First, off no spoilers, I promise.
District 9 is a fantastic movie but you might not enjoy it. You should see it anyway. I think this is an important movie.
Now, those of you that know me know that I’m a big science fiction fan. I’ve read countless books and stories and watched everything. I’m a hard sell. I think this is one of those movies that truly transcends the genre. The thing about great sci-fi is that it is always about much more than is on the surface, it challenges you, it makes you think. But it’s not always fun.
District 9 is a hard movie to watch because it really touches on significant and painful social issues. I think it hits a nerve. Or three. I understand why you may not enjoy it, but you can’t say isn’t a fantastic movie. Well, you could, but you’d be wrong. 
I think that District 9 isn’t an enjoyable movie in the same way most enjoyable movies are enjoyable. It’s not really escapist entertainment. District 9 stabs you right in the eye with sharp scissors right out of the gate. The way it’s shot, with the flat colors, in hand-held documentary style, definitely didn’t produce a lot of eye candy. In fact, I was a bit off-put by this. At first.
Right away it ripped me out of my comfort zone. It’s not pretty or glamorous. It’s not an idealized version of Hollywood reality. It says something about us, our fears, our flaws, our culture. It makes a painful point about who we are.
This could really happen.
That said (the part about it being harder to enjoy than a normal movie I mean) – I enjoyed the hell out of it. I enjoy a well crafted story. Great dialog. Great plot. I actually was surprised a few times by what happened (which, sadly for me, hardly ever happens). There was a couple of times I wanted to stand up and shout, did you see that? Did you? There’s actually a character arc in this movie, the main character learns, and changes, and surprises. He transforms. Don’t see that too often. The character even has a specific moment of epiphany. And I was loving it.
The attention to detail was staggering. I wanted to rewind and watch some parts again. The special effects may be the best I’ve every seen. I forgot about them and just enjoyed the movie. I forgot that the aliens and spaceship were computer generated. Normally, in other movies where there are virtual characters, I never quite forget they’re computer generated. I did in this movie. Probably the only other time that’s happened for me is Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
I’m still thinking about the movie. That never happens to me. (Nearly) ever.
There’s my thoughts on it. So there.
I thought the movie was one of the worst I’d seen this year. Not only was it completely unoriginal, it was also racist, and, in the context of post-apartheid South Africa, nothing more than pro-white propaganda. All the movie does is reinforce the existing stereotypes of the role Nigerians play in South African society, and the idea of a white Afrikaner saviour – much like the the settlers who thought they would “save the indigenous people”. Within the current socio-political climate in South Africa, I find it quite telling that Blomkamp has not one strong black character or hero in his movie.
One day people will sit back, look at this movie objectively, and ask themselves why the hype machine is working over-time on Distric 9. Could it be because we’ll be hosting the World Cup next year and they’re trying to get the world excited about all things South African?
I honestly can’t understand why any self-respecting movie fan would think this movie is good.
When I stopped thinking about how bad District 9 was, I reminded of all the movies it borrowed from: The Fly, Transformers, RoboCop, The Terminator.
Hi Chan,
Thanks for the comment. However, I don’t agree with you.
I don’t think the movie was racist. In fact this is a very surprising point of view simply because one of the main themes of the movie is about how evil prejudice and ignorance is. I think you may have missed one of the main points of the movie by a very large margin.
Also, all movies borrow from each other. All fiction borrows from other fiction. If you judge your movies on THAT then you’re going never enjoy another work of fiction ever again. This is simply not a criteria for judging the movie, or any work of fiction. The fact is that it told a good story. And told it well.
With regards to the setting being in South Africa, I really don’t think that really was an integral part of the movie. It could have really taken place anywhere in the world. From my point of view, South Africa’s role in the movie is largely irrelevant. It could have be in Rio, Hong Kong, Cairo, or NYC. And the comment about the World cup seems a simply bizarre.
IMHO, with all due respect, I think the movie challenge you, and you didn’t like what it brought up for you. It touched a nerve. Fine. I don’t live in South Africa, and have never been there, so I get why this may be the case. I’m not telling you to react differently to it. You’re entitled to your feelings about it, but to sit there and say that it was racist and unoriginal, and say it was a bad movie based on that, really destroys the credibility of what you’re saying. Seriously.
You didn’t like it. Fine – say that. That I respect.