looks like its going to a great film.

[kpenguin]

Yeah, it looks like a very cool idea if its pulled off well.

[The Glyphstone]

On the other hand, if it's done poorly, it'll just be another ham-handed and clumsy Hollywood denunciation of discrimination, only with aliens in place of your preferred ethnic/racial/social/class group. Here's hoping it isn't.

[kpenguin]

Yeah. I'm probably going to go see it, but I'll be checking overhead for anvils.

[Dragonus45]

I expect this to be a great movie ruined by anviliicius (spell chack anyone) beat downs. In feel a genocide coming on.

[Gorgondantess]

I just have a question, as to the plot...

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Why? Jesus tapdancing christ, why would this corporation do such a thing? It makes no friggin sense at all! If they enslaved the aliens and had them working to the bone 24/7 treating them badly would still be an inefficient completely infeasible way to go about things, especially from an evil capitalist corporation point of view! Why aren't they hiring a crack team of scientists to study their technology and then copyright it, making millions? Why aren't they charging anthropologists millions per minute to speak with the aliens? Why aren't they (and this may sound funny but you know it would work) cashing in on the billions to be made from starting a reality TV show?

This just makes it all look like some elaborate stupid analogy for some modern day political thing, like racism or the whole immigration debacle, turning an otherwise potentially excellent and thought provoking movie into something pretentious and preachy.
I may be wrong, but that's what it's looking like.

[Reverent-One]

I just have a question, as to the plot...

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Why? Jesus tapdancing christ, why would this corporation do such a thing? It makes no friggin sense at all! If they enslaved the aliens and had them working to the bone 24/7 treating them badly would still be an inefficient completely infeasible way to go about things, especially from an evil capitalist corporation point of view! Why aren't they hiring a crack team of scientists to study their technology and then copyright it, making millions? Why aren't they charging anthropologists millions per minute to speak with the aliens? Why aren't they (and this may sound funny but you know it would work) cashing in on the billions to be made from starting a reality TV show?

This just makes it all look like some elaborate stupid analogy for some modern day political thing, like racism or the whole immigration debacle, turning an otherwise potentially excellent and thought provoking movie into something pretentious and preachy.
I may be wrong, but that's what it's looking like.

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My understanding is that they're being held captive so that the government can reverse engineer their technology, but they're not having much luck in doing so.

[Swordlol]

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My understanding is that they're being held captive so that the government can reverse engineer their technology, but they're not having much luck in doing so.

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From what I understood, MNU waits around to for the Non-Human to miss work (they can't even miss work if they are sick or if they are pregnant) , etc - and arrests them, allowing them to interrogate them since they essentialy strip them away of their rights.

The more I play around on the MNU website the more I found all of this intriguing.

[pflare]

Im' pretty sure that's it going to be a look into racism and the depths humanity can sink to due to fear. I am totally checking this one out.

[Manicotti]

Im' pretty sure that's it going to be a look into racism and the depths humanity can sink to due to fear. I am totally checking this one out.

i really hope so, because the last thing I want is another sci-fi that's so hopped up on its own special effects *coughTerminatorSalvationcough* that it just comes off as an extremely expensive hybrid of ET and Independence Day with none of their humor and all of the depth of Twilight.

[kamikasei]

I was a little annoyed when I saw the trailer for this unexpectedly in the cinema - I'd heard something about the movie before that, but forgotten it, so I was taken by surprise. At first it looked like a documentary (intentionally, of course). But then in a brief window between realizing what was going on and then realizing what the movie actually was, who was involved, etc. I had the idea it might be a new Alien Nation movie.



I'm looking forward to it!

[Phase]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this one a lot. The biggest problem I can anticipate is it getting too action oriented later on. Movies like this tend to progress towards action.

[nothingclever]

Why would anyone hope for this to be a movie about discrimination with aliens?
I'd rather just watch Night of the Living Dead. It's a movie about discrimination with zombies.

[kamikasei]

Why would anyone hope for this to be a movie about discrimination with aliens?

What a strange question. What do you mean by it?

[nothingclever]

What I mean more specifically is why would you want a movie predominantly about it? I'm fine with there obviously being content that gives viewers the possibility of easily looking at everything with that perspective if they choose to but why would you basically want to sit through a blatant lecture on why discrimination is wrong with aliens? Or a guilt trip showing all the negative effects of it?

If I were going to see this movie I'd worry about there not being enough action instead of too much because I don't feel like sitting through an elementary lesson. People in this thread are worrying about it being too action oriented. I'm wondering why. How much rhetoric do you really want to hear/see instead? We already know we shouldn't judge people by the colour of their tentacles.

[Phase]

What I mean more specifically is why would you want a movie predominantly about it? I'm fine with there obviously being content that gives viewers the possibility of easily looking at everything with that perspective if they choose to but why would you basically want to sit through a blatant lecture on why discrimination is wrong with aliens? Or a guilt trip showing all the negative effects of it?

If I were going to see this movie I'd worry about there not being enough action instead of too much because I don't feel like sitting through an elementary lesson. People in this thread are worrying about it being too action oriented. I'm wondering why. How much rhetoric do you really want to hear/see instead?

I don't, it's just that there tends to be a dramatic upshot of action that wasn't present before. Like, one and a half hours of talking blah blah blah, then a grand final battle that comes out of nowhere.

I love action as much as anyone, but the movie needs to lay down the action content and stay there, or it seems schizophrenic.

[nothingclever]

I don't, it's just that there tends to be a dramatic upshot of action that wasn't present before. Like, one and a half hours of talking blah blah blah, then a grand final battle that comes out of nowhere.

I love action as much as anyone, but the movie needs to lay down the action content and stay there, or it seems schizophrenic.

Well then that's perfectly understandable.

[kamikasei]

What I mean more specifically is why would you want a movie predominantly about it? I'm fine with there obviously being content that gives viewers the possibility of easily looking at everything with that perspective if they choose to but why would you basically want to sit through a blatant lecture on why discrimination is wrong with aliens? Or a guilt trip showing all the negative effects of it?

If I were going to see this movie I'd worry about there not being enough action instead of too much because I don't feel like sitting through an elementary lesson. People in this thread are worrying about it being too action oriented. I'm wondering why. How much rhetoric do you really want to hear/see instead? We already know we shouldn't judge people by the colour of their tentacles.

Why should there be any action at all? Just because it has aliens in it?

And I don't hear anyone hoping for rhetoric - I see people hoping that it'll be a well-handled movie that explores the themes it seems to promise without descending in to whacking us over the head with heavy-handed moral lessons.

[Sereg]

For some incredibly strange reason, it hasn't been advertised much here and it's only coming out here on the 28th. I mean, it's set in my country and is an analogy of certain issues (which I cannot discuss here) that are relevant to my country for goodness sake. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing it. When I saw the ONLY trailer I've seen of ti so far I also thought it was a documentary at first. Its done in a very South African style and made to look like an episode of a certain political series from South Africa.

[kamikasei]

For some incredibly strange reason, it hasn't been advertised much here...When I saw the ONLY trailer I've seen of ti so far...

It's apparently only run trailers before Wolverine and Year One. I don't think it has a huge budget so they're going with word-of-mouth and online marketing.

I also thought it was a documentary at first. Its done in a very South African style and made to look like an episode of a certain political series from South Africa.

The director is South African.

[Sereg]

The director is South African.

That doesn't surprise me but it means that it makes even less sense for it to be only opening here two weeks later than everywhere else.

[kamikasei]

Hey, it comes out even later in the UK (and by extension, Ireland).

The director is South African, but the money and therefore the distribution is Jackson's/Jackson's associates' and their companies'. (Originally, the director was brought over to work on a Halo movie, which fell through, but they wanted to keep him around, so they devised this project. Financially, it has no particular South African ties.)

[Swordlol]

It's apparently only run trailers before Wolverine and Year One. I don't think it has a huge budget so they're going with word-of-mouth and online marketing.

Looks like I have done what they wanted.

I'm being manipulated....

[GenericFighter]

The straight out racism angle seems off point for the subject. The better commercials (not the goofy PSAs) have me hoping for a very paranoid, fearful governemnt desperately trying to get technological secrets from the aliens while keeping them out of the hands of everyone else on the planet- whatever it takes. Less racism, more arms race.

[Foeofthelance]

Why should there be any action at all? Just because it has aliens in it?

Yeah, pretty much. If they were some hyper advanced race come to judge the world, and we learned we have to grow up, it'd be one thing. But if the entire move was just a bunch of snotty humans beating on a bunch of hyper advanced-but-stranded aliens, then it stops being entertaining and just some bizzare form of SF style torture porn. Its much more satisfying (As well as entertaining) if the aliens deliver some much earned karmic justice to the villians.

[thubby]

i get the impression this is going to be very ham-fisted.

i hope it's good, but I'll wait for the reviews before i blow the 10 bucks.

[Cubey]

The more I learn about this the more I am afraid that it will be just a heavy-handed "racism and discrimination are bad, mmkay?" movie.

[littlequietguy]

Yeah I get it advertisements.
Metaphor for racism and everything.
It's been done before.

[Porthos]

It's been done before.

And that means it shouldn't be done again?

I think some people on this thread are waaaaay too jaded and cynical.

EDIT:

Because some people are pissing and moaning about anvils, allow me to bring up the requiste other side of the argument:

Don't forget, Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped.

In other words if the film has great characters and tight plotting then the anvils can serve the movie instead of detracting from it.

A film making a point isn't neccessarily a bad thing you know.