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San Francisco, 2:55 PM
Wed Nov 25
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08/19/09
[popwatch.ew.com]
Cuaron's movie was beautiful, moving and exciting -- remember that amazing long firefight shot toward the end? If the geriatrics who decide the Academy Awards weren't going to give recognition to this masterpiece in a weak year for movies, there's not much hope for District 9.
I'll leave you with that firefight. (Though the opening sequence and the escape from the Fishes are equally brilliant.)
08/17/09
Sadly the Oscars have proven that politics govern the award recipients more than the actual quality of the work, so It is really unlikely that it will get any nods.
08/17/09
It's also doing pretty well. I don't think anyone realizes how rare that is today.
08/17/09
08/17/09
I think the Oscar talk all comes down to sci-fi people wanting to be taken seriously (which I can understand).
08/19/09
08/17/09
I agree with jrkman in that to treat this movie as if it deserves to receive the highest level of cinematic honors is somewhat foolish.
District 9 is an action splatterfest with great CGI poorly masquerading as a "sci fi movie with a message". You kids should lay off the video games for a few days and read some Asimov…
08/19/09
08/17/09
Besides, D-9 isn't even the best SF movie we've had this summer... That honor goes to Moon, and THAT movie would deserve an Oscar nod.
08/17/09
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08/18/09
I thought Star Trek was simply ok. It wasn't all that ambitious, but successful at what it did.
District 9 managed to tell an entirely new and nuanced story on a shoe-string budget and look great doing it. IMHO that makes it a better movie.
08/19/09
08/17/09
08/17/09
District 9 will get a nomination for screenplay (not that it deserves it really) and VFX, which it will not win, the work was very good - but nothing new or difficult at all, which is what gets you past the bake off.
08/17/09
I'd disagree, respectfully.
I do think it deserves the VFX/technical awards for the reason that, for me at least, they made believable CGI characters. I don't know, most of the time I feel very aware that I'm seeing something that's not really there in a movie, and this one had me emotionally engaged with the "digital actors" in a way that most other films have failed to do.
As for any writing... as I understand it, according to Jackson there really wasn't much of a script in order to make the movie more "organic" feeling.
Not trying to be contrary, just saying.
As for the whole "does it deserve Oscars" thing... I don't know about anyone else, but I really don't care about Oscars beyond the fact that as some better film makers get that acclaim, they might be able to use it as a club to get studios to give them what they want to make their kind of movies.
Beyond that, it's a tacky little statue that rarely seems to go to the best film.
08/17/09
the problem with the VFX - as far as the Oscars go is that the competition so far this year is as follows:
Transformers 2
Terminator 4
Watchmen
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Avatar (might win no mater what because Hollywood NEEDS this to be a success)
and whatever else is coming this year
District 9 just doesn't have what the Academy votes for...
08/17/09
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08/17/09
I think the movie should have been MUCH longer. Maybe three hours. It really accelerated towards the end in a ridiculous way. Then Christopher just abandons all of the workers and bails Earth. Nice.
Regardless. ANY director taking on a CGI flick should analyze the HELL out of this movie. From a visual standpoint, it was astounding.
08/17/09
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08/17/09
Great FX, good concept, bad story and execution.
08/17/09
(The only explanation for not bringing everyone with him that I can come up with is that maybe the ship doesn't have life-support for 1+ million aliens. They were starving when the humans cut their way into the ship, after all.)
08/17/09
As for Christopher's abandonment of his people, I thought that was well foreshadowed from the beginning - there was only the one other alien he interacted with besides his son, implying (to me) that he was really only interested in his own welfare, not leading his people to freedom. It was only after seeing the experiments at MNU that he even conceived the idea of coming back to help his people. For me, that all fit together pretty well.
My only complaint was the repeated use of the "Before I actually shoot you, I will tell you that I'm going to tell you that I am going to shoot you so you will have plenty of time for help to come" trope. But that's a pretty minor complaint all things considered.
08/17/09
It made perfect sense to me that Christopher left the prawns behind. He needed reinforcements. He barely got himself up to the ship; how was he supposed to get over a million prawns up there? It probably took weeks to transport them out of the ship in the first place. And what do you think humanity does when a great big spaceship capable of who knows what and piloted by a being that has every reason for revenge suddenly comes to life? After the miniature war that went on below him he can't really say, "We're going to leave peacefully now -- you can trust me." Not to mention, MNU has every reason not to let all that technology get away.
If he didn't leave immediately he'd be blown out of the sky and they'd be stranded, maybe forever.
08/17/09
I didn't feel anything by the end.
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08/17/09
It's set in a dystopian future. For most, that's enough to be considered "sci-fi".
I'm not sure if I agree with that label.
As for being just about sex and rape... You probably should watch it again. I'm not as high on the movie (or Kubrick in general) as some people, but that might be cutting it a little too thin.
08/17/09
08/17/09
get one .
It would be great . But I`m just happy at the fact this lower budget movie proved itself amongs the summer movies