On The Couch #6: District 9

In the battle between District 9 and Avatar on which would make for a better date movie, Avatar wins hands down. Not because of the 3D, or the more attractive aliens, but because of Avatar’s lack of vomit. If I were to summarize District 9 in three words, it would be “too much vomit.” Someone seems to be upchucking every few minutes in the movie. It doesn’t matter if you’re human or alien; if you’re a character in the movie, there’s a good chance you’ll heave at some point. Even a robotic exoskeleton battle-suit throws up a couple of times. I didn’t know robots could barf!

If District 9 had a smaller special effects budget.

Once you get past all the ralphing, District 9 is a pretty cool movie. I like science fiction films that use aliens to highlight how shitty we can treat our fellow man. The aliens in District 9 are freaky looking, with a mother ship right out of Independence Day, but unlike the aliens on V, they’re not bent on world domination. They’re also not cute and cuddly like ET. They’re just trying to get by, living in their shantytown, dealing with prejudice from the local populace, getting screwed by the government and big corporations, selling outer space tech to the local Nigerian gang, and eating as much delicious cat food they can get their appendages on.

To be honest, I’m surprised there’s such a backlash against Avatar, but such a love for District 9. Both are about humans gaining an appreciation for the other side by becoming one of them. Both show that corporations care more about making money than doing the right thing. Both feature villains that are pulled from the action villain cliché book. So what is it? Does having Peter Jackson as a producer give it a certain amount of cache that James Cameron doesn’t carry any more? Did Titanic ruin Cameron for the sci-fi set?

By seeing District 9, I’m one step closer to seeing all 10 Best Picture nominations for this year’s Oscars. I’m a bit behind on that, having only seen 6 of 10. I’m behind on other things as well: behind at the theater and behind on the couch. I’m hoping to catch up on all three this week. Hurt Locker should be arriving in the mail from Netflix on Saturday, which leaves The Blind Side, Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, and A Single Man to see in the theater by Sunday evening. Can I do it?

4 thoughts on “On The Couch #6: District 9

  1. Bryan says:

    I went in expecting this to be a lot more of an “Apartheid is Bad” movie…and I guess it was a pleasant surprise that, after the first half hour or so, it just turned into a good sci-fi movie. I mean, sure there’s the “humans gaining an appreciation for the other side by becoming one of them” thing that carries through the whole way; well, actually, 95% of the time Wikus is more concerned with being Fixed than helping out the aliens. Sure, he realizes that Apartheid (not to mention Alien Autopsies) is Bad, but he’s still pretty much motivated by selfishness.

    I’m actually pretty surprised it got so much mainstream love — although I don’t remember what the rest of that year’s Oscar bait was that it beat out for a nomination. I didn’t think the deep symbolic themes were all that deep — not bad, just not all that special — and it was just a worthy successor to Aliens. Which is still a pretty good outcome.

  2. Dave says:

    This movie was terrible. I do not understand how it was nominated for Best Picture. I did not sign up for Aliens eating cat food and want those 112 minutes of my life back.

  3. Dave says:

    I’ll give it 1 out of 5 stars and that’s being generous on my scale.

  4. I thought it was pretty cool. Good, not great. I think I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Netflix. Though the further I get away from it, the less likely I seem to want to recommend it to anyone.

    It was definitely overhyped for me, between the Oscar nomination and friends talking it up when it first came out.

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