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District 9 Rises From the Ashes of Halo
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."
The referenced site in the article on Wired for the trailer and the D-9 site in the article here do not work for me it seems. I found a good trailer on the site Sony made for it.
This is sure to be a movie that I am going to watch, very interesting story. It also interests me that the director is from South Africa, the way the aliens are moved to camps does seem to have some parallels with the Apartheid
Another fantastic sci-fi piece recently released is Moon, directed by one Duncan Jones. Strongly recommend it, if you can find it - it's been reasonably widely released in Britain, not sure about the US and the rest of the world.
[FUCK BETA]
At least these aliens are slightly more alien, but they're still bipedal oxygen breathers with bilateral symmetry. I look forward to the District 9 TV series, but not to the romantic relationship between Detective Matt Sikes and (what is now) a giant bug living in the apartment next door.
So.. it sounds like the premise of the Sci-Fi series 'Alient Nation'.. which was a very good series.
But if space aliens were to suddenly land in the U.S., they'd be voting, given free healthcare, and have their own Emmy-winning reality TV show before anyone could even examine them for xeno-viruses or concealed particle-beam sidearms..
*That's* the movie I want to see made.
Am I the only one who was disappointed that Blomkamp didn't stick to the documentary-style story-telling for the movie itself?
I was rather disappointed when I saw the second trailer that looked like a regular action flick, rather than the first trailer and "Alive in JoBurg".
I remember a time when aliens in fiction were used as a mean to explore the intricacies of our own evolution as a species, or to reflect on our own tendencies toward self-destruction, the H-Bomb, the cold war, that sort of stuff.
When Stanislas Lem wrote Fiasco, aliens were a way to reflect on the nature of communication and its philosophical conundrums. Good stuff.
Saddening to see political correctness take over that too, and turn a potentially mind-boddling discovery into a mere pretext for bigoted post-cultural and post-racial propaganda.
They surely won't get my money for that one.
JohnSmedley sent in a story about what ...
What ... what .... brain die! The last story about the Matrix Online was about sony online entertainment ruining something. He's the president of SOE and ruined star wars galaxies too. Who submitted this? And who linked to John Smedley clothing!?!?? Does not compute! Christ, it's only 9am on a Monday morning, stop F-ing with me, Slashdot!
I'm South African so yay for South Africans of all colours, shapes and broken accents, and yay for an SA director making a really interesting SF movie set in SA. It is really nice to see something that isn't shallow Hollywood crap. It might be shallow South African crap, but at least it's different and interesting shallow South African crap.
To suggest that District 9 rose from the ashes of a failed attempt at Halo is disingenuous at best. First off, yet another movie based on a video game is a bad idea anyway. District 9 is more directly an expansion of the short film which can be seen on YouTube. However, an attempt to link it to Halo is most likely a cheap advertising gimmick to get fanboys out to the cinema.
...not to be confused with "9", "Nine", and "9.99", all of which will also be released in '09.
I swear, it's worse than all the "Blankety Blank 2000" films we had at the start of the decade.
"subjecting the stranded visitors to the very human condition of greed, fear, and exploitation."
Considering no one has ever met an alien from another world before, I don't see how these "conditions" can be attributed to humans alone. As far as any of us know greed, fear and exploitation could be the three most common things in the universe.
Yes, just what we need. More "I'm a more (illegal) immigrant/minority whining.
Why is Michael Jackson the "King of Pop"? Because he kept saying he was. Why are minorities/aliens(as in immigrants not from space) always victims? Because they always say they are too. Look at Mr. Gates claims of profiling which turned out not to be true. Isn't it possible that the people crying foul about 'isms are themselves the problem?
Either way, this is just another gay attempt at social engineering through popular media.
This is an example. "Minorities aren't victims! It is so gay to say that! Those gay niggers are so retarded!"
Way to shoot yourself in the foot there.
FWIW, it took evolution millions of years to come up with a wheel. this is a very efficient way of moving intelligent beings with use of biomagnetics (repulse + attract) around a solid water crust with a nitrogen atmosphere. I'm not so sure this is a "one in hundreds" of potentially useful evolutionary ideas, but rather one in very few. That it's trilaterally symmetric comes from cellular agglomeration, and there is so far little supporting evidence that alternative mechanisms can support a three meter tall intelligent organism well
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
There's a million films out there about innocent people on death row.
The vast majority of them are fictional. Why is this?
There's a few films about immigrants being mistreated.
The majority of them are fictional. Why is this?
The answer to the first question is: Because, although it would inevitably happen that people are given the death penalty, these have all raped and murdered before. People do not get the death penalty under uncertain circumstances without a prior record. The intention of the filmmakers is often to create sympathy for death row inmates, and because knowing that the person has butchered a couple of families before might diminish the viewer's sympathy, they conveniently let this out.
Please, prove me wrong by classifying the top-20 IMDB films about death row inmates as either fictional or close to factual as reasonably possible.
The counter to this is: Is it okay for people to get the death penalty for things they didn't do, if they have done other bad things before? The counter-counter is: No, it's unfortunate, but it does not justify misrepresenting reality even if you feel it's for a good cause.
In this case, the illegal immigrants are very badly treated. In most countries, they are treated FAR better than this. How is hence this film relevant to anything at all?
Of course, you MUST include the factors that the illegal immigrants in the FILM are extremely well bbehaved (unlike e.g. Norway, where 55 out of 55 assaults with rape in the capital over the last X years were committed by immigrants according to official confirmed numbers). You must also naturally include that the illegal immigrants has a VALUABLE RESOURCE which the people who treat them badly are trying to sap and extract at their expense, rather than vica versa.
Last question: Would anyone be ABLE to create a film where things were different: the illegal immigrants were very well treated, and they exploited the people they moved to? If the answer is "no", why is this?
Actually I'm a big fan of Orwell, but after reading We from Zamiatine. I must say that Orwell, was at least "heavily inspired" (not to say an harsher word), by the much less know work of Zamiatine.
"...in which aliens in space are treated as badly as illegal immigrants..."
Maybe they are treated badly because they are criminals for dodging legal procedure to enter the United States and become a citizen like our family had to do.
Illegals should not receive any sort of social benefits including social security and public education. They should be deported and forced to enter the country legally.
for the rapes in Norway, I'll bet it was the goddamned Pakis for all 55.
Man, you guys sure are behind the times. the trailers have been out for over a month now.
It starts with someone prominently deciding "14th" needs an apostrophe (even though there's nothing omitted) and next thing you know people are eating candy bars with a knife and fork.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
After reading the various posts regarding this film and what it means in the context of the SciFi genre one finally gets to the meat of the meaning at the end. Meaning that last few posts have devolved to the crux of what this film is about. Who cares how it arrived there... it did and these last few posts in the forum prove that point. People are scuffling in the dirt about Racial and Genetic differences in our own race! It is ironic that a "scifi film about aliens" omg real ones could spark all this. Its fairly obvious this is the whole point. So viral marketing works as well as good ole movies about topics that are, have been and will continue to be controversial.
I for one cannot wait to see this. For entertainment, storytelling (a ancient practice) and just because I enjoy a good scifi movie.
Since you said it, who are the underclass? Are they a separate group from illegal aliens?
As for illegal immigrants, their children can attend public schools, they get free emergency health care and if they have children born here the children are full citizens. That's in the movie?
PS. Don't assume anything about my beliefs based on the questions asked, I often play Devil's advocate.
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.
With this reasoning, millipedes either shouldn't exist or should have massive brains, right?
I, for one, welcome our many legged, slithering overlords!
He who has no
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.
I don't know what you're talking about. I'm quite aware of The South. That's where Forrest Gump lived, and it's where televangelists are from...
Bow-ties are cool.
Sounds like a re-make of Alien Nation.. Crashed ship.. segregation.. etc.
No. Haven't you ever wondered about those old Ripley's cartoons that showed a man outrunning a horse? Haven't you ever thought through the old tales of Native Americans running down pronghorns? A creature with four legs can accelerate more quickly and run faster for a while but if you've ever seen a four-legged animal collapsed and near death in a foamy sweat from running for too long and too hard, then you'd know that four legs burns fuel faster. At a given (fairly high) percentage of max speed, four-legged animals hit the wall sooner and harder. If a horse and a good marathon runner both start a marathon, the horse will quickly sprint far ahead but the human will catch up and pass long before the race is over, especially if the horse is pushed a bit too hard in the beginning.
A biped may be slower in the short term (and also less able to bear weight, incidentally) but has huge endurance advantages.
But is four legs merely different or actually better? More specifically, which is the better mode for an *intelligent* creature?
If you're only capable of running on instinct and responding to danger by running away at max speed, then four legs is just peachy keen. But if you're intelligent, capable of planning ahead and avoiding life-or-death fight or flight problems, capable of using tools to move loads or defend against attack, and capable of harnessing four-legged creatures to do the grunt work, then being a biped is distinctly advantageous.
The tendency of SF writers to envision aliens as bipeds has never bothered me. It seems reasonably logical, certainly reasonable enough to use in works of fiction.
about as appealing as the failed to appear Halo game movie. Both strike me a perfect examples of idiots in hollywood failing to even begin to grasp their audience, and yet willing to believe they know it, and throwing good money after bad...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I don't think I was trolling, but how about a Score: 5, Troll while you all are at it?
:)
Pretty please?
I like watching imports, mainly tragic Korean, Japanese, or Chinese films. I'm sick to death of namby-pamby-assed hero-wins/bad-guy-dies/gets caught tripe coming out of mainstream hollywood. Yeh, we can find major studios backing the occasional hero/innocent-loses//bad-guy-walks/finds redemption films, but i think or feel many are the occasional "loss risk" the big studios put money into to be "cosmo" or "hip" or "sensitive". Watch enough Korean films (never mind occasional plot holes, just step into the shoes of each character), you just might turn your back on hollywood, too.
I look forward to watching "D-9", finding "Moon", and maybe even revisiting "Alien Nation" and "V"....
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Back at ya, : http://forum.mg.co.za/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1802091422&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=7&vc=1
I'm not a racist. I honestly don't care what colour you are. I'll dislike you whether you're black or white. Makes no difference to me. But there is a real problem in South Africa of laying the blame for all current problems on the evils of the Apartheid system. Granted, Apartheid is responsible for much of South Africa's problems, but Apartheid is gone. Whites are now an even smaller minority than they were under Apartheid and have very little political say in what happens in South Africa. They no longer have that much say in who does what in South Africa.
Until South Africans (and the rest of the developing world, while I'm at it) take responsibility for their problems and stop trying to look for easy cop-outs nothing will change. The fact that SA is slowly improving despite the mess that the country is in, is a testament to the fact that somebody else has realised this fact as well.
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.
I assume by the "treated as badly as illegal immigrants" that the poster may instead mean "treated as badly as criminals", since they are the same thing. I have less of a problem with illegal immigrants who pay taxes, buy car insurance, and don't steal identities, but the truth of the matter is that most illegal immigrants HAVE stolen identities in order to work, get a driver's license, etc.
The damages that incurs never really seems to enter into the debate.
I'd also like the poster to cite reasons why they think the "underclass" is treated so poorly.
I am surprised that no one posted this. It is the first video and IMO the best video that I have seen from this director. Oddly, it looks even more realistic before the Youtube conversion, if you can find it.