When I saw the commercials for District 9, I had high hopes. I thought the movie would present and interesting story, perhaps one with my favorite blend of aliens, conspiracy, weird stuff, cool effects, and some scary stuff. I can, unfortunately, sum up my experience in one line: “not as cool as I hoped.” However, the movie is not bad-it just did not live up to its potential.
On the plus side, the acting was competent, the special effects were up to the usual standards of Hollywood, and the story was mostly adequate. However, it did have some flaws that are worth considering.
One is that the movie, which could have broken some new ground, stuck with many tired and worn formulas. First, there are the stock characters. There is the evil corporate fellow who will do anything for a profit, the evil scientists who have no qualms about doing horrible things, and the macho military guy who gets to die horribly in the end. While these are the sort of characters that we get in sci-fi, it would be nice to have a high end film do something a bit different. Second, there are the worn plot elements: the evil corporation that will do anything to get weapons, the macho military guy dying horribly in the end, the sudden and improbable bonding between characters, and so on. These stock elements are adequate for building an adequate film-but not a great (or even good) one.
The movie seems like it might have been intended to say something about race, corporate evil, or other such things. However, it did not get beyond what seems like vague gestures in those directions.
Another problem is the matter of plot holes. Naturally, plot holes are all but inevitable, but there are some that damage the film enough to be worth writing about.
First, the evil corporation is presented as being obsessed with the alien’s weapon technology (which only works for the aliens). Yet, they never do the obvious: getting the aliens to serve as soldiers. Or, if the aliens will not serve willingly, using them as living triggers (as was done with the main character when he was becoming an alien). As a minor point, it seems odd that in 20 years they would not be able to figure out how to use the technology in the weapons-but perhaps the weapons are just that amazing.
Second, giving how amazing the alien technology was and the fact that the aliens are presented as being fairly violent, it is not clear why they did not use their weapons to take what they wanted. The movie does present them as lacking in initiative, but the use of direct violence was presented as being within their capabilities. They also were able to operate their equipment-for example, they “drove” the mech/powered armor to the Nigerians. It is also not clear why the Nigerians were allowed there and why the evil corporation did not grab up every piece of alien technology.
Third, the aliens are presented as having arrived on earth because they are, in short, idiots. However, the main alien character, Christopher Johnson, is quite intelligent and motivated. It seems rather odd that he would just have allowed the ship to drift to earth, given his abilities. Of course, perhaps he was just a baby alien when the ship arrived on earth (although he had the foresight to gather fluid for 20 years).
Fourth, there is the fluid. One key part of the plot is that Johnson has been gathering a fluid from the alien technology that apparently works as a fuel for the command module/small ship. The main human character, Wikus, finds the fluid tube and sprays himself with the fluid (which, in addition to its ability to fuel a space ship also converts humans into aliens). The problem here is that the point is made that the fluid had to be gathered over 20 years, yet there was still enough to power the ship even after Wikus sprayed quite a bit on his face. It seems that the aliens could have left long ago if they had all that extra fuel.
Fifth, a minor point is that Wikus was amazing at operating the alien mech/powered armor. Given that people have difficulty operating something as simple as a bicycle or car without extensive experience, it seemed rather odd that he could not only use it, but also use it like a master of battle. At least in Aliens, Ripley had a plausible reason as to why she would be good with the powered cargo handler. Of course, it could be said that the mech did the real fighting and the operator just sort of indicated what he wanted it to do.
Overall, the film was worth the $4.75 I paid to see it. But, I was hoping for more.
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“There is the evil corporate fellow who will do anything for a profit,[Enron, Bernie Madoff (non-corporate fellow)] the evil scientists who have no qualms about doing horrible things [Pfizer/Vioxx,Jack Kevorkian] and the macho military guy who gets to die horribly in the end [too many of those to name or count**].”
If someone would have written a short story about Bernie Madoff 5 years ago, five’ll get you ten that most readers would have criticized the simplistic characterization , the implausible plot and the stock nature of his “character”–such as it is.
Stock characters, surprisingly enough, exist in real life. In fiction, the main issue is whether the character is believable, or in the case of film sci-fi, whether the viewer willingly suspends disbelief, sits back and enjoys the film. I did.
Fluid. We don’t know–unless I missed it in passing conversations among the characters or among the talking heads reporting various events in the film–why the ship came to rest when/where it did, so it is entirely possible that for some reason not explained fully the supply of “fluid” for powering the ship and keeping its inhabitants alive simply ran out as the ship hovered over Johannesburg. Anyway, there are other possibilities, but I never got the sense that ‘all’ of the fluid was necessary to power the ship. I figured it was not only a power source but a life source, and as such a certain quantity, as determined by Christopher, apparently, was needed for both. Christopher had been gathering this fluid from the detritus of the mother ship for years. When Wikus got splashed, the “genetic? code” short-circuited Wikus’ human genetic structure. The possibility that the fluid is a combined-power-and-genetic source may explain why Wikus was so readily capable of wielding their weapons with such expertise.
The aliens are ‘considered’ idiots by the local population and the news media, in part because they are the “other” that I’ve described in earlier posts. They’ve got at least one difference (their prawn-like appearance) that’s hard to miss and easy for people who have problems of their own to hate.
There’s a lot of set up background info provided through news footage etc. at the beginning, so I’d have to see the movie a second time to declare the following to be true. It ‘seems’ to me the aliens are represented as violent after the fact, that is after their space craft has “died” and they’ve been interned for some time in this area called District 9. I don’t remember any representations of their violent nature when they first entered the camps–though internment in general pees just about anyone off– nor any information that may indicate specifically how long they were in District 9 before turning mostly lazy and violent. That the corporations could not get “the aliens to serve as soldiers” might be attributable to a non-violent nature that only became violent as years of internment increased. Also, the corporations could not use them as human triggers until they had the fluid, and by that time Wikus was ‘infected’ and all hell was about to break loose.
One of my favorite movies is City of God. This is no City of God. But both films have a hot and grainy look. And the poverty and hopelessness of District 9 doesn’t seem like much of a stretch from the favelas of Brazil. And they both deal with big ideas. City of God gets under your skin. District 9 is more superficial.
When Christopher returns in three years to pick up Wikus and the others it will be interesting to see what effect the aliens’ exposure to humankind has had. Will they come peacefully? We’ll see what the genetic?(or whatever)/environmental results are in
District 10–coming to a theater near you in 2012.
Finally, I would be prepared for a sudden influx of these aliens. I’ve got a case of cat food that I’d gladly allow my cat share with them. 🙂
**Please. . .Before anyone (and I know you’re out there) jumps to any conclusions, I’m not criticizing soldiers or the military here.To explain. I don’t think anyone could plausibly deny that many/most male members of the military are macho. “Macho” is not a generally derogatory term. Look it up. In addition, many men, the strongest and most manly among the members of the armed forces, die horrible deaths. That’s reality.
** No offense taken.
Thanks your good sharing. I appreciated you all.
We had many of the same observations, plus this:
When the ship reached earth, the humans rather handily carved a hole in the side and found over a million aliens living in squalor. That’s quite a lot of passengers to carry in one vehicle, but what puzzled me the most was why, over a span of twenty years, the earthlings never managed to cut any more holes in the ship and see what was going on inside?
Was it directly stated that humans did or didn’t re-enter the ship or cut more holes?
One thing we do know is that alien weaponry can’t be operated by humans. It’s possible that it was also discovered early on, after multiple trips to the craft, that the space ship and equipment on board also could not be used by humans. Perhaps some equipment was taken for experiments that were ultimately unsuccessful. Now, that ‘might’ be a problem, because Christopher might have a hard time escaping if essential components had been removed from the ship(unless, as I surmised more generally in my first post, the genetic* interconnection between alien and mothership is such that the entire body of the ship becomes the propelling force and guidance system when interacting with Christopher and the fluid).
I know the above are assumptions–almost sci-fi like, they are. I also know that I likely did not catch all the newsy information presented in the documentary clips. I’m not certain if there’s information there about the number of times the ship was entered, etc. or not.
For me, even if there isn’t, it’s not a deal breaker.
I’ve seen many sci-fi films that require filling in larger information gaps; I’ve seen many grosser-looking and less human-like aliens. But for the reasons I’ve stated in my other posts on the movie,I appreciated the movie enough that I didn’t sweat what, for me, was the small stuff.
*or whatever passes for genes in these particular aliens. . .
Overall, I liked the movie. Having never made my own movie, I take my own criticisms with a bag of salt. Or magical alien fluid. 🙂
Super post.Thank you
The film is based in SA reality – the Nigerians based on the Nigerian gangs that invade slum areas in Johannesburg – they are, even today, more powerful in some places than the police. The Evil White guys are based on the previous Apartheid regime…
I didn’t mind the mech, i found he stumbled and staggered quite a bit in the beginning, and i second the idea that the suit helped himout.
The idea that they were aimless is pointed out pretty clearly… parts of them had been wiped out by disease, including their leadership, this seemed to affect the alens themselves, making them not as sharp as expected, except for Christopher Johnson. Also, the government and MNU actively crushed any opposition to human rule.
I thought this movie was amazing. Anyway, you can watch it online here: http://www.geekstreaming.com/district-9-2009/
I think they explained the idiocy of the aliens by saying they thought the surviving ones were some sort of servile species.
A big problem I saw was how the humans handled the violence of the aliens. An alien would be ripping a human apart in the background and the human response seemed to be: “Eh. It’s what they do.”
The humans acting that way obviously played too many evil video games in their past and were numb to the violence.