District 9 (with spoilers..)

[Mjolnir]

Not only was i looking forward to District 9 the movie but the whole experience of the evening as i am seeing District 9 at my first genuine American Drive in..
The Evening starts good as me and the Wife park in a good spot early and low and behold we hear some Amon Amarth coming from a car next to us..this is a good sign i thought..
On to the Movie and i didnt really know what to expect except that i know Peter wouldnt put his name on a film that was pish?
So we tune in the car stereo to 99.5(no more the old style box on the window) and turn it up and settle in for the South African Alien Fest!!
Bugger me sideways,this film has a gritty feel to it that really does feel like a real documentary..
When the action starts this movie goes from neo-doc to all out Actioner with dashes of Believe
it or not(Spoilers ahead Warning!!)
Black Hawk Down,the Fly and Robocop2.
This will have all the fanboys in the world smiling with joy as we get it and others wont..
An all round Social Drama Sci/Fi for the new Millenium for sure and a film that will get better and better on more viewings..
This smells of Old School Jackson all the way(Bad taste without the humour..)but has a class all of it's own..
An Excellent first movie to see for my first American Drive in experience..
And i got to see Gi Joe as well all for the price of an English Pint..
Bargin Much Cheapness i'd say and me and the Good Wife will be attending many more from now on as i'd rather see a flick at a Drive in than a Boring Cinema anyday(you can smoke and stuff for one) and the line up to come has me salavating with such beauties as Avatar,Daybreakers,Legion,Surrogates,and one i'm really looking forward to..The Abduction Movie...The Fourth Kind..in the Open air no less to give it that even more of a spooky feel,Cool!!
............Keep Watching the skies...,,,,,

[MetalBlade]

Well I saw this terrific monster of a movie yesterday, and I can agree, it has film of the year written all over it.
Once you get over the Aussie/scouse hybrid of the Afrikaans accent ("fochan prones"), it's first off a very socially aware movie with the obvious overtones of apatheidt, but it is much more than just a statement flick, coming across as a mixture of early Peter Jackson movies, crossed with the gritty satire and realism of Paul Verhoeven (taking influences from Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers).

And it is FUN! There are several laugh-out moments, mainly involving people being disassembled at the hands of the alien pulse ray gun, and one in particular involving a pig - a clear nod to the sheep scene in Bad Taste.
The SFX are splendidly executed and the ship itself is menacingly realistic as it sits hovering above Johannesburg. The creatures themselves indeed resemble very much the titular creature at the climax of Cronenberg's The Fly, and are suitably icky-looking enough as to not want them going to the same school as your kids. Hence the segregation.

The concept of the film is very similar to Alien Nation, but entirely different in it's execution. The aliens are not integrated into our socety as they were in the classic James Caan starrer, instead being forced into a huge shanty town before being bundled into a Guantanamo Bay-style prison camp.
They do however possess a fondness for food not fit for human consumption. In Alien Nation it was sour lumpy milk, whereas in District 9, the "Prawns" crave cat food.

The ending of the film, however, seemed to me very downbeat, and I actually left the cinema on a bit of a downer, feeling rather guilty at enjoying the movie as much as I did. This is the only reason I did not award the film a maximum 11.

So yes, a great and entertaining little film that crept up out of nowhere and took the worlds by storm to become possibly the sleeper hit of the year.
Vastly greater than the sum of it's parts, District 9 will I feel be held in the same regard as it's influential forebearers in twenty years time.

10/11