Why I Didn’t Like District 9
I went into District 9 with high hopes and emerged from the theater greatly disappointed. I nearly fell asleep on the film in a couple of places.
This is supposed to be the summer’s big hit; while I try to live against the grain, failing to understand why some things are popular could be detrimental to my future. So I sat down and tried to figure out why, exactly, I didn’t like this film.
District 9’s plot is simple; alien refugees find themselves stranded over Earth (Johannesburg, of all places, one of the films high points). The country’s government gives the aliens asylum in the slum-like District 9. As the aliens are forced to live in impoverished conditions (I laughed aloud seeing alien gang signs in the alien ghetto), crime breaks out, and humans soon grow tired of it. Two decades after their arrival, MNU plans to evict these aliens (referred to derogatorily as ‘prawns’) to a “better” location—two hundred miles away from civilization.
So what didn’t I like about this film?
1). Predictable
The film revolves around two characters—one human, one prawn—as they work towards individual goals that coincide with each other. There are many ways this situation can play out, and District 9 paints by the numbers from beginning to lackluster, predictable end.
In my humble opinion, stories are a lot better when protagonists have to sacrifice something, maybe everything, to achieve their goal. In the case of two protagonists, one, usually the more oppressed, accomplishes their goal while the other protagonist sacrifices their own to aid the lesser character. In doing so, the sacrificial protagonist becomes a better person/thing/whatever in putting aside their own needs for a greater good. District 9 follows this formula as though it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of it. The film is set up so that midway through it, you know how it’s going to end. When you figure it out, you’re on your way to bed.
2). Same old Aliens
I’d like to know why aliens in modern movies are all pretty much designed the same way; sure, most of them don’t look like anything you’ve seen before, but most still have at least two eyes, two legs, and two arms. They’re also freakishly strong. I wonder if this is meant to prey on subconscious fear; something that looks like you, but is way beyond you. I imagine it was cool back when Alien first came out, but in the year 2009? It seems a bit campy.
The prawns weren’t so far removed that I couldn’t tell that people may have been playing these things in costume. While one can speculate on the prawns’ origins (another high point of the movie, driven home after the ending), in the end, it felt more like a cop-out.
District 9 isn’t a bad movie, it just wasn’t worth what I paid to see it. My main complaint is that it lacked any originality. Everything in this movie is something you’ve seen somewhere else. At some point, I’d like to see some new ideas on the big screen.
(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
