District 9

[Darth Geek]

One thing that confused me were the spider-like creatures that fought like roosters in the first act. Did they ever explain what those were? They didn't seem like they were Prawns.

I thought they were newborn Prawns.

[Doctor Who?]

I figured they were either the alien version of chickens or some other animal you would take on a ship to eat and those were alien cock fights.  Or that they were alien rats or some other animal that just stowed away on the ship.

[Trumpysgirl]

I think the part that creeped me out the most, other than the experimentation scenes, was the opening of the shack to reveal the Prawn eggs. Something about being hooked up to all the tubes ala The Matrix and hearing them pop in the fire just gave me the willies.

[Darth Geek]

I think the part that creeped me out the most, other than the experimentation scenes, was the opening of the shack to reveal the Prawn eggs. Something about being hooked up to all the tubes ala The Matrix and hearing them pop in the fire just gave me the willies.

Why did they kill the eggs, anyways? ANd why were the Prawns doing something about them torching their babies?

[Trumpysgirl]

I think the part that creeped me out the most, other than the experimentation scenes, was the opening of the shack to reveal the Prawn eggs. Something about being hooked up to all the tubes ala The Matrix and hearing them pop in the fire just gave me the willies.

Why did they kill the eggs, anyways? ANd why were the Prawns doing something about them torching their babies?

I figured they were alluding to several times in human history when certain groups of people were treated as second-class citizens and their children were often taken away from them.

[Doctor Who?]

as to why the aliens didn't do anything.  What could they do?  The Humans had the guns and there are a lot more humans.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I think it was more a method of population control, since the more aliens that popped up the bigger the problems got. Plus, it was just that they needed a license for them, since Wikus asked Chris if he had a permit for his kid.

And I figured the fighting bug things was the alien version of rats. Like just about any ship today, their starship as probably full of them.

[TeamRAD]

And it really would take all of them at once to effectively fight back, since the humans could still rip them to shreds.

I don't know, taking out a human w/ a pulse rifle is quite the game changer...physically & psychologically.

Well, we don't know that his state of mind was. It could be just a residual human feeling towards his wife. Considering how bleak the rest of the movie was.

Hey, all things considered, that's better than nothing. And it's still got that glimmer of hope, if Chris keeps his promise to return.

I'm led to believe he'd return as he was portrayed as being quite honorable w/ the final gleaming example being Chris not wanting to leave that Wikus behind.

I found this bit interesting in the A.V. Club's interview w/ Blomkamp:

AVC: I only came out of District 9 with one plot question, and it involves a major spoiler, so it's going at the very end of this interview. How was Christopher able to get the mothership started so quickly and easily, given that none of the other aliens were able to when they were originally stranded? Why was he able to just punch a button and get it started after 20 years?

NB: The idea is that—this gets really geeky and insane, but going back to their hive-structure thing—their queen has died, and the elite population of their society has died, which are really the decision-makers. You're left with a bunch of drones that aren't directed on their own goal-setting basis. I like the idea that after 20 or 30 years, that their ESP kind of hive-mind will begin to almost elect members of its population to start—their fundamental brain architecture could actually change, and they start forming leadership roles.

So I think when they're on their ship, and they're all destitute, when you see them at the beginning of the film starving, it's that there is no one thinking on that level. They simply take orders. So it's taken 20 years for that hive to start realigning itself. And so as Christopher has gone through these years, his mind has started to be honed into forming a plan. So that's where it came from. And this nano-fluid that he had to collect, which he would have had access to on the ship back then, it's just simply that the drive didn't exist. The hive is just trying to restart itself.

Okay, that's what I wanted to read. He was right, it's insane.   

[Doctor Who?]

It makes sense to me.

[Darth Geek]

So the idea is that Chris was getting smarter because of the need for a leader in the Hive mind? That makes a little sense. I figured he was probably an elite or almost-elite drone type that had some access to higher intelligence and has had to force himself to learn everything else needed to get his people home.

I did assume that he was going to gather the Prawns onto the ship before leaving the planet. So I guess it is ambiguous wether he was just saving his own skin and leaving the others, or if he was going to come back with reinforcements. But why would he need others, as the Prawns can all fit in the one ship. Perhaps he can't go that far on the amount of fuel he has with a full ship? If he is going to come back with reinforcements, I would love the sequel to be like ID4, just done really well.

It's these kind of questions that are interesting and make analysis of a movie fun, as apposed to plot questions that can only be answered "if they had done that, the movie would have been over" because of bad writing.

[Relaxing Dragon]

And it really would take all of them at once to effectively fight back, since the humans could still rip them to shreds.

I don't know, taking out a human w/ a pulse rifle is quite the game changer...physically & psychologically.

Well, that didn't really slow the other guys down when it started happening.

So the idea is that Chris was getting smarter because of the need for a leader in the Hive mind? That makes a little sense. I figured he was probably an elite or almost-elite drone type that had some access to higher intelligence and has had to force himself to learn everything else needed to get his people home.

I did assume that he was going to gather the Prawns onto the ship before leaving the planet. So I guess it is ambiguous wether he was just saving his own skin and leaving the others, or if he was going to come back with reinforcements. But why would he need others, as the Prawns can all fit in the one ship. Perhaps he can't go that far on the amount of fuel he has with a full ship? If he is going to come back with reinforcements, I would love the sequel to be like ID4, just done really well.

It's these kind of questions that are interesting and make analysis of a movie fun, as apposed to plot questions that can only be answered "if they had done that, the movie would have been over" because of bad writing.

I don't think Chris could've gone back for the rest of his people right then and there. The military was already gunning for him, and in the time it would take him to land the ship (or get it close enough to the ground for others to get in) and herd the others inside, there would probably be a lot of missiles headed his way (MNU had already made it quite clear they didn't want them to leave). And there's also that fuel issue, since he was quite clear he had to use it get home ASAP (and Wikus probably already wasted a bit spraying it in his face, unless that was some other fluid in the canister).

As for the leadership thing, I think it makes sense that he'd slowly start to get a leadership thing going. I'm very sure he was already higher on the food chain, since he said he'd been working on the plan for the entire twenty years. So right from the start, he knew he had to do something and started working on it. Whether other (for example) leader types were with him at the time, and that by twenty years later he was the only one left, is hard to say.

[TeamRAD]

It makes sense to me.

The ESP bit had me giggle. We're talking clairvoyance? Come on, but if it was genetically-speaking, for sure...the mating of a new hive or in this particular case, the emulation of theirs. It's the only means of survival in a post-queen situation. But ESP, that's goofy.

And it really would take all of them at once to effectively fight back, since the humans could still rip them to shreds.

I don't know, taking out a human w/ a pulse rifle is quite the game changer...physically & psychologically.

Well, that didn't really slow the other guys down when it started happening.

Because the MNU were cartoon characters. Weaponry of that nature floating around during war w/ an alien race, yeah...I'm not leaving my apartment. They win!

[Doctor Who?]

The enemy having new weapons has never stopped armies before.  If it did The American Civil war,World War 1,and every war since then would never have happened.

[Doctor Who?]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/16/boxoffice.ew/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Yes!

It already made back it's budget.

Also it beat G.I.Joe!

[Darth Geek]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/16/boxoffice.ew/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Yes!

It already made back it's budget.

Also it beat G.I.Joe!

Yay! It won't be a smash hit like Transformers, sadly, but it will definitely make money. So Blomkamp should have more clout and we'll see more movies from him. It may be a while before they'll let him have 300m for HALO, though.