thread: 2009-08-17 : District 9
On 2009-09-09, Mike wrote:
Just seen it (UK) and was bowled over. I'm a little surprised by the consistency of relative rankings in this thread; I thought this was a far better movie than Children of Men, particularly in terms of characterization and motivation. Part of that may be the Clive Owen effect - he always plays the same character, so there's never any suspense about what kind of arc it's going to be. Mind you, I thought Wall-E was vastly overrated as well.
Like valamir, I was struck by the success with with repulsive aliens were made sympathetic and even heroic, though the eyes were a notable concession to anthropomorphism. It's made me think about Vernor Vinge's classic SF novel A Deepness in the Sky, a book whose protagonists are giant hairy carnivorous alien spiders and which I once considered the epitome of "unfilmable".