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District 9
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--- Quote from: AanAllein on 21 Aug 2009, 21:09 ---I liked this movie, but describe it as "flawless" is pretty amusing.
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Are the 'flaws' you listed the benchmarks behind which this film could be considered 'flawless'? There was no need to develop the secondary characters because the focus of the piece is specifically centered on Wikius and Christopher. They are the impetus behind every event, so it naturally follows that the secondary characters serve as 'plot elements'.
The goal of film pacing is to remove as much of the extraneous detail as possible, this is particularly important with American audiences who are infamous for having five-second attention spans. I really can't imagine what you were expecting with respect to their development. If they shot a scene of the colonel at home petting a kitten would that make him more complex?
Johnny C:
You can't really argue that characters who aren't very well-developed help to make a film "flawless," especially if they're antagonists!
They dropped the documentary midway through cause they wanted to make an action movie, and that's fine, it was just kind of jarring. They could have made a movie about the exact same events in documentary style but it would have been a lot less punchy and explosion-filled and then it wouldn't have been a summer blockbuster.
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--- Quote from: Johnny C on 22 Aug 2009, 12:51 ---You can't really argue that characters who aren't very well-developed help to make a film "flawless," especially if they're antagonists!
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Okay, if you guys want to argue semantics: obviously no film is "flawless". Yet "District 9" has very specific themes to express and it nails each one of them, weaving a complex tale in the process. It was exciting, intelligent, immersive, and above all entertaining. There are, perhaps, four or five other films I can credit with accomplishing this.
I suppose the filmmakers, to satisfy those who are craving a full-on faux documentary, could've had the commentators drop hints here and there, and eventually by the end of the film the audience has pieced together the bigger picture. Yet outside of something like a Christopher Guest comedy, this is something that could never quite work. Audiences have the collective attention spans of gradeschool children, and as Johnny mentioned the goal is to create a blockbuster in the end.
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--- Quote from: Shok Xone Studios on 13 Aug 2009, 21:14 ---"District 9" reminded me a great deal of "Children of Men" in its themes and filmmaking style, and in my humble opinion can happily take a place next to it on the list of great 21st-century sci-fi flicks.
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I had much the same thoughts during the film. The tiresome method of shooting fight/battle scenes with crazy epileptic jump cuts needs to be at an end. "Children of Men" used incredibly long takes to give the audience the feeling that they were standing right beside Clive Owen as all hell broke loose. It was very cool to see the intricate rig they constructed to shoot the scene where their car is attacked in the forest, which is documented in the special features. Brilliant work there. But I digress...while "District 9" doesn't have any notable long takes, the action is just as immersive as in "CoM" because of the adept direction.
Johnny C:
--- Quote from: variable_star on 22 Aug 2009, 13:00 ---Okay, if you guys want to argue semantics: obviously no film is "flawless". Yet "District 9" has very specific themes to express and it nails each one of them, weaving a complex tale in the process. It was exciting, intelligent, immersive, and above all entertaining. There are, perhaps, four or five other films I can credit with accomplishing this.
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Whoa. I liked the film a lot and it's one of my favourites from this year for sure but you gotta put this into perspective.
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