District 9

[Doctor Who?]

First off every alien in the movie was having some kind of human reaction it may not be a pleasant reaction but it was human.

Second did you miss the part about there being only 1.8 million and that assumes everyone of them is in fighting shape.

Third they are surrounded by state of the art weapons and they and their weapons can be destroyed by them.

Fourth I didn't see a single anti aircraft weapon so a large scale uprising would be snuffed out quickly just with air power alone.

Fifth the aliens appeared to be half starved half starved people don't make good armies that is the reason people are kept starving in North Korea.

Sixth the group of people they are standing for out number those oppressing them maybe you should be asking why the real people didn't rise up.

Seventh Just because a people don't know that they can rise up doesn't make them sub human and doesn't mean that they shouldn't have freedom if we start looking at thing that way we are in real danger of repeating huge mistakes that have been made in the past.

Eighth They only killed and eat one guy to protect someone else the human behaved in a far more savage manor.

Ninth walking up and eating people isn't a very effective combat tactic against people who have you surrounded with very big guns it only worked that time because they surprised the guy the same with the earlier attack .  It would have failed if Chris didn't have the ship ready to go.

Sorry but I don't buy the idea that oppressed people who can't fight back are savages who deserve to be enslaved and killed.  Sorry maybe history will prove me wrong but I choose not to believe that.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I'm so late to this conversation it stopped being funny long ago. Still, that's not going to stop me from worming myself in in a very awkward way that completely misses the point of the conversation.

Good good.  Glad to see responses, and keep them coming.  I still feel that the movie begins to say something and make a social cometary but gets lost in being an action movie and never finishes its sentence.  I have to leave to see Rifftrax live though, so I'll expand on that thought later.

Personally, I don't think it's so much a message movie at all. I mean, it is, and it presents its case in the beginning (the start of your sentence). But really, that's just backstory, setting the world up. It's a movie about Wikus and Chris, and being centered on them I think it makes sense they would totally flesh the rest of the world out (though I've read there's plenty of backstory not included in the final film. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the DVD will be full of it).

Right. Better arguments to follow when I'm more fully awake.

[Variety of Cells]

First off every alien in the movie was having some kind of human reaction it may not be a pleasant reaction but it was human.

Second did you miss the part about there being only 1.8 million and that assumes everyone of them is in fighting shape.

Third they are surrounded by state of the art weapons and they and their weapons can be destroyed by them.

Fourth I didn't see a single anti aircraft weapon so a large scale uprising would be snuffed out quickly just with air power alone.

Fifth the aliens appeared to be half starved half starved people don't make good armies that is the reason people are kept starving in North Korea.

Sixth the group of people they are standing for out number those oppressing them maybe you should be asking why the real people didn't rise up.

Seventh Just because a people don't know that they can rise up doesn't make them sub human and doesn't mean that they shouldn't have freedom if we start looking at thing that way we are in real danger of repeating huge mistakes that have been made in the past.

Eighth They only killed and eat one guy to protect someone else the human behaved in a far more savage manor.

Ninth walking up and eating people isn't a very effective combat tactic against people who have you surrounded with very big guns it only worked that time because they surprised the guy the same with the earlier attack .  It would have failed if Chris didn't have the ship ready to go.

Sorry but I don't buy the idea that oppressed people who can't fight back are savages who deserve to be enslaved and killed.  Sorry maybe history will prove me wrong but I choose not to believe that.

Oh I completely concede the point that they aren't able to rise up and rebel.  You win on that front many times over.  But the main point of my last post was that they didn't seem human, not that they didn't rebel. 

[Variety of Cells]

I'm so late to this conversation it stopped being funny long ago. Still, that's not going to stop me from worming myself in in a very awkward way that completely misses the point of the conversation.

Good good.  Glad to see responses, and keep them coming.  I still feel that the movie begins to say something and make a social cometary but gets lost in being an action movie and never finishes its sentence.  I have to leave to see Rifftrax live though, so I'll expand on that thought later.

Personally, I don't think it's so much a message movie at all. I mean, it is, and it presents its case in the beginning (the start of your sentence). But really, that's just backstory, setting the world up. It's a movie about Wikus and Chris, and being centered on them I think it makes sense they would totally flesh the rest of the world out (though I've read there's plenty of backstory not included in the final film. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the DVD will be full of it).

Right. Better arguments to follow when I'm more fully awake.

That makes sense and that's fine.  It doesn't have to be a message film.  It just seems to want to be, and people take it as such when I don't think it's actually commenting on it.  It's not a social cometary, just a social setting. 

And I'm not a fan of the "well you didn't read the comic book" or "if you read the novel too it makes so much more sense" argument.  Sure it might make more sense, but it's still a failure on the part of the film.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I'm so late to this conversation it stopped being funny long ago. Still, that's not going to stop me from worming myself in in a very awkward way that completely misses the point of the conversation.

Good good.  Glad to see responses, and keep them coming.  I still feel that the movie begins to say something and make a social cometary but gets lost in being an action movie and never finishes its sentence.  I have to leave to see Rifftrax live though, so I'll expand on that thought later.

Personally, I don't think it's so much a message movie at all. I mean, it is, and it presents its case in the beginning (the start of your sentence). But really, that's just backstory, setting the world up. It's a movie about Wikus and Chris, and being centered on them I think it makes sense they would totally flesh the rest of the world out (though I've read there's plenty of backstory not included in the final film. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the DVD will be full of it).

Right. Better arguments to follow when I'm more fully awake.

That makes sense and that's fine.  It doesn't have to be a message film.  It just seems to want to be, and people take it as such when I don't think it's actually commenting on it.  It's not a social cometary, just a social setting. 

And I'm not a fan of the "well you didn't read the comic book" or "if you read the novel too it makes so much more sense" argument.  Sure it might make more sense, but it's still a failure on the part of the film.

Well I think a setting still counts as a message. It just means the message part of the film isn't front and center, more background noise to the character stuff. And given that, it would make more sense for that stuff to be expanded on future things outside of the movie itself, for all those who are curious (though I know what you mean, it usually bugs me when extra stuff about the film's universe isn't actually in the film. But they can only put so much in without overloading it, so something it's a must).

[TeamRAD]

Alright, I have some time now. 

Because it fit Blomkamp's hive modus operandi, they weren't anything but the drones (a liability & essentially useless besides mating). I wish there were a little exposition trickled onto the narrative w/ how the queen & workers of the hive ceased to be...but, oh well.

This makes sense, and is sound reasoning.  Only when you are making a social cometary, which I think we all agree it's trying to do, it's not such a good idea to compare a group of people to useless drones whose only purpose is mating.  I feel that the movie does do this, there are no redeemable human qualities to the aliens and they come off as worthless drones that cause a lot of death and destruction and harm.  But what sort of social cometary does that make? 

I don't know, for me, I cannot bend my imagination around the social commentary aspect w/ not only the hive-hierarchy utilized, but the deus ex machina of Christopher having some sort of ESP moment of clarity in order to restart the hive. That took all of the fun out of constructing a neo-materialistic commentary of sorts, and just accepted it for what it is, a fun movie...for which is a great thing.

If it is trying to say anything, Alien Nation did it better.

First off every alien in the movie was having some kind of human reaction it may not be a pleasant reaction but it was human.

Yeah, so did the insect-alien race from Alien Apocalypse:

I'd like to believe whatever human tendencies the Prawns illustrated wasn't anything more than the process of socialization at work. That's it, nothing special.

[Tripe]

OK I've not seen this yet,

Now I have

but if the filmmaker shares some of the views of apartheid that many of his fellow countrymen do (and did since a few that I'm thinking of are no longer with us)  it's possible that the message could just be "just because many of these people aren't paragons of virtue doesn't mean they should be oppressed. Likewise just because you are oppressed it doesn't mean you are a saint/genius".

Yep like I surmised though I think the apartheid thing is more a jumping off point than the entire basis for the film.

[Destin]

I just saw this! Yay!

I will post some of my ideas after I catch up on this forum at home.

[Bob]

Any many, many, many months later I FINALLY see this on DVD.

Great Sci-Fi film!

I went through and read the previous 11 pages and I think my feelings are best summed up by the "it is great to see serious science fiction" comment.