District 9

Post by **Cerin** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:59 pm

This is out on DVD, and I wondered if anyone would have a take on Peter Jackson's comment, which he makes in the extras, that this is a 'very funny film'. It didn't strike me that way at all, which made me wonder if I'd missed the spirit of the thing.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:12 pm

I certainly haven't heard anyone call it funny. In fact I'm a bit scared to watch it (though it's in my Netflix queue).

Post by **yovargas** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:29 pm

Funny??

In what context did he say that? Surely he couldn't have meant it was an overall ha-ha funny movie.

Post by **Cerin** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:47 pm

As I recall, he was talking about what interested him about the film, and he said he liked the idea of combining sci-fi with comedy, and that it was really a very funny film.

Maybe he just has an odd sense of humor, or because of his background in spoofy-type sci-fi (as I think I've heard tell), his thinking about those bled into his experience of this one. I mean, you can definitely imagine this one being spoofed the way they've done with 'Alien', and that certainly wasn't funny.

I don't think you need be scared of it, Prim, though it is extremely gripping and somewhat disturbing.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:26 pm

I will give it a try, then, Cerin. Thanks.

Post by **vison** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:25 am

We got it for Christmas but I haven't watched it yet, Oz watched it yesterday. I saw maybe 5 minutes of it.

Actually, on the case it says it's supposed to be funny at first, the stupid aliens, etc. The main human character, a guy with a moustache, makes fun of the whole thing? Can't say, haven't seen it.

Just went to a few D9 websites and the word "funny" appears quite often. I didn't know that PJ was involved in any way until yesterday. The reviews I read say that was a bad thing.

Post by **yovargas** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:46 am

What the hell??? It kinda starts off light-hearted from what I recall but quickly becomes very serious and intense. What the hell......

Cerin wrote:I don't think you need be scared of it, Prim, though it is extremely gripping and somewhat disturbing.

And extremely violent, in a non-gratuitous way.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:48 am

I can probably handle that. It's violence we're supposed to laugh at, or that people do laugh at, that makes me queasy.

Post by **Cerin** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 1:33 am

Oh, I forgot about the bloody aspect. I guess that was more cartoonish than the rest of the film (speaking about the effect of the alien weapons).* I think the violence is something different, having to do with the treatment of the aliens, and much more realistic. I don't think that was funny at all.

edit

*By that time good and bad have been clearly delineated, so the people, er, dispatched, have forfeited all sympathy.

Post by **Padme** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:23 am

I am like Yov on this..I am not sure what part of the movie is funny unless PJ means the very beginning.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:26 pm

I don't remember laughing at any point in the movie.

Post by **vison** » Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:40 pm

Watched it last night. It was okay. Not bad, as we say in Canada.

Post by **solicitr** » Fri Jan 01, 2010 10:34 pm

Or, as one of my wife's student clients memorably said of the dining hall: "It don't suck too bad."

Post by **vison** » Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:39 pm

Avatar is being criticized for being cliche-ridden. Well, so is District 9. They both succeed in entertaining the viewer just the same.

There are a great many unasked and therefore unanswered questions in my head about this movie - about the story - that would be interesting to have answered. I had to jump over some very high hurdles in order to watch it.

Post by **Túrin Turambar** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:59 am

I liked this movie. I really liked the way that it broke away from the clichés of the aliens coming to earth genre – it was great to see a setting outside New York or Washington D.C., and also great to see aliens that weren’t mindless monsters or ethereal superbeings. The heavy-handed message didn’t bother me all that much.

Post by **eborr** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:27 pm

THe funny bit of it was in the characterisation, there were number of South African character types that were hilarious, really enjoyed this film more than most of the stuff I have seen in ages

Post by **vison** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:37 pm

eborr wrote:THe funny bit of it was in the characterisation, there were number of South African character types that were hilarious, really enjoyed this film more than most of the stuff I have seen in ages

Yes. But you have to know some South Africans to get that!

Post by **N.E. Brigand** » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:18 am

Which is better, District 9, or 9?

Or Nine?