I got to see 'District 9' this week and thought it was very good, after being as usual partly expecting a disappointment after the hype. It was a good gritty thriller, and moved very interestingly through several moods - the start somehow reminded me an episode of 'the office', but very little of the rest of it did! I liked the lack of pretension in the special effects, which seemed to get away with a lot by not dwelling very closely or clearly on things most of the time. I found the protagonist very watchable and liked the way your conceptions and level of sympathy for him kept switching, and the baddies outdid even those they dragged out for Lethal Weopan 2 (perhaps it is neither fair nor surprising we associate a certain type of accent with cruelty from the movies alone); the chief MNU mercenary had a wonderfully craggy and evil demeanour, and could easily step into the title role of immortal 1980s actioner 'One tough bastard' when they inevitably decide to remake it.
I liked the casual and unshowy nature of what was being shown, and the way the presence of the aliens was taken almost for granted, not only by those in the movie, but by the audience, as they were introduced without the typical fanfare which one would expect a big sci-fi movie to show off their goods with. I also liked the way that I genuinely could not work out as I watched how it was going to end (a game I usually start playing even before I enter the cinema) which is very rare indeed. I did detect the watchful influence of Peter Jackson, particularly in the gorey bits and some of the action sequences, and the obvious nods to 'the fly'. There was also clearly 9and perfectly understandable) an alien influence, particularly 'Alien resurrection' with the labs and experiments and obsessions about controlling the military implications of the visitors abilities and hardware.
My only quibble really is that I simply can't work out why the aliens, who, while initially arriving in a very weakened state, ad certainly rediscovered some aggressive behaviour, did not use those massive bloody weopans and exo-suits themselves either for defence or offence.
To end, I will include the short movie by the director of 'District 9', Neil Blomkamp, 'Alive in Joburg', which starts to tell the story which the full film brings to life:
Quite similar in some ways but very different in most (multiple alien ships, not just one, and totally different looking aliens clearly due to the complete lack of CGI capability). Overall, a very good science fiction movie, and well worth a look.
(p.s. went to Toy Story 3D with my kids today - why did they bother? No discernable improvement due to the 3D to note, no new dimensions to classic shots, but still nice to see it on a big screen, I guess).
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