Something That Is Not a Book Report

[snurri]

'Cause it's a movie report. My review of District 9 is up at Strange Horizons. (A bit belated, which is my fault.) Synopsis: This movie is not very good.

Comments

[iamza.livejournal.com]

I still think the premise of District 9 makes no logical sense. A giant spaceship comes to a grinding halt in the skies over Johannesburg, and a bit of the spaceship (presumably with the commander, who may or may not be Christopher, aboard) falls to Earth. Then the evil xenophobic South Africans conveniently build District 9 to house the aliens right over the spot where the fallen command capsule landed?

Also, why did the mini-spaceship fall to earth, anyway? Wouldn't it have been easier to scrounge the black goo from on board the giant spaceship rather than spending 20 years digging through rubbish dumps for alien wreckage from which to extract miniscule amounts of the fuel?

And why pick South Africa as the place to take a break on one's interstellar cruise? Did the Prawns watch all those truth and reconciliation panels on SABC, and figure South Africa was the happening place to be on Earth for peace, respect, and brotherhood? For that matter, why stop over on Earth at all? I mean, the giant spaceship worked well enough at the end that it can't have been an emergency breakdown...

If it was an introductory, "Hi, humans! Welcome to the galactic neighbourhood, we live next door," kind of meeting, I have to say the Prawns planning for said event was sort of appallingly ill-conceived.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Right on all counts. I can sort of see an argument for the idea that the fuel wouldn't do them any good without the command module, but in that case the story should have been that the aliens needed to get fuel down to the module, which takes the whole prison camp thing out of the story altogether.

[christophereast.livejournal.com]

Excellent review. Very good point about the Nigerians business, too...I thought they were contrived just to add another warring faction to the big shoot-'em-up finale, but by then I was sooo done with the movie...anyway, nice work!

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Chris. Yeah, it was a mess of a film.

[ted chiang (from livejournal.com)]

The only interesting thing about District 9 is that it's an effect-driven action movie made for only $30 million, meaning it cost less than most romantic comedies. If studios concluded that they didn't need to spend more than $30 million for the next G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, then District 9 will have justified its existence. Unfortunately, I doubt that's the conclusion studios will draw.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I would argue that the setting is an interesting part of the film, too, even if it's not a fully realized part of the story. I'd like to see more science fiction set outside of American megalopolises.

[ted chiang (from livejournal.com)]

Hmm. Is a nonsensical film set in Johannesburg more interesting than a nonsensical film set in L.A.? I'm not sure. On the one hand, it seems to provide more ways for the movie to go wrong; on the other, at least it's not the same old thing.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I think a nonsensical film in an unfamiliar-to-me setting is more interesting than a nonsensical film in a familiar one, yeah. Not better, and not a lot more interesting, but marginally.