recommended new film: 'district 9' (release date 13 august 2009 in some country's)

[ries]

Yesterday i saw this film and i was surprised.
I'am not sure what to think about it, but i still recommend it.
So, make up your own mind.

Here is the Plot:
The film opens with a documentary-style series of interviews that introduce the situation. Twenty years before, an alien ship is seen coming towards Earth and arrives above Johannesburg, South Africa. It hovers above the city for three months without any contact; eventually humans take the initiative and cut into the ship. They discover a large group of aliens who are malnourished and sick. The aliens are later assessed as apparently being all "workers", with their leadership mysteriously missing (it is hypothesized that a plague may have wiped out all of the leadership-caste). Grainy footage shows part of the ship (supposed to be a command module) falling to Earth, but nobody has been able to find it, leaving the ship inoperable.

The creatures, called "prawns" as a derogatory reference to the sea creature which they resemble, are housed in a government camp. The alien race's true name is never learned they are primarily referred to as "prawns" or, more rarely, "non-humans". Overcrowding and militarization eventually turn the area into a slum known as District 9. A massive black market is set up between the aliens and a group of Nigerians primarily led by Mumbo, a paralyzed warlord. In addition to inter-species prostitution, the Nigerians exchange canned cat food for alien weapons, of which the cat food has a similar effect to catnip on the aliens.

The movie takes place in 2010. Patience over the alien situation has run out and control over them has been contracted to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company that shows little regard for the aliens' welfare. MNU is interested in using the aliens' advanced weaponry, but its integration with alien biology makes it useless for humans.

An MNU field operative named Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), is set with a task to move 1.8 million aliens to a new District 10 camp located 240 km from Johannesburg, with help from private security forces working for MNU. While inspecting a suspicious alien residence, Wikus handles an alien device which squirts a dark liquid into his face. He becomes very sick and collects the device as evidence.

A rapid transformation begins to occur, and shortly after exposure to the liquid, Wikus's left arm mutates into a claw exactly like that of a prawn. After collapsing at a surprise party in his house, and a doctor at a local hospital discovers his alien left arm, Wikus is taken into custody and a series of tests and experiments are performed on him; these reveal that his alien DNA allows him to operate alien weapons. The scientists discover that his DNA is currently "in balance" with the alien DNA, which is gradually taking over. They decide to harvest his body for biological material at this critical point, to have the greatest chance of replicating his ability to use alien technology in other humans later. To reduce any side-effects, no anesthetic was used. However, during the attempted vivisection Wikus escapes after overpowering his captors, and flees from MNU.

Wikus seeks refuge in the run-down shack of an alien called Christopher Johnson, the same alien who Wikus attempted to evict earlier, who created the alien device that infected Wikus. The device contains fuel that Christopher scavenged from various alien parts scattered around District 9. It is hinted that Christopher might be a surviving member of the prawn leadership caste, as he shows much more knowledge of how alien technology works, possesses or at least found the command module, and interacts with MNU officials more articulately than other aliens. Although initially hostile towards Wikus, Christopher eventually agrees to help him reverse the transformation if Wikus will retrieve the fuel from MNU labs. Christopher promises to undo the mutation by getting Wikus aboard the mother ship hovering over Johannesburg, and shows Wikus the ship's command module, which has been hidden under his shack.

Wikus steals some alien weaponry from Mumbo and his gang, with Mumbo vowing to capture Wikus and eat his mutated arm (his witch doctor believes this will give him the power to operate the alien weaponry). With Christopher's help they launch an assault on MNU and successfully retrieve the fuel sample. While there, Christopher discovers that MNU has been experimenting on his people. Wikus and Christopher fight their way back to District 9 and Christopher begins preparations to leave. He tells Wikus that he must first return to his home world to seek help for his people before he can cure Wikus. Furious, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and powers up the ship himself. The MNU mercenaries target Wikus and destroy one of the command module's engines, causing it to crash land inside District 9.

After Wikus is captured by MNU, a battle between the MNU mercenaries and Mumbo's gang breaks out. After a protracted firefight, the Nigerians capture Wikus. Just before Wikus' arm is chopped off, Christopher's son activates several systems in the mothership, including the autopilot routine of a mechanized battle suit; it slaughters Mumbo and his men after they fire on it. Wikus enters the alien walker battle suit, and after initially attempting to flee, returns and rescues Christopher. Armed with a lightning cannon, tracking missiles, and a high-powered machine gun, Wikus begins to fight the MNU men. After being knocked over by a anti-tank sniper round, he convinces Christopher to return to the shuttle without him, over Christopher's objections. Christopher promises Wikus that he will return in three years to repair his body. Christopher then boards the shuttle and activates a tractor beam which returns the command module to the mother ship.

Wikus is shot in the back and the walker suit ejects him. Wikus, heavily wounded, begins dragging himself away from the leader (and sole survivor) of an MNU squad, but is quickly caught. As Wikus prepares to die, aliens burst out of the surrounding slums and dismember the mercenary.

The film concludes with another series of interviews and news broadcasts, providing human opinions on the events that unfolded. The aliens are successfully moved to District 10, which now has a population of 2.5 million and is growing. One of Wikus' coworkers hacks MNU's database and publicly exposes their illegal genetic experiments. There are many differing theories on Wikus' fate. Some people believe that he either left on the mother ship, is in hiding, was captured by MNU or a government agency. Some interviewees hypothesize that the aliens are planning to return with a full army and declare war on humanity. An interview with Wikus' wife reveals a small metal rose was left on her doorstep (Wikus has earlier demonstrated his affection with handmade gifts). Her friends have told her that it could not have possibly been Wikus, but she appears unsure. In the final scene, an alien with a bandaged left arm is shown in a junk yard fashioning a rose out of scrap metal.

[lindabaker]

First of all, I am impressed with the plot line synopsis. As a director of theater and indies, I appreciate the thought that must have gone into it. Distilling the plot line is not as easy as it seems

I will be in Amsterdam the last week of Sept. and was hoping you could give me a link to any website listing movie times in your country. I am wondering why it did not come out in the theaters where I live...at least I have not seen it anywhere.

Just as a side joke, it made me laugh so much to think of "prawns" eating cat food...in my house, it is the other way around...the cats eat the prawns! Anyway, thanks a lot for taking the time to construct this very interesting post, and Hallo Nederland!

[ries]

Hoi Linda,

i found a dutch site http://www.filmladder.nl/ , but it is not in english.

It's got a nice ranking in the top250 > 28
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/

"The future sucks. Change it."
"I'm way cool Beavis, but I cannot change the future."

[TraineeHuman]

Yes, it's a great film, and everybody should see it. The aliens certainly look much more "ugly" than any that I've seen telepathically. Question: Isn't the stinking prejudice the South African government is portrayed as having a kind of "mirror reflection" of the prejudice perhaps too many humans currently have regarding aliens? And if so, might that be the real answer to the question of why aren't we seeing Disclosure already?

"The problem, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves." - Shakespear

[mntruthseeker]

my husband just read that this is soon to be released here in the USA

He wants to see it but he will wait for it to appear on video. Me, I have never been much to watch anything on this order. Guess maybe its time I started

I heard alot about this and Credo Mutwa comes to my mind ......hmmmmmmm

[Wormhole]

Hey R,
Looking forward to the movie, but didn't read your post... I like surprises...
Peace of Mind,
Wormhole

[TruthWillSetUFree]

Just saw District 9 last night. Loved it, except for all the violence. I spent a lot of the movie looking down at my popcorn.


It reminded me of the way our gov. treats humans, when they want us destroyed, Many parts where very sad, as they were treated like animals and I found myself rooting for the E.T.'s from the very beginning....but that's me always for the underdog.....or in this case the under-alien!


It was a really good story, I didn't read the first post either because I didn't want to spoil the story for myself, but after reading it now it is a good synopsis of the film if you don't want to see it.

Love to all

[henners]

I saw the movie earlier in the week with my son who like me likes everything supernatural. I felt ill for a lot of the movie as it is filmed in third person. The action shots were very fast and my eyes could not keep up.
Anybody seeing this movie , i would recommend sitting as far back as possible in the theatre, in my opinion. Interesting movie

[gscraig]

It is an interesting movie, because it do indeed place you in a scenario where you are routing against the humans.

Another interesting movie to see is "MOON". Unfortunately, you have to go to a the smaller theatres (e.g. The Esquire) to see it. It is basically, a one person/one location film, but keeps you curious. The plot is about a man hired to live on the moon for 3yrs and mine Helium 3 to provide the Earth with free energy. Considering the plot, perhaps it's not mainstream for a reason???

I think we will see a lot more "hidden message" movies moving forward, considering what has already been surfacing this summer (Transformers, Knowing, GI JOE, MOON, and District 9).

Transformers have A LOT of key references not only in it's plot, but in some of the footage. You really have to pay attention to things in the background, comments via various parts. Especially, the scene when the two main characters where in Egypt and were talking to each other while laying on an old building structure. You probably didn't notice the symbol on the structure behind them, happen to be the NIBIRU symbol. Keep your eyes and ears open.

[Practitioner]

To me, the movie appeared to be a thinly veiled attempt to portray human beings as villainous antagonists in their dealings with alien visitors, to conjure empathy towards fictitious aliens who are supposedly held captive here, and to begin to acclimate the viewing audience to the appearance of tall, strange aliens with yellow eyes. The fact that the movie was framed as a pseudo-documentary makes it all the more gratuitous.

[metaw3]

I'm going to see this movie tonight.

I posted on July 8th in a thread about this movie and the thread got deleted:
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:...&hl=en&ct=clnk
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:...p%3Fp%3D135606

I wanted to reply to this thread. Why has it been deleted? It was a good thread. It had 2 pages of good comments the last time I saw it.

I wonder if anyone did a research on the timeline followed by the PTB to program people. I mean for example, let's take terrorism and assume that the outcome for this programming was 9/11, then when...

[metaw3]

Ok now I saw it... It is certainly a mind-programming movie as well as a desensitizing operation, just like terrorists movies before 9/11. Since the thread where I first posted it got deleted, I'll try and write it again from memory:

I wonder if anyone did a research on the timeline followed by the PTB to program people. I mean for example, let's take terrorism and assume that the outcome for this programming was 9/11, then when did the programming started? Because if we can figure this out, we could predict when the new enemy (ETs) will be launched to replace the old and weary one (terrorists).

[Unified Serenity]

Originally Posted by metaw3

I wonder if anyone did a research on the timeline followed by the PTB to program people. I mean for example, let's take terrorism and assume that the outcome for this programming was 9/11, then when did the programming started? Because if we can figure this out, we could predict when the new enemy (ETs) will be launched to replace the old and weary one (terrorists).

If they do run that blue beam scenario I think they will spring it when the collective herds of people are about to revolt and truly organize against the ptw. Nothing like being attacked by other worldly "monsters" to make us all forget our differences and ban together, no make that run to the nearest NWO police/military sign up post to do our part to save the world!

I do believe they sprung 9/11 just when the draconian anti-rights bill was failing. Nothing like chaos to get our heads turned a different way.

[metaw3]

Originally Posted by Unified Serenity

If they do run that blue beam scenario I think they will spring it when the collective herds of people are about to revolt and truly organize against the ptw.

I think the revolt is programmed as well.

[franciejones]

EXCELLENT FLICK. Saw it and loved it. Now my "new" favorite alien movie. Also, whoever mentioned Moon...that was wonderful as well

[lucrum]

Gonna see it when it arrives here, it's scheduled for September 11th in my country.

[DiVineEnvy]

Just saw this last night, and enjoyed it very much. It was entertaining on the level of a good action flick, but the story shines by venturing intelligently into the area of human-alien empathy.

Don't read any further if you have not seen this - I don't want to spoil this for you.

The main character Wikus undergoes a transformation from being a bureaucrat with contempt for the prawns (at one point he orders the genocidal killing of baby prawns, and then jokes about how they make a 'popping sound' when they burn) to being a champion for the deliverance of the prawns. In the course of this transformation, Wikus experiences raw methodical evil first hand (haw haw) - a control mindset that reduces everything into the profit motive. His survival instinct serves him well, but he only taps into his real power when he understands that his own destiny is bound together with helping the alien prawns escape.

Thanks for the synopsis, ries. I was thinking about the film all day today.

[dagon]

I went and saw it when it 1st came out.. I was looking forward to it. didn't care for the gi joe theme. I also thought the film reflected our racism. I really thought it could have been made better. it also seemed off balance in a way to me. superior in every way the aliens are. except how they looked. but some how we were in control. I think its a good rental. LOL

I did however rent the movie knowing last night. now I thought that was a good movie. and at the end it go's back to the ancient record that's been band and burned from the bible. LOL. Im sure some missed that.

I liked it. go rent it tonight

[MONITOR]

I grew up in Apartheid South Africa. This movie depicts how the black population was treated during the Apartheid era...especially during the introduction of the group areas act (when the aliens were reloacted), the blacks (The Prawns) were round up and relocated and treated in the same manner. The ET's(The Prawns) in this movie were treated much more kindly if you ask me. So i think this movie is a clever depiction of what Apartheid SA was like.

[Malynda]

Originally Posted by MONITOR

I grew up in Apartheid South Africa. This movie depicts how the black population was treated during the Apartheid era...especially during the introduction of the group areas act (when the aliens were reloacted), the blacks (The Prawns) were round up and relocated and treated in the same manner. The ET's(The Prawns) in this movie were treated much more kindly if you ask me. So i think this movie is a clever depiction of what Apartheid SA was like.

Thank you for sharing that perspective and your experience. I would like to go watch the film with this new knowledge. It's got to be entirely different now. I'm sorry that you had to go through that.

[MONITOR]

Hi! Malynda

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

BTW: Redemption song is one of my favourite songs from the "legend" album.

"For one to know life, one must experience life ".

[Malynda]

Hi MONITOR,

Bob was/is a profound man with wise words. Glad to meet another who digs him. Well, really many of us here do, it seems.

I really like the quote you shared. Very true.

A pleasure to meet you. I hope you have a beautiful day.

Love,
Malynda