Just saw District 9 with a few buddies and....WOW. This is how sci-fi is supposed to be. Absolutely incredible. There was no real action until the final half hour of the film. I love movies that do this. It gives them time to build character depth and set up the plot. Then when the action finally arrives, wow. I was completely blown away. Christopher, the main alien character, shows incredible depth. He is so well developed. I was holding back tears (had to hold them in front of my buddies) several times. District 9 is the perfect sci-fi movie. If you are thinking about seeing it what are you waiting for, go now. Any who have seen it care to share what you thought about it?
District 9
- Thread starter DRthunderMD
- Start date
Here, here DRthunder.
District-9 is an exceptional movie - best Hollywood movie of the year for me. Director Neill Blomkamp is a master story teller who absolutely did the genre proud. For me this was a master class on character development, pacing and well timed set-pieces (especially the action sequences) that really pay off. A tight and well rounded experience. I can't wait to get my hands on that script.
The dude in me was simply floored by the effects. If the studio big-wigs had any doubt about Neill doing Halo then those doubts should be completely erased with the success that is D-9. I mean, when you look at Christopher Johnson do you doubt that this guy can give us fully functioning and emotional Prophets, Elites and Brutes? Neill had me deeply sympathizing with virtual images that had absolutely no visual human characteristics.
I must echo DRthunder on this one - this movie is a must see. Strange that something so good came so late in the summer movie season. I love this movie.
District-9 is an exceptional movie - best Hollywood movie of the year for me. Director Neill Blomkamp is a master story teller who absolutely did the genre proud. For me this was a master class on character development, pacing and well timed set-pieces (especially the action sequences) that really pay off. A tight and well rounded experience. I can't wait to get my hands on that script.
The dude in me was simply floored by the effects. If the studio big-wigs had any doubt about Neill doing Halo then those doubts should be completely erased with the success that is D-9. I mean, when you look at Christopher Johnson do you doubt that this guy can give us fully functioning and emotional Prophets, Elites and Brutes? Neill had me deeply sympathizing with virtual images that had absolutely no visual human characteristics.
I must echo DRthunder on this one - this movie is a must see. Strange that something so good came so late in the summer movie season. I love this movie.
I couldn't agree more. As far as Hollywood movie that is, best indie would have to go to The Hurt Locker for me. And as far as Neil goes my god. This is his directorial debut and he is only 29. He has a very very promising career ahead of him. The decision to not make all of the prauns like Christopher was a great idea I thought. I heard some people saying that they couldn't feel bad for the prauns because some were peaceful, some where a bit more savage like. Which is what I thought made them perfect. They all had their flaws. Sure Neil could have taken the easy way out and made all of the prauns these little angels so we all felt bad for them, but he didn't. Yet he still made me, well, uh, *cough cough*, cry *cough*. Christopher is easily my favorite non human character of all time.
I was just okay with the movie, so..........I saw it, again. I'm still just okay with it - in my opinion, a likeable score of 7/10. I like the main character a lot, but my buddies and I were scratching our heads over why the Prawns wouldn't use any of their own weapons?
Oh, and I hate that "shaky cam" shit! At least it wasn't as irritating as CLOVERFIELD.
Oh, and I hate that "shaky cam" shit! At least it wasn't as irritating as CLOVERFIELD.
Those were my two big complaints. The prawns are mostly two dimensional. There are no revolutionary prawns trying to use the weapons to break out, no collaborator prawns... except for the one main character (Christopher) they might as well be zombies.
More than 30 seconds of shaky handheld in any movie should be punishable by public flogging.
The incredible CGI should cost 30M alone.
It was a great movie, not the best thing I've ever seen, but most certianly worth watching.
@Gonzo
i'd have to disagree completely with your handheld comment.
The prauns had the majority of their weapons taken away by mnu.
@Gonzo, I couldn't disagree with you more. The prauns were very diverse in my opinion. Their weapons were taken away for the most part. And as you could see any prauns that were planning any revolt or that did have weapons were punished. A concentration camp isn't exactly a great place to have diverse characters. How diverse do you think humans would be after twenty years in a small crowded area being pushed around by another species who only wants to learn your weapons. I think the humans had completely broken them.
@Gonzo, I couldn't disagree with you more. The prauns were very diverse in my opinion. Their weapons were taken away for the most part. And as you could see any prauns that were planning any revolt or that did have weapons were punished. A concentration camp isn't exactly a great place to have diverse characters. How diverse do you think humans would be after twenty years in a small crowded area being pushed around by another species who only wants to learn your weapons. I think the humans had completely broken them.
District 9 started as a short film from 2005 that got Peter Jackson's attention and got them to almost do HALO. THen they made a feature length of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgtbEdqVsk
I saw this YEARS ago and loved it. Now the feature film was pretty damn good. I liked showing a country OTHER than the U.S. as the center piece without making it a tourist video too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgtbEdqVsk
I saw this YEARS ago and loved it. Now the feature film was pretty damn good. I liked showing a country OTHER than the U.S. as the center piece without making it a tourist video too.
Very nice. I heard about some short films based on halo that blomkamp had done a few years ago but I've never seen them. On the subject of District 9 I just read a great review. I swear the guy took the words right out of my mouth.
This is from James Berardinelli of reelviews
I, for one, hope the inhabitants of Earth never encounter visitors from another planet because the reality of how we might interact with them could be close to what is depicted here, and that's a depressing thought.
This is from James Berardinelli of reelviews
I, for one, hope the inhabitants of Earth never encounter visitors from another planet because the reality of how we might interact with them could be close to what is depicted here, and that's a depressing thought.
Until you see Blomkamp's YouTube short (above). He is an FX guru, who did effects for STARGATE, DARK ANGEL and SMALLVILLE series. I'm really impressed with his Nike commercials and shorts like YELLOW.
The budget is small compared to Hollywood movies, but that's the advantage of having Peter Jackson producing; he brings WETA along and he saves by not jacking up the bid (had it been an outside producer).
The slums used were real. I read that only one or two shacks had to be built for shooting purposes. Think about it. There weren't any overly major set pieces, since the sequences take place in the real slum or the MNU research building. There are no 20 million dollar stars. I liked seeing new faces. This movie does it right - it keeps the budget small and makes the story the star.
As far as the non-U.S. location, Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg. He made his short there and after spending 5 months prepping HALO, that deal fell through and Jackson greenlighted a remake of his short, ALIVE IN JOBURG, instead.
Ha ha ha! I agree with you. After sitting through BLAIR WITCH, CLOVERFIELD, QUARANTINE, etc., I don't want to see a shaky camera ever again!
Now, DISTRICT 9 wasn't too bad, in that it had a smoother news quality, but my complaint is that there were no news cameramen during the action scenes and those were PURPOSEFULLY SHAKY!! They take that frenetic style used in GLADIATOR's arena fights and THE BOURNE SUPREMACY and QUANTUM OF SOLACE's chases. This is my shout out to the industry idiots who think that actually helps a well choreographed fight. It's one thing to watch that on a monitor, but I don't like it on the big screen, especially when the theater is full and you have to sit up front. THE BOURNE IDENTITY didn't do that and the fights looked great. Come the sequel (SUPREMACY) with the new director, and I could tell that a good fight was going on, but couldn't see half of it.I actually love handheld, moving and steadicam, but I only want the sense of movement, not the loss of visual. Add ultra-quick editing, like the shootout in the MNU bio-research lab and it gets jarring to look at. The style would work better for me, if it was smoothed out a bit. Like I said, I like moving camera.
The end battle with the mech suit used a lot of that kind of editing and sloppy camera. Just a little less sloppy would help. Like I said, there were no news cameramen present for those scenes, just the occasional cut to a chopper or surveillance cam.
I'll take the first BOURNE movie, or a big bug assault in STARSHIP TROOPERS, the TERMINATOR gunning through the cop station, or a Spidey vs. Doc Ock sequence over the action docu-style, anyday.
Yes, it did.(By it I mean the fights did look great without the shakycam) I'm no expert of course (I'm only 18), but I think it really depends on the genre. The Bourne series was supposed to be a sleek movie. Bourne was a clean cut professional who had very fluid movements. Therefor, the camera didn't move very much. District 9 was nothing like the Bourne movie. District 9 is very rough and much more gritty. That type of movie should require a bit more of a sloppy camera movement. Now of course I don't have any sources on this and I don't work in the industry, but I think this way just makes more sense. Saving Private Ryan is one of the grittiest movies I have ever seen, and it pretty much invented the shakycam. To me it really depends on the genre. It works for some movies I think, some it doesn't.
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Shaky cam is definately over used:
Dairy of the dead, Rec, Cloverfield, Quarrantine (I know just a cheap remake of Rec), just a few recent examples that come to mind. I notice that non-documentry style films are throwing in a few shaky shots to make it seem more 'raw'. I agree it's very bad practise and irritating. Who wants to see footage thats going all over the place.
To clarify, Doug Liman used more of a quick edit style to the fights in the original BOURNE. There was plenty of moving camera, but it wasn't so frenetic. When Jason grabs the cop's baton, the movements of his arms are followed. Big difference! In the sequels (SUPREMACY and ULTIMATUM), Paul Greengrass' style made the car chases and fights really hard to watch. Still one of my favorite trilogies, though.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is awesome. The docu point of view for the beach landing really worked in that. I totally dug it. The rest of the movie calmed down, after that.
Ironically, I bought the movie REC, today.
I'd agree IF they had stuck with it. The first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes are "documentary" style, and the whole middle isn't, but they used shaky cam throughout.
Cannot wait to see this film. It was first brought to my attention after watching the short movie "Alive in Joburg", Neill Blomkamp is amazing!!!
Keeping an eye out for a cinema near that is showing it!
SO cannot wait!
Keeping an eye out for a cinema near that is showing it!
SO cannot wait!
Decent movie that could have been great if the camerawork had been a bit more audience-friendly. I do not get motion sick from movies like this, but the constant whirling of the camera was distracting, dizzying, headache-inducing and annoying. The person I went ended up with eyes closed after ten minutes and could not watch any more -- listened only.
NOTE to producers (not that you are reading, but I can pretend) -- I will NOT pay to go see a sequel at the theater because of the irresponsible camerawork. I'm sure you were going for a certain "style" -- but you took it too far.
NOTE to producers (not that you are reading, but I can pretend) -- I will NOT pay to go see a sequel at the theater because of the irresponsible camerawork. I'm sure you were going for a certain "style" -- but you took it too far.
I really don't understand why people have such a giant problem with shakycam. I have so many of shaky cam movies and I really don't have a problem with any of them, except for the Blair Witch Project, that was just completely over the top camera work. I don't care if this style may be over used, I don't know why people care so much. Maybe I'm just not prone to getting dizzy because of a little camera movement but I don't know. It's not like the camera work takes anything away from the story. And the story was amazing, yet all I hear people talking about is the camera work. What's with that. Story is a thousand times more important than camera work. This movie was original and had good characters, yet all anybody is ever interested in is commenting on the shakycam for that one action scene in the mnu building.