District 9 Rises From the Ashes of Halo 207
JohnSmedley sent in a story about what might be the last SciFi film worth caring about this summer. He writes "Wired has an interesting piece up on the upcoming District 9 release. District 9 rose from the ashes of a failed Halo movie and expands on 'Alive in Jo'Burg' which is a South African short film by Blomkamp. Both the short and full feature films expand and explore a premise in which aliens in space are treated as badly as illegal immigrants and the underclass. The story begins as a damaged alien craft lands in Africa. The foreign race is quarantined in a remote area called District 9, and from there are subjected to xenophobia, and the desire of a multi-national conglomerate to steal their technology. The film is an exploration of what would happen in terms of segregation between an alien race and humans, subjecting the stranded visitors to the very human condition of greed, fear, and exploitation. District 9 will be in theatres on August 14'th, and you can view the trailers from the viewpoint of Multi-National United."
It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That May Work as a South Africa Satire (Score:3, Insightful)
As a legal immigrant in the States, I can state that (although I'm paying just as much tax as anyone else) : I have no vote, no free healthcare and no constitutional rights (let alone a TV show).
But then you're obviously a troll, aren't you?
Re:That May Work as a South Africa Satire (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:4, Insightful)
Halo? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Moon (Score:5, Insightful)
However, watching or reading 1984 just flat drains the soul. The other two movies are more entertaining, have a happier ending, yet still deliver the core of the same message as 1984. Does it soften the message? Somewhat. However, they reach far more people, and those that watch it don't usually kill themselves during the closing credits.
Respect the originals, yet keep refreshing it to new audiences. Often, those that like the new versions end up hungry to read about the original source material.
Re:Moon (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the biggest thing about Moon is that it is the first hard science fiction film in a long time that has gained even the meager attention it has. Hard Sci-Fi is a dying breed, as far as I can tell from the last decade or so.
Maybe Moon didn't introduce any new ideas. But it did present those ideas in a medium where it is easier to evoke an emotional response, if it's done correctly. Moon did it very well, at least in my opinion, and it reached a wider audience than most sci-fi.
If Moon is playing near you, I highly recommend you see it.
Re:It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:5, Insightful)
Um 6 appendages with 4 legs and 2 arms would work just as well if not better.
Add another pair of legs to a human, and see how well they do climbing trees.
You know it would work just as well how? Because you created your own virtual earth and ran genetic simulations on it for a million years?
Evolution is dumb, it does not care what is best, just what causes the longest survival to allow more evolution changes. It will allow stupidity to win if dumb is allowed to breed unchecked.
Stupidity doesn't win, but you might need a bigger head to hold a bigger, more complicated brain in order to get more intelligent, and that might get you killed. Which is almost the same thing, but no, stupidity doesn't win. Intelligence just doesn't necessarily win either. Our brain's need for high blood flow is a liability...
Re:It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:5, Insightful)
Um 6 appendages with 4 legs and 2 arms would work just as well if not better.
Nonsense, you are looking only at the (presumed) benefits of an extra pair of legs without considering the costs. An extra pair of legs requires more energy, it requires more neurons devoted to controlling the extra legs, etc. The benefits? You're slightly less likely to get knocked over?
Re:Interesting parallels (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still hoping that this movie will actually be a good, cerebral Science Fiction story; rather than just another disposable alien-action movie built on what would otherwise be a great plot to explore.
Still crossing my fingers.
Re:Moon (Score:5, Insightful)
Fantastic? Meh. It was a rehash of a lot of ideas we've seen done in films and books over the past 20-30 years, with nothing particularly new added. Go re-watch 2001, Bladerunner and re-read some early John Varley instead.
I'm getting so tired of this nonsense. Bladerunner was a film noir [wikipedia.org] set in the future with robots. It wasn't new. Asimov did androids struggling with their (lack of) humanity in the 50s, and all Dick added was his drug addicted sense of a decaying reality to which Scott added a very provincially 1980s aesthetic. Go watch Metropolis and the Maltese Falcon. There, see how easy it is to throw stones at a good and viewing-worthy film?
Fact of the matter is that premise doesn't matter. Every premise has been done. Every idea has been pushed through the salad-tosser that is the writer's pen. What remains is the actual writing, and in the case of film acting and directing. Moon is, as I've heard (and I really do want to go see it), well written, acted and directed. If the idea is also compelling, that's great, but do we go to see a murder-mystery because we've never seen a detective confront the suspects before? Do we go to see space opera because we've never seen ships shooting at each other before? No, we go because we, as humans, enjoy the act of story-telling. It's an art, and good art is good art, even when the subject has been painted/drawn/written about/sculpted or filmed before.
Re:Moon (Score:4, Insightful)
You could consider investing in more reliable cellulose-based storage media. You'll find that a lot of popular ebooks have been translated into this "paper" format over the last, oh, 500 years and there's a good chance that your city even has one or more brick-and-mortar retailers who specialize in them.
Get 'em before the fad passes.
Re:Moon (Score:4, Insightful)
Does it soften the message? Somewhat. However, they reach far more people, and those that watch it don't usually kill themselves during the closing credits. Respect the originals, yet keep refreshing it to new audiences. Often, those that like the new versions end up hungry to read about the original source material.
That's, of course, assuming that the first exploration of a theme is the best. I would venture that while 1984, V for Vendetta, and Equilibrium explore the same space, they do it in unique ways. None are, what I would consider, a definitive work; neither are the newer movies a simple rehash of 1984.
In 1984, the 'resistance' comes from within the government and is a trap, while Equilibrium has the government using its own agent who defects, yet V for Vendetta is a resistance of an outsider. These are unique explorations, and it would be disappointing if anyone thought that any single piece was a sufficient exploration of the theme. Taken as a whole, however, the reader/viewer can make their own, deeper connections.
Re:It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:1, Insightful)
What are the non primate candidates on our own planet? Whales, Dolphins and Octopuses. Whales and Dolphins lost theirs legs and Octopuses went down a different route. There's some argument tool users need this configuration but we are one planet out of billions of potential planets so odds are we aren't the dominant form. Really this is more about film/TV show budgets traditionally as well as the audience needing references they can understand. It's hard to relate emotionally to an Octopus like thing or do an action scene with a blob of jelly in a jar.
Re:Interesting parallels (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Moon (Score:3, Insightful)
And your point about "An Inconvenient Truth" is a good one, "The Day After Tomorrow" is the entertaining version of it. I think there are some people that would have never watched "Truth" without first seeing "Tomorrow" and getting a spark of intrest that allows them to sit through the bland power point.
Re:It's just the opening scenes of Alien Nation (Score:5, Insightful)
Because yes, if you have a choice of crash landing on a planet that is hospitable and contains life like your own, or on the toxic silicoid life sustaining one you should defiantly choose the one most unlike yourself, you know, just for the sheer challenge.
Of course I don't know how desperate they were to crash, or what the range of the partially disabled craft was, or if they were low on fuel, because I am not an alien... and you know more importantly, I havn't seen the movie... and even more importantly, it is a freaking' movie.... you know, entertainment?
On a conceptual level I generally feel the same way about most Science Fiction particularly in movies and tv where 99% of all life encountered is pretty much identical to us with the exception of some forehead ridges, colour, or perhaps some weird facial hair or antennae or something. There has been some exceptions like the Lava monster in old star trek, or stuff like crystalline entity or tar monster later on... Bottom line the reason this is likely the case isn't due to lack of imagination, but rather the reason is for entertainment purposes. James T Kirk can't exactly sleep with the lava monster can he? (well he could try anyway). So they make a green woman alien and call it a day. People need to be able to interact in some meaningful way for it to be entertaining. Why do you think everyone can also communicate so easily? Because it would really suck if you had to sit through an hour of confusion. I can barely comprehend the Japanese language, how the fsck can we comprehend a language developed on another world with no context? Magic technology of course... but again... movie magic.
Re:Moon (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole point of 1984 is to make you feel like shit. If you were uplifted by a hollywood type happy ending, it would lose much of its power. Why is it that many people think a movie that makes you feel bad is a bad movie ?
The two movies you mentioned are the typical hollywood stuff ... entertainment and almost nothing else. Not bad for blowing a couple hours, but nothing that will change the way you look at the world like 1984 has done for many people.
Re:Moon (Score:2, Insightful)
The Day After Tomorrow was not entertaining. I'd rather watch a 2 hour presentation by Al Gore.
Re:Moon (Score:3, Insightful)
You can't change the way someone looks at the world if they won't listen to you. You need to get their attention first.
Re:as badly as illegal immigrants and the undercla (Score:3, Insightful)
This movie is about South Africa. I know it's difficult sometimes, but try to remember that there are countries on this planet other than the United States of America.