A dilemma...

Should I mirror this blog in Russian too?

"District 9" Review

From the very first time I lay my eyes on the marketing website http://www.d-9.com/ for this movie, I got a feeling this was going to be special. The marketing campaign was interesting enough, but I also got excited when learnt that it was directed by Neil Blomkamp whose short films I enjoyed tremendously. Then came the first trailer and both my and general public interest in this movie sky-rocketed. The trailer showed great promise and the rest of the clips that followed only helped to generate a great hype around this movie. There were so many thing going for it. It was a sci-fi film set in South Africa, a place rarely visited by fantastical creatures in Hollywood productions. It had a small budget, yet it was produced by Peter Jackson, famous for his huge summer blockbusters of late. And though the idea was not as original as presented ("Alien Nation" was there before), the visual execution showed something we haven't seen yet. Now that's the movie is out - there is a fantastic word of mouth and the reviews are raving with praise. So naturally, I couldn't wait to see it myself. And now that I have - here are my thoughts.

A letdown. A disappointment. Don't get me wrong - I didn't hate the movie. In fact, I think it was really good. It just didn't live up to the hype for me. Didn't fulfill its potential. When the movie was over, I felt it could be so much more. A milestone in the late Hollywood cinema. A smart and thoughtful sci-fi blockbuster that would elevate the mindless degenerated shit that passes nowdays for a cinematic experience back to that stimulating level it used to be at before. It didn't. It made an attempt and gave up half-way through. Let me elaborate.

"District 9" tells of an alien race coming to Earth and getting stuck in a malfunctioning ship right above the South African city of Johannesburg. When humans come on board the ship, they find an crustacean-like race in horrible living conditions, practically starving to death. They relocate them into a district near the city in the slums area where they become refugees. Soon, tension and discord arise between the human population and the aliens and the corporation behind the relocation decides to move them again, this time in a sort of concentration camp far from the human population. Wikus Van de Merwe is an office weasel that gets promoted into a commanding post over the mission and incidentally ingests some kind of alien fluid, on one of the raids, which changes him and his life forever, connecting him irreversibly with the alien race.

So what's I liked in this film? First of all, its first half is indeed an intelligent and stimulating experience. We are treated to a faux-documentary style film clips and TV reports that establish the world in which the movie takes place and the main characters. And it looks fantastic. The CGI aliens look great from the technical point of view. They are so well integrated into the live environment that you have no doubt that they are real and immediate. The interaction with the live actors is also done very well, almost the best I've seen so far. This world is easy to believe in. The filmmakers went out of their way to put every detail where it count, and visually they won the jackpot. This movie puts the budgetary behemoths like "Transformers 2" to shame. It also proves that going subtle instead of grandiose makes a much more realistic and enjoying experience when it comes to special effects.

Then there is the acting. This movie features a guy in the main role, with almost no acting experience. He never acted in front of the camera before, except a tiny bit role in one of Neil's shorts. And you barely notice that fact. This guy brings it home big time. He plays his character, Wikas, so well, that you forget that this is a fictional character. His voice, his body language, his emotional range all persuade you 100%. Amazing! And the character is written so well. This is not another one dimensional hero that you get from the start to the end, knowing exactly what he'll do and what he'll say. This is a real human character. And not a very pleasant one at that. Wikas is a repugnant selfish coward. This fact is established really early in the movie through the many scenes of fake interviews and his interactions both with humans and the aliens. Of course, then you expect him to change throughout the movie and learn his lessons. Wrong! He acts believably human, and keeps in character to the very end. His actions makes sense in the context of his character and he never does something out there. Even the heroic act at the end of the movie is more dictated by desperation than altruism or bravery. This how humans work, unfortunately.

Now to the things that let me down. Notice how I praise the character of Wikas and not anybody else. This is because he is the only well written character in the movie. The rest are your generic stock characters with one word motivations. You got the loving wife, the cold hearted asshole of a boss, heartless greedy corporate executives, workers and trigger-happy soldiers commanded by this really evil bloodthirsty racist of a colonel. These are not real people in this realistic world, these are plot drivers. I especially, detested the colonel. Not only this guy speaks in short barking sentences like any other soldier out there, he is actually stating his characteristics explicitly on various occasions. For example, he plainly says he enjoys killing the aliens and then laughs maniacally, right before doing so. Yes, he's that subtle.

And then there are the aliens. Visually, they are great, technically speaking. Esthetically, the look like something between a cockroach and a shrimp. The fact that they are constantly shown picking in garbage, wearing garbage and trashing garbage around, doesn't make them look any prettier or cause you to feel any compassion for them. In fact, you fully understand the humans who want those buggers gone and away from them. You'd want too. They act violently and seem to have an intelligence of a gorilla. And it makes little sense, that these guys would pilot a ship and other hi-tech vehicles. Sure, it is implied that these are either slaves or some low-intelligence working class drones, but still creates a logical plot hole. Well, one of them is very intelligent. And that what bothered me. All the aliens look and act, well... alien. Except, the main alien character. This one is given a human name of "Christopher Johnson" and all the human characteristics, like human face expressions and body language. He even speaks in his alien tongue, just like a human would. In complete contrast to his brethren. And he has a son he cares for, and a friend. He makes these human gestures with his head and hands and he is intelligent enough to build a lab in his shack and repair a spaceship. The only one! The only explanation I could think of, was that this is the pilot of the ship. A higher-class citizen in his world. But that doesn't explain why he acts so human, except as a way for the filmmakers to make him likable and relatable for us. This is a bold example of how they didn't go the Full Monty with their own sci-fi ideas, trading for a simplistic cop-out for the sake of accessibility. Too bad.

And then there is the second half of the movie. This is where it turns around and becomes another sic-fi action flick. There is a chase, a shoot-out and a heroic stand-off all by the book. All originality this movie accumulated flew right out the window. It was still well made and enjoyable, more than most other action flicks released this summer, but I expected a little more. Actually, a lot more. Oh well...

So to sum it up. "District 9" has great special effects, believable and interesting plot that works most of the time, some disposable characters, one great character of a main protagonist, some great first time acting and directing and a let down typical Hollywood ending. It is not a bad movie, by any means. It just doesn't go all the way through with its own ideas and that was a big let down for me.

I still recommend it for anyone.

Trailer at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PDlMggROA

I'm back!

Opening a Twitter account got me thinking. I know damn well that my friends won't read or follow my posts, and it is next to impossible to generate that kind of interest in complete strangers. So why should I bother, right? Well, I did find it very satisfying to express my thoughts, as random as they were, so far. It felt a kind of liberation, both mental and emotional. Besides, I do need the practice.

So there it is - I'm back on the blog, whether it's going to be read by anyone other than me or not even that. After all, most diaries remain an undiscovered personal treasure, so why this should be any different.