District 9 (2009) - Synopsis
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More than 20 years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare - they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA. The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable -- he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.
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teacher006 says:
September 2, 2009Overall, I think “District 9” is a decent movie. Compared to 2009's other action/sci-fi movies, “Star Trek”, “Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen” and “GI Joe: Rise of Cobra” it would be fourth on my list. I went into the movie expecting a lot of action, why, because of the posters with bullet wholes along with the statement “no humans allowed,” that signals there is going to be a battle between aliens and humans. Yes, there was some action comparable to the movies I previously listed but it takes 30 or 40 minutes to really get there. It made me feel like I was on one of those awkward dates, like is this going to happen or am I going home disappointed. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen and I remember at times I would say to myself alright here is where the action starts only to be let down. Those other three movies start with action almost from the very first scene, bam! in your face.
Maybe I was wrong in my expecting this to be an action film but that was my first thought upon viewing the poster. Also, I think the director had trouble deciding if he wanted the entire movie to look like a documentary or if he was making an action movie. I think the transformation from one to the other didn't work as well as it could have and it took to long to happen.
Now I have seen critics write about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and how the robots don't run out of bullets and things like that, well it is called sci-fi. At the same time I didn't see those same type of questions about District 9. Well if you are really going to critique a movie honestly then you have to do that with all your movies. I have three critical questions.
One, how were the people of Planet Earth able to learn and understand the prawn's language in just twenty years yet they did not speak the prawn language. The same goes to the prawns, they understood English but could not speak it. Everyone should know that you don't learn to understand a language without speaking it. Hell, I live in Miami and there are people that have been living here more than twenty years and can barely speak any English. To be honest I have learned almost no Spanish either, go figure.
The second question is, how can a space ship hover over Earth defying gravity without any power for twenty years. The ship was so dead that us humans had to fly up to the ship and cut a whole in it to get the prawns out of it. Yet it just hangs there miraculously until the little prawn powers up the ship and brings it to his dad.
Finally, do you really think it is possible for one man to go to door by himself evicting two million prawns? I just laughed to myself when I saw that. Could you imagine one man in Detroit, Chicago or yes even in Miami going out just to do a census of those cities let alone evicting everyone. Not a pretty sight. Some of you will say that he wasn't doing it all by himself but that is just what the director conveyed to us.
I know that I cited a lot of short comings about District 9 but as a first stated I think it is a decent movie. I am just not as excited about it as the person who reviewed it. I am not as enthused about it now as I was before I saw it. Do I think it is a movie worth seeing, yes. But in my opinion as an action/sci-fi movie enthusiast it is not as good as “Star Trek”, “Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen” and “GI Joe: Rise of Cobra.” Again, go see it and make your own decision about District 9. I gave it a B-. Come back and grade it yourself.