The stars are aligned: Owen and I are on the same planet about District 9.
Meanwhile, all our talk about lousy living conditions for the movie's unwanted aliens--both in their crippled spaceship and in their South African ghetto--has made me nostalgic for other space-age movies in which accommodations are less than gleaming. No disrespect to the great, streamlined interior decorating aboard the USS Enterprise in Star Trek, but I what I really love are movies where the interiors look just as funky as you know they're bound to be when people (or aliens) are cooped up for long periods of time with limited changes of underwear.
Along those lines, I 've always loved the grunginess of the Western-style galactic showdown Outland--it's High Noon on a volcanic moon of Jupiter, with Sean Connery in the Gary Cooper role as marshal. You can almost smell the B.O. (In particular, I love when strung-out workers blow up inside their space suits, for reasons integral to the plot. But that's just me.)
What are your favorite sci-fi movies in which housekeeping services aren't up to snuff?
And now I just added Outland to my Netflix queue. Thank you, EW!
One of the best sleeper movies of all time. The Fifth Element. They have a shoot out in a garbage heap. Another classic. Bladerunner.
The original Star Wars films always adhered to the used-worlds philosophy. The Millennium Falcon in particular was a grimy, rusty, half-decrepit pile of trash. However, to the eyes of one 7-year old in particular — it was beautiful.
I’ve always believed that much of Lucas’ used-world mindset was ‘borrowed’ from Gerry Anderson’s Supermarionation series, Thunderbirds. The models in that show were filthy (as they should have been) since they were essentially construction/rescue vehicles.
The environments in Planet of the Apes were suprising well kept despite being inhabited by damn dirty apes!
Fun movie. Very different. But nothing special or worth seeing twice. People are reading WAY too much into it. The characters are so one-dimensional and over-the-top that you can’t even take it seriously. The bad guys are SO bad and brutal, it’s not believable. And the good guy alien is so ridiculously nice that it’s just too too absurd to take seriously. Tries WAY too hard…
It’s kind of sad but a lot of people are that one-dimensional. I like that the main guy is a sweet one-dimensional boob at the start but changes as his eyes are opened to what is really going on.
I agree with Lisa that the character, Wikus evolved and his transformation cause us to care about everybody in the end.
So sorry YOU wasted your time. However, a lot of enjoyed the film and will give it good word of mouth.
I always thought that in alien that the the spaceship wasnt’so much grungy as it loked lived in. It made the movie feel real to me.
here’s why it doesn’t work…NO more movies about aliens, robots or superheroes. I don’t go to Comic-Con and never will. this summer SUCKED movie-wise and from your Fall issue, it’s not getting better. give me movies like The Wrestler and Gran Torino. stop the aliens, droids and bad remakes.
Well – if you don’t like these kinds of movies – DON”T GO AND WATCH THEM! Telling a story in a way that has meaning, is poignant and that uses allegory to make a point – can be told with puppets, aliens, Legos or what ever… so long as the story works on multiple levels as District 9 does. It’s got balls, takes chances with it’s filmmaking style and characters and in the end left us with something worth watching and remembering. It was basically an independent movie, after all, made with a tiny (By today’s standards) budget and was based on a short film made by the director 4 years ago and not some uber-licensed claptrap designed to sell toys or video games.
I kept waiting for the preliminaries to end and the movie to start. My husband and I both went into this with high hopes, and were both disappointed. I don’t think there was a cliche that was missed, and the symbolism was very heavy-handed. If this was a TV series, it would be “A Very Special Episode”.
You left your sense of fun at home. You also were unable to take the movie at face value and enjoy it for what it was worth. Stick to Shakespeare.
I love space movies. i love improbable plots. I was hoping to enjoy this. There was no fun to be had in a thinly veiled condemnation of apartheid.
I loved the movie. I wish we could’ve seen INSIDE of the mother ship. I think this is exactly what would happen if aliens were to land, the white man would push them to the side, like we did the Native American Indians and MANY others. And of course, the US would have nothing to do with it because there is no oil nor is there any profit to gain.
I agree.
Shiver me timbers, them’s some great infoartimon.
Yes, I’m sure aliens/insects would want nothing more than to be accepted into human culture.
The movie was awful … and don’t start saying I missed the point cause I didn’t. I got it about treating people horrible, hitlerisk and all that. The movie was beyond sickening and exploited black people as hoodlums. Forget about the aliens. Let’s see, the aliens broke down, cowered in thier ship and then let a earthly government put them in a slum. Dah … they were smart enough to get here but couldn’t get out of the slum because they were hooked on cat food and wearing pink bras. I didn’t even get to the black puke. We walked out it was so insulting.
It exploited white people as hoodlums as well…and aliens as hoodlums…who do these movie makers think they are exploiting people and aliens like this!
Exploited Black people? Like the Palestinians? Or the millions of refugees around the world who live in squalor and are exploited by who ever has guns or power? If it takes a movie using aliens to bring a little window of truth in view to show us that we as a whole are not really all that nice as a species… especially to each other and totally miss the point – then you need to stick to the National Geographic or Disney Channel.
totally agree with Carol. this movie is an overly hyped piece of garbage. the story line was atrocious and had so many holes in it, it was absurd.
Wow. Some of you are taking this way too seriously. Did you notice that it was filmed in South Africa? Have you ever been there? Come up people, lighten up…
Grungy Sci-fi lovers, unite! And take a shower once in a while, would ya?
I think the best grungy sci-fi flick would have to be…
Buckaroo Bonzai. A classic from the eighties.
I think many humbugs won’t like it (not to mention older people), but they are being just that…old humbugs and they probably vote Republican.
And to answer the question: Blade Runner.
Back off Jeremiah. I’m soon to be 64 and I liked the movie. I listen carefully to comments made as people file out and this one had people stunned. A couple guys didn’t like it but their gals did. If you’re a sci-fi lover who wants bright and clean Star Trek movies, this won’t appeal to you. How it relates to apartied and discrimination is the shocker. We see big major scary looking aliens and assume they are killers and yet they never fought back. A good movie. Where they lived is how I imagine a lot of refugee camps look in third world countries. I would recommend this movie.
What I didn’t like about the movie is that the aliens were treated as if they were human, albeit lowest class, yet they behaved as animals. They should’ve been put in a zoo.
Just saw the movie. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, but in the beginning I kept waiting for it to start and then I fell asleep for 5 minutes. I thunk the characters were way too one dimensional. And while I know we still have camps like this today, it obviously was about Apartheid and it felt about 15 years too late.
Your knowledge of recent history needs to be updated… all you have to do is look at the middle east and Africa of 2009 and you’ll see this same thing happening as I write this.
That just tells me the movie doesn’t do what it set out to do.
…And another thing…there’s nothing eye opening about the commentary on apartheid…just that it is a problem…and the best solution is Terminix pest contol.
It’s a movie – a piece of entertainment.. it uses allegory to tell a story. Movies tend to reflect the world around us to a degree so we can identify.
I got really sick and tired of the ‘live’ interviews and documentary style. It didn’t need any of that.