District 9 [potential spoilers inside]

[Edric O]

*** WARNING: THIS THREAD WILL INEVITABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

I just came back from seeing this movie, and I must say it was the best science fiction film I've seen in years.

It's not really about aliens at all. It's about humans, about apartheid, and about evil. I particularly liked the way the opening scenes captured the banality of evil. Here we have a shy, easily intimidated, mild-mannered bureaucrat supervises ethnic cleansing and deportations to concentration camps with no sign of comprehending the fact that he is involved in monstrous crimes. He even joked about the burning alive of (alien) children being like "making popcorn." He could have been Eichmann.

[Edric O]

South African opinions of District 9:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112413987

[gryphon]

It won't be shown in The Netherlands for at least 5 more weeks. I might try to get tickets to go see it in Antwerp (surprisingly Belgium does have its advantages...) in 3 weeks. So far it's more then promising.

Have you also seen his work from the pre-Peter Jackson era?

You know why it had to be a great movie.. . they are talking Dutch in it. How's that for world domination. ... ;)

[bob_fox]

I haven't seen the movie yet (I want to), but I'm surprised they're still making films about Apartheid. (I suppose they're still making films about Nazi Germany, but I think most would agree that the Nazis were more evil.) Though it was an interesting choice to place it in an SF setting.

But from reading all the South African comments I see you can never please everyone. I mean, if you take that last comment by the Nigerian as an example, what can you do? Portray all the Afrikaners as bloodthirsty tyrants and all the blacks as peace-loving innocents? It's not really realistic.

You know why it had to be a great movie.. . they are talking Dutch in it. How's that for world domination. ... ;)

Most Afrikaners don't like their language being called Dutch, even though, linguistically speaking, it is just a dialect (like Flemish). (I'm not Afrikaans-speaking, so my feelings aren't really involved.)    

[gryphon]

but I think most would agree that the Nazis were more evil.

you think there is such a thing like more evil.

Most Afrikaners don't like their language being called Dutch

Most people don't like a lot of things, that's part of world domination... :P

Just over two weeks and it will premiere in Antwerp. . about time...

[MrFlibble]

you think there is such a thing like more evil.

I agree. We're not talking about a "Top Ten Villains of All Time" list here.

[bob_fox]

Of course there's such a thing as more evil! Murder's more evil than theft, rape is more evil than mere prejudice, drunken driving is more evil than speeding, physical assault is more evil than verbal abuse, etc. 

What I was commenting on was the fact that we have all these movies trying to convince how evil apartheid was (and most of us agree it was) when, on the grand scheme of things, it's on the level of a school bully. That doesn't mean I won't see or enjoy the film - I just think they're preaching to the converted (in most cases). 

[MrFlibble]

Of course there's such a thing as more evil! Murder's more evil than theft, rape is more evil than mere prejudice, drunken driving is more evil than speeding, physical assault is more evil than verbal abuse, etc.

I think you mix up the concepts of "evil" and "crime" here.

[bob_fox]

No, I didn't. I was just trying to find things that most would consider evil, and they all happened to be crimes in most societies. I admit speeding isn't much of an evil - it's solely a crime according to most. And I know some don't think there is such a thing as evil, but that's discussed in another thread.

In any case, I think it's obvious that there are varying degrees of evil. 

[MrFlibble]

In any case, I think it's obvious that there are varying degrees of evil. 

I don't think it's "obvious", but currently I have no arguments to support my claim. Yet is you say it's obvious from the examples you've listed above, they're all too abstract. Given different circumstances, you might judge things that fall into the same category from the above list differently.

[gryphon]

so can we go back to the movie now?

Any one else have seen it?

[Calthazar]

I saw the midnight showing when it came out and funny enough I thought it was less about racism, morality, and ethics than I was originally anticipating, there was more action than expected for me but I liked the movie alot none the less.

[SandChigger]

I just came back from seeing this movie, and I must say it was the best science fiction film I've seen in years

I have to agree with you for once, this is an EXCELLENT FILM. :D

I was afraid it would be out of the theaters in my area before I got back to the States to see it, but it was still going strong through the middle of the month or so.

SEE IT! :)

[zammid]

It's an awesome film. I say the best bit is where the aliens got relocated to a different are.

[gryphon]

finally got around to reply here.

If you have not seen the film yet, please stick with the trailer and Alive in Joburg. Download it, burn it and watch it all you can. Just whatever you do don't go and see the full film.

---spoilers---

It begins like The Blair Witch Project and Live, like a documentary movie. If they would have kept it that way it might have even worked. The sad part is that it had everything in it to be a great movie. And they used, well hardly anything properly.

It is endless human stupidity, prejudgments, great insight in an alien encounter. Not to much unrealistic force and the MNU as weapons dealer to call the shots. If this would have been a book it probably be on the top for a Hugo or Nebula nomination.

Sadly. It's not. In my opinion the story is the great part of this movie. Almost the whole film was badly directed, badly set out and over hyped. They should have kept Peter Jackson out of the original short movie and made a book about it. This just tried to be an action movie while it is far from it.

(best and worst parts, an alien called Christopher Johnson and Wikus Van De Merwe going in saying Hello, little guy. It's the sweetie man coming. How can you take that seriously...)

[SandChigger]

(best and worst parts, an alien called Christopher Johnson and Wikus Van De Merwe going in saying Hello, little guy. It's the sweetie man coming. How can you take that seriously...)

The humans giving the aliens human names was a nice touch. How many times has that really happened in history, when Westerners met indigenous peoples?

As for the second, what was so bad about it? It was ironic. Van de Merwe was addressing the alien's child, using the same kind of simplified "parentese/baby talk" language he would resort to when speaking to a small human child. The irony being that the alien child turned out to be far more intelligent and tech-savvy than Van de Merwe himself.

Just my take. :)