District 9

Talk Bits: Trials are so near that it's not even funny yet when old friends call you out, who can help it right? Hung out with Laurel and Lauren at One Utama for a bit and then, met up with Yewy for dinner at Pasta Zanmai. After that, we caught District 9 - thank you Louis Yap Jun Hao for the tickets (he went for the Nuffnang screening while ours was cinemaonline).

Initial thoughts? WTH movie is this! Shucks, gonna scare the living daylights out of meee. Oh em gee, I'm gonna die watching this! This would of course be thanks to Ng Yew Eng as well but true enough, that was how it made me feel.


The story goes along the lines of this: 30 years ago, aliens made contact with Earth and as usual, what do we expect? Domination of Earth, destruction, war etc. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. They were given a home (more like slums) in South Africa known as District 9 while the world's leaders debated and argued over them. Now, there are protesters everywhere wanting the creatures to leave. The operation of evicting them is handed over to an Multi-National United (MNU), a private company field operative, Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley). During the operation, he contracts a mysterious virus that morphs his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most wanted man in the world, as well as the most valuable for he is the key the great discovery of alien weaponry. He is betrayed. On the run. Alone. Where does one go? He seeks refuge in District 9.

It was a mind-blowing movie which kept me at the edge of my seat. I enjoyed it very much in despite that I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears half the time. Their chosen method of shooting the movie was rather unique. For the first quarter of the movie, information was transferred via interviews and news bulletins. The next quarter was raw footage of a cameraman following them around as part of a documentary or news piece - think Quarantine and Cloverfield minus the headache. The last half was back to the usual Hollywood movie screen shots.


Through this, it made the movie very appealing and the story built itself beautifully. Like any alien movie, it wouldn't be complete without vapourising weapons, blood - lots of it!, bombs, alien guts, the bad guy being ripped to pieces and plenty of gut-wrenching OMG! moments. This would of course had not been possible without the special effects with each bomb blast and blood explosion crafted perfectly. The alien creatures were perfect as well with the little one being very adorable. That, you have got to hand to Hollywood. Yet, what makes this Hollywood movie so incredible is of how un-Hollywood it is as Doctor Popcorn had said.


For the acting, I would say that it is not the absolute best but definitely good enough. Sharlto Copley carried his role well because he managed to annoy the hell out of me and then make me pity him and then was disgusted by him and in the end, fall in love with his character. Other characters which added to the excitement of the movie include Nigerian gangsters who devour aliens for "powers", lab scientists who torture aliens and military jackasses who deserve to be ripped into pieces.


Alien movies were never my cup of tea. I never liked them for they were either insanely stupid or a waste of time. Why was this any different? Because there was a lesson to it and believe it or not, there were heartwarming scenes which made tears well up in my eyes (This was always interrupted or quickly followed by blood-bomb-blasting scenes). So if you're not one for violent 18SG movies, you might just want to give this a try.

Overall, a very exciting movie which captivated me with its disgusting (but pretty cool) gruesome scenes and long strings of profanity so I suggest you watch it asap before our government censors it - You wouldn't *toot* want *toot* this. A worthwhile movie which I somewhat suspect a District 10 - would love one, I want one!

Rating: 4.6/5