District 9: You are not wanted here

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Just got back from viewing this. And I'm *SO* glad I did, the movie was just that good.

First, going into the movie you should understand its set-up in a documentary style. Kinda. While the doc style is used to provide background & sometimes help format the story, the coverage of Wikkas (the main character of the movie, the guy you see in the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PDlMggROA) starting at :55) goes beyond what any documentary I've ever seen.

The trailer pretty much sets up the plot completely. I'll put spoiler protection here, but at least 10 minutes into the movie you should be able to work this out. 28 years ago, this big friggin' ship full of Prawns (the disparaging name the aliens are given) comes to a stop right over Johannesburg. Its more like a refugee ship, with all crew being malnourished & on the verge of starvation. Somebody (United Nations?) follows up & creates District 9, a place for the Prawns to live. They eventually create a military unit called MNU to police & control the place.

Alien tech only works for aliens, until something happens. Which is pretty much what this movie is about.

I HIGHLY recommend you see this flick. I cannot emphasis that enough. Trust me, its that good.

SWB

[Sage Harpuia]

I was planning to watch it tomorrow, sounds intriguing.

[TheWolf13]

Best movie I've seen so far this summer. Story is amazing. Acting is amazing. Action is pretty good. I highly recommend this movie to fans of sci-fi.

[Magus]

Movie of the year. Seriously, this is the summer blockbuster I've been waiting for--action-packed and yet thoughtful enough to maintain my attention, superb dialogue, and an alien mech equipped with a lightning gun that just has the most lovely effect on what it's fired on.

I'll spoiler my thoughts on the film as well, since it contains a lot of plot elements, but I don't really spoil too much (something like the first third):

Wickes is a jerk at first (likeable in his complete unlikeability; super-cheerful in the most aggravating way possible, he goes from heartlessly burning alien eggs to aiding Christopher (his prawn ally) in trying to save his species), but by the mid-point of the film becomes one of my favorite characters I've seen in film. The setting of Johannesburg, South Africa is obviously symbolic; a country with a history of segregation of blacks and whites thoughtlesly segregating the aliens to their ghetto, leaving them in squalor and horrible conditions, and then after 20 years of neglect, evicting them to a new, "better" place, conveniently located a hundred miles away. A reservation, or as Wickes finally admits to Christopher, something "like a concentration camp."

The aliens have advanced technology and weapons, more than enough to defend themselves, but unfortunately have become addicted, hilariously, to cat food. Nigerians (do South Africans think of Nigerians the way people from the U.S. think of Colombians?) provide them with their cat food fix in exchange for all sorts of high-powered gizmos.

Unfortunately, no one can get the things to work, which is the hinging point of the whole movie, as Sky Warrior Bob has pointed out. The MNU (a privatized military firm; the connection to such firms as Blackwater operating in the Middle-East seems clear), those put in charge of controlling District 9 and maintaining segregation, are also one of the world's leaders in weapons manufacturing. When Wickes unwittingly gains the ability to control alien weaponry, suddenly he is worth much more dead than alive. He'll have to team up with Christopher, a creature he once held in disdain, who is now his only hope for survival.

District 9 is the best action movie of the summer, and for now is pretty much what I'd consider the movie of the year. Original, funny, thoughtful, and packed with action. I loved it.

Something I noticed that I wonder if anyone else did: It seems that the South Africa in the film has reverted to apartheid for its human residents as well, as in the scene where Wickes tries to get a bite to eat from Gunther's while on the run, ten black people are waiting in a separate line and being served from the left window, whereas Wickes goes immediately to the one on the right and is being served immediately. It seems the South African government has not only segregated aliens; the MNU, in it position of power with and within the government, has reinstated apartheid on the human citizens of South Africa as well. The country has basically become a privately-owned, military-ruled nation, possibly using the "alien menace" to seize control from the populace.

[NonCon]

Do the aliens just look like humans? If not, do they look pretty cool/original/well designed?

[Aerozord]

from the trailer, looks like they are some, well insectoid is the best word but even thats lacking. They LOOK alien

[Magus]

They look really cool. They're called "prawns" by the humans, and look like something of a cross between a grasshopper and a lobster or shrimp. Insectoid, basically. They're really well designed, and have all sorts of extra limbs and such (probably six, in keeping with looking like insects). Very detailed They're also pretty damn ugly (probably why the humans fear them so much), and yet become loveable in this ugliness. Heck, the alien kid ends up being cute.

Anyway, the film probably wouldn't have worked if they looked human or even vaguely humanoid, instead of what the humans in the movie would consider repulsive, bipedal bug aliens. It's because they are so different that they are segregated. And yet it quickly becomes clear that they are very "human" in their emotions, and the way humans treat them quickly becomes symbolic of the way minorities are treated in pretty much any society.

[Aerozord]

out of curiousity, is there a reason its called District 9? I mean I doubt they started with 9

[RickZarber]

I'm mostly impressed that this is Neill Blomkamp's first feature film, and while it seems sad now that he didn't get to direct Halo, it also proved fortuitous, seein' as we got this movie out of it.

[Magus]

Erm, no, there isn't a reason really given for why the place they're currently housed is called District 9 specifically, though maybe we can ascertain that there were previous districts designated for them, possibly within the city limits (District 9 has been pretty much moved to the fringe), and the fact that the place they're being evicted to is called District 10 once.

EDIT: Here's a quick tidbit from Roger Ebert:

The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title “District 9” evokes Cape Town’s historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero’s name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets.

9 was probably chosen for the film and title because it is an inverted 6, then.

[Julford Hajime]

Just went and saw this with my brother (It was his birthday, and this was my gift); we spent the entire drive back home tearing apart the movies ending.

The first 30-45 minutes were great, and I absolutely loved the movie. Wiki-wiki-wikkes or whatever was hilarious in his horrid ways, and the theatre was laughing when he talked about the eggs popping.

The middle portion, what with Sir W getting the insect arm up through the MNU attack was my favorite portion. Everything was being done so well, and I honestly felt bad for the characters.

Then the ending came, starting from the dropship-type-thing lifting off all the way through to the end. The dropship getting nailed immediatly was a disappointment, considering how much they'd been building it up as the single most important event of the movie. Then the mech fight. Jesus CHRIST I love mechs, and I like them fighting, but honestly? I feel like they put more effort into that fight JUST to take away from the shitty ending. The fact that the movie ended the way it did felt like a slap in the face to me. It seemed like Christopher was going to take everyone back for pretty much the entire movie, they built it up as such, with the Prauns even coming out of hiding when the mothership activated, and then he just up and launched with his son with the promise of THREE YEARS LATER. It felt like so many things went unresolved, like how badly injured was Christopher (He seemed really badly hurt while he was operating the controls), what was going to become of Christopher, and most importantly, what was going to happen with the rest of the Prauns now? Yes, they have their concentration camp, but does the Praun motherland come back and save them?

Speaking of Christopher, I lost all faith in him when he just instantly forgave Wikiman at the end. I mean, most of the ending sequence as far as Christopher was concerned was the half-breeds fault, what with the selfishly knocking Chris out just to steal the ship. Dire situation or not, I can't say I agreed with his attitude towards the W-man at the end.

Still though, for all my ending hate, I honestly liked the movie. The ending just left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[Magus]

Well, Wikus did come back to help Christopher get to the dropship AFTER running away in the mech suit, and stayed behind, selflessly endangering himself to keep Christopher from getting blown up (heck, he CATCHES AN RPG for him). I'd say that makes up for the earlier betrayal, which could be excused for Wikus' being emotionally freaked-out over turning into an alien. Like I said, Wikus starts out a jerk, but by the end of the film is redeemed.

I saw the ending more as an ending providing a sense of conjecture and debate: Christopher will undoubtedly return with other ships from his planet to save those left behind, but whether it will be a rescue party, diplomatic entourage, or full-on invasion punishing us for the treatment we have given to the Prawns is left up for debate.

And yeah, it was a somewhat downer-ending, but not as downer as it could've been, right? They could've had Christopher get blown up, ending all hope for the aliens (outside of some sort of resistance movement led by Wikus). I think the fact that we want them to succeed so much, and the film continually has us on the edge of our seat hoping for it, is credit to its emotionally gripping success.

[Julford Hajime]

I think the fact that we want them to succeed so much, and the film continually has us on the edge of our seat hoping for it, is credit to its emotionally gripping success.
That (Along with the spoilers in your post, since I don't know if [quote] keeps spoilers) is exactly my point, though; it had this great build-up all the way through to the end of the movie, and I felt like they just sort of left it hanging there. Wikus' survival at the end felt really forced, for example. The movie was all set to end it that way and then the Prawns show up and save him just in time. Honestly I'd have prefered Wikus dying after that final act in the mech, saving the people he'd ridiculed and oppressed so mercilessly at the beginning of the film to the "Cheezy Care Bears Bullshit" that happened.

As for Christopher: I'll give you the "What will he come back with" point, in that I'd assumed a rescue party if not full-on invasion forces for what he saw at MNU, but I guess if he is forgiving enough he might come back with diplomacy instead of guns.

[Magus]

Yeah, I mean the question is, will he be as bad as the humans, or will the supposed "alien menace" actually be more ethical and humane and seek the higher ground?

And yeah Wikus' getting saved by the Prawns was cliche, but then again you seemed to want more of a 100% happy and wrapped-up ending which can also be cliche. Plus, you know, I don't think they'd do it, but this could be a back-end route for the dreaded...sequel.

[Julford Hajime]

It was less the content of the ending itself, and more that the ending seemed different than what they were building to that gets to me.

For example, Christopher flying off by himself would've been fine if the story had built it up that way; instead, the way the story presented that plot point made it seem like he'd get the other Prawns before he took off. Again, I bring up the whole "Emitting a sound that alerted all the Prawns" scene which ultimately led to... What? They saved Wikus, but I don't remember them doing anything else from that plot point.

Goddammit, I feel like I'm nitpicking over the details of one scene. Admittedly, I think the ending needs to be strong to make a good movie, but yeah, I've said my point >.>

And yeah, I got that sequel feeling, too. Which I'm praying was just me being wrong.

[Magus]

Yeah, I mean, that was a bit of a plot hole I admit in that I was expecting something similar to what you describe as well--the foreshadowing turns out to be false and thus seems sloppy. Another plot hole would be with the aliens pretty much complete inability to defend themselves with the guns, though this is of course because they are addicts, so it's somewhat justified, along with the fact that the vast majority of the guns were confiscated 20 years prior, so the MNU would seem to have the upper-hand when combined with the majority of the Prawn's "aimlessness" due to not being in the "hive mind" caste or whatever they were talking about at the very beginning like Christopher is.

Also, the only thing I genuinely could say was a real negative in my opinion was Wikus' accent was simply hard to understand at points. I got the vast gist of it, of course, but there were spots where I don't know exactly what he said, and that is undoubtedly a negative. Anyway, this is one DVD I'll probably be watching with the subtitles on the first couple of times.

Latest fun speculation seems to be that District 9 is actually Half-Life 2 The Movie. Wikus is Freeman, the MNU is the Combine, and the Prawns are the vortigaunts. The sequel will be Wikus leading a team of freedom fighting Prawns to destroy the MNU utterly Or something along those lines.

I think this actually stemmed entirely from the mech having a gravity gun.

Anyway, it's funny to think about, although if anything Blomkamps' involvement with the Halo movie production would point to that as being the basis for the sci-fi designs...

[Aerozord]

oh something I wanted to know about this, do they explain how the hell an alien race capable of interstellar travel could in any way be threatened by humans?

[Sky Warrior Bob]

oh something I wanted to know about this, do they explain how the hell an alien race capable of interstellar travel could in any way be threatened by humans?

This is somewhat of a spoiler, but nothing that should ruin the movie for you, because all of this gets covered very early in the movie (albeit extremely quickly, in documentary form). Of course, as I've seen the movie, I might be a poor person to judge this, so I'll spoil tag it for those who don't want to risk it:

Because the majority of alien race that get here are the drones, who are used to following order & not thinking for themselves. (Its mentioned very briefly in the movie & I think that Peter Jackson mentioned something about it in his Comic-Con panel on District 9. I only heard about the panel 2nd hand, but I also think that during the panel it was mentioned that the alien's homeworld was blown up.)

And the aliens are certainly presented as refugees. As the humans board their ship & find them all starving and helpless. The humans took them off the ship just like that. So while some weapons & technology did make it into District 9, it doesn't seem like enough to muster a huge offense (which keeps getting confiscated, so every day there's a little less). Especially against all the human forces of an entire world. And there doesn't seem to be a hint of body armor, so bullets still kill just as well as anything else.

There is also the problem that some of the aliens have apparently become addicted to a human substance. These addicted aliens will trade away weapons & tech just for said substance, which just leaves less for the rest of them.

Not to say that there aren't any riots or examples of aliens killing humans, but that's more of a problem for the aliens. It creates additional fear of the aliens, which hands over more control over to the military group in charge of District 9.

Besides all of that, put it this way. You can technically travel thousands of miles (via airplane) & at least can operate a gun. If you were thrown into an unfamiliar setting & the locals were giving you grief, would your first reaction be to start shooting, while there's a large military force just over your shoulder?

SWB

[Azisien]

I liked it. I'd say it might just be shy of an 8/10 in my mind. Of which any around that magical fraction and up are 'really good movies.'

So I had a lot of fun, it was interesting, the action was good. The swearing was entertaining, and it was just different from the usual barrage of action flicks while simultaneously proving we need to keep dumping billions into power armor research.

The movie, of course, was not without its flaws. I found the dialogue too simplistic or non-existent where it could have used more. The story in general, while very intriguing for the first 30-45 minutes, definitely took a dip and throttled towards the dreaded typical predictable action flick zone. It was also relatively thin, and ended up utilizing a number of hollywood cliches that were fine but strip it of its possible sci-fi masterpiece award.

So I guess in conclusion, great, but not quite spectacular. I went in with relatively high expectations (having had it recommended to me out the arse) and I was not disappointed, so that is a feat.

[Aerozord]

Besides all of that, put it this way. You can technically travel thousands of miles (via airplane) & at least can operate a gun. If you were thrown into an unfamiliar setting & the locals were giving you grief, would your first reaction be to start shooting, while there's a large military force just over your shoulder?

SWB

well I would if instead of a handgun I had a machinegun with unlimited ammo and they had pointy sticks.

In order to make interstellar travel practicle would require the ability to harness and manipulate massive amounts of energy. The kind that would be like comparing a nuke to a match.

Still its addressed better then most sci-fi movies.

[synkr0nized]

For example, Christopher flying off by himself would've been fine if the story had built it up that way; instead, the way the story presented that plot point made it seem like he'd get the other Prawns before he took off. Again, I bring up the whole "Emitting a sound that alerted all the Prawns" scene which ultimately led to... What? They saved Wikus, but I don't remember them doing anything else from that plot point.


It wasn't really just for the aliens, since everyone was outside looking at and hearing the ship. If anything, they weren't being called outside to the ship so much as noticing it was moving -- without them inside.

Christopher wanted to save his people, but I got the impression early on that the aliens' efforts were not unified. They seemed to come from pockets of groups, pairs, or even individuals. He and his son and the yellow one may have just wanted to take that module and leave Earth to get others all along. While I did kind of hope they'd take others, I didn't feel that him leaving, promising to come back, was an unfair/disappointing trade for an ending.

I was curious as to why, since humans seemed so interested in alien technology and went ahead and boarded the ship in the first place why there weren't massive forces deployed to examine and prod that ship, piece by piece.

Also interesting was the lack of international military forces. Yes, I get that there's MNU, but *shrug* that seemed like a specially-created force.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

well I would if instead of a handgun I had a machinegun with unlimited ammo and they had pointy sticks.

But the tech isn't that unbalanced. I could cite examples from the movie, but while the alien weapons are clearly superior, they're not completely beyond human tech. That, and numbers count for something.

Even if one of the Prawns did go psycho (like you suggest), they'd eventually be brought down. They might cause a lot of damage on the way, but its just a matter of numbers.

SWB

[Aerozord]

well actually its what you suggested in your analogy. What I'm saying is that their technology SHOULD be completely beyond human technology. We are hundreds of years from ever making long distance space travel possible and assuming they are as warlike as humans it seems reasonable their weapons would be far superior to ours.

[Arhra]

well actually its what you suggested in your analogy. What I'm saying is that their technology SHOULD be completely beyond human technology. We are hundreds of years from ever making long distance space travel possible and assuming they are as warlike as humans it seems reasonable their weapons would be far superior to ours.
Yes, because we are so very good at predicting how long a new technology will take to be developed.

Ha, those silly inventors with their nonsense about heavier-than-air flight. It'll never work!

[Aerozord]

what idiot said heavier then air flight wasn't possible? I can look out my window and see animals prooving that wrong. The raw power alone needed to accomplish faster then light travel is far beyond anything we can even come close to matching. And thats if you are just going the speed of light, which to make space travel practicle you'd have to go hundreds of times faster. The point isn't how long it takes them its the level of technology you'd have to reach to accomplish it. I think when you become technologically advanced enough to kick the laws of physics in the nuts you probably long since stopped worrying about chemically propelled chunks of lead.

[MuMu]

I guess they might be a fairly pacific race(Haven't watched the movie yet, sorry)? I mean, we keep killing each other, so we develop heavier weapons and leave space technology for later but a race that didn't encounter such hardships wouldn't need advanced weaponry, maybe just some self defense gadgets.

[Aerozord]

well thats what I was asking, like are they a pacifist species, or simply ran out of energy or something. Rather then hollywoods tendency of making every alien race a bunch of idiot savants that overlook giant glaring holes in their defences

[Sky Warrior Bob]

well thats what I was asking, like are they a pacifist species, or simply ran out of energy or something. Rather then hollywoods tendency of making every alien race a bunch of idiot savants that overlook giant glaring holes in their defences

Eh, I never got the impression that the aliens that arrive on Earth, really understand their own technology. I mean, for the most part, all of it is really simple to use. And as I mentioned prior, the movie pegs the aliens that are here, as the drones of the Prawn race, and without leadership pretty much amble around.

Also, you keep thinking in war terms. The aliens didn't come to Earth prepared for war. Sure, there are a good number of weapons on board, but on a guess, I think that's because its a military ship, but the Prawns that were passengers were all civillians, who just jumped on board to get away from something really bad.

SWB

[neoadept]

And I think it should be pointed out that not all technology can be applied to all other technology. Nuclear weapons have had very little effect fire arms, and over the past few decades the largest improvements in conventional warfare have been refining how we launch bits of metal via chemical explosive.

And while it would take arbitrarily large amounts of energy to travel faster than the speed of light, it should be noted that they need a very large ship to make use of that energy. The control module can't seem to do it on it's own, and Christopher making a bomb out of a few weapons parts seems to imply that even the relatively small power supplies in their guns are somewhat unstable. There may be bigger weapons on the mother ship, but it's been out of gas for twenty years.


As for not bringing the other the rest of the Prawns with him, it should be noted that they arrived with one million Prawns, and that there are over 1.8 million by the time of the eviction. Given that the journey is over a year long and that they were starving when they arrived, saving more would have required a massive resupply, which would have required assistance from human governments. After seeing his people being used as experiments I think he realized that wasn't going to happen.

[Azisien]

Not to mention aside from the sudden appearance of wicked teleportation technology on the mothership, evacuating around two millions Prawns might take a little while, and might give those missile turrets and the MNU enough time to go, hey, no, bring that fucker down!

[MFD]

So, here's the thing about prawns which will likely be revealed in a sequel.

They're not a real alien race. Their alien masters are a different race. This explains their drone status. The fluid can transform other sentients into the prawn drones for this alien race.

This furthermore explains why the ship came to Earth, and why the prawns didn't just leave. They fled their alien masters. They look like refugees because they ARE refugees.

Finally, it explains why Chris was all "Oh, yeah, our fluid turns you prawn, bee-tee-dubs." He knows what happened. And he's coming back with more prawns to rescue his people on Earth. Or maybe he's going to go get the alien masters and tell them that they need to fuck shit up on Earth. He hopes the prawns can escape while his masters are fighting the humans?

[Arhra]

what idiot said heavier then air flight wasn't possible? I can look out my window and see animals prooving that wrong. The raw power alone needed to accomplish faster then light travel is far beyond anything we can even come close to matching. And thats if you are just going the speed of light, which to make space travel practicle you'd have to go hundreds of times faster. The point isn't how long it takes them its the level of technology you'd have to reach to accomplish it. I think when you become technologically advanced enough to kick the laws of physics in the nuts you probably long since stopped worrying about chemically propelled chunks of lead.
Ah yes my good man, but birds are quite small. The idea of something as large and heavy as a man flying is simply absurd!

Next you'll be saying we descended from apes!

Also, it is impossible to travel at the speed of light. It requires an infinite expenditure of energy and the mass of the accelerated object will effectively become infinite.

Faster than light travel is purely speculative, and so it is pointless to declare it would take hundreds of years to develop it. I could just as easily claim it's a technology that we could have stumbled upon at any time in our history, which I do recall being used in a short story. "The Road Not Taken" - where aliens with anti-gravity and FTL travel assault Earth with such powerful weapons as firepots manually dropped from the backs of their carrier craft and troops armed with muskets.

Those poor, poor fools...

Next point, we've been using chemically propelled projectiles for hundreds of years. I felt it was a nice touch that several of the prawn weapons do appear to derive from their anti-gravity technology.

Even so, the prawn technology clearly did not possess an overwhelming advantage. We've been using high velocity mass projectiles for quite a while because they are effective.

Anyway, it was a very well put together film. I'm simply amazed by the effects given the budget it was made on.

I quite liked Wikus. It was refreshing seeing a main character who was not a clear cut hero, not all that bright and unthinkingly prejudiced. He had unintegrated morality. He was clearly a pretty nice guy, but didn't really regard the prawns as being people or really think about the implications of a lot of what he was doing. His behaviour around the prawns was like a person around an animal. He (ineffectually) protested prawns getting killed and he tried very simple tactics to win some over, becoming angry when they were rebuffed.

[Magus]

Seriously going to read that story now. Apparently has a sequel with a similar encounter but this time with humans as the aggressor (now they're on the side that is hilariously unprepared despite their hubris) called Herbig-Haro.

[Wyndon]

I think the ending was the singular best part of this movie. The way they left it open...they could make another movie, or they could not, and either way, I would be just as satisfied (assuming the second movie is up to par, of course).

I think he was trying to cut to the core of what human nature is with this movie, and the ending really sealed it. The incredible realism of the movie (try to make a humanitarian effort at first, let it become a technology/weaponry seizure, have the xenophobia way up high, etc.) suspended with an open ending really left you pondering human nature. Throughout the movie, the prauns were seemingly of a different mentality - more anarchy, but with clearly higher intelligence capabilities. It left the question of morality completely open, but if humans were in the same position, it would totally be a full out invasion, which really made me think.

Loved the movie, 9/10, it having been the best movie since Dark Knight.

[Viridis]

My personal favorite bit was that as soon as I saw the main character, my first instinct was "this idiot is going to die in a very stupid way (probably his own incompetence, being seen as a martyr igniting the powder keg between the humans and the prawns". I was sure of it! Thinking "yeah, that canister's gonna murder him horribly" all the way. All the way up to him the government lab. Thinking they'll dissect him and them blame the prawns for the death. I was horribly wrong and I loved it! The movie defied customs very nicely.

[Funka Genocide]

great movie all around, and it's kind of weird but I feel like the action just sort of snuck up on me. I was like "hmm, interesting angle to take there, oh look at all this character development and deep social commentary... holy shit was that a fucking laser beam?"

Definitely rivals Enemy Mine for best human/alien buddy movie ever.

[The Gunslinger]

It was a fantastic movie in every way. I reall hope that they don't make a sequel, but if they do, they need to give it to the team who made it and back off. And I'm not kidding, I think this film needs a few Oscars.

[Magus]

Apparently it's been confirmed (http://miamiherald.typepad.com/reeling/2009/08/coming-soon-district-10.html) that there is going to be a District 10 (or possibly District 8).

I'm not sure if this is a good thing since they seem to be making up stuff as they go along, what with Blomkamp not sure if he wants to make a prequel or a sequel. I'd be more confident if it was originally intended to be a trilogy, with a story arc all planned out and everything, but what with it simply being given a go based on box office success, I'd say it's up in the air.

And I mean, really, can anything top the lightning gun?

[Sky Warrior Bob]

I'm not sure if this is a good thing since they seem to be making up stuff as they go along, what with Blomkamp not sure if he wants to make a prequel or a sequel. I'd be more confident if it was originally intended to be a trilogy, with a story arc all planned out and everything, but what with it simply being given a go based on box office success, I'd say it's up in the air.

Well, I'd say its neither a good or bad thing. I don't know of many sequels that are already completely preconceived before they're filmed. However, I think a prequel is the better way to go. You could get more into the alien mindset & explain a few things better.

Like how the aliens got to Earth & they're background. Its really hard to believe that all the aliens were completely clueless about how they came to Earth, or even their own backgrounds. There's an easy story about MNU keeping that kind of information covered up & having some sort of backstory.

It could even happen in a very similar fashion to District 9.

SWB

[Yrcrazypa]

My favorite bit was when the alien kid activated the alien mech and destroyed all the gang members by gathering all of their bullets in a giant ball, and then launching them all at them, killing all of them instantly.

Excellent movie all around, I came in with very high expectations and had them surpassed.

[Viridis]

I just found out the movie had a very impressive web campaign.

A site about the district (http://d-9.com/), a site about MNU (http://www.multinationalunited.com/), and a site called MNU Spreads Lies (http://www.mnuspreadslies.com/), actually run by Christopher, which gives out the font of the alien language.