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8 comments:
So I saw District 9, and to anyone else who has...anyone find it kind of schizophrenic? Like the right mix of the movie they wanted didn't come out?
SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN IT AND WANTS TO BELOW!!!
Well it seems to me that they couldn't rely on the whole documentary feel thing for the entire movie. But it did seem a little schizo, like for the first hour and a half you have a film that relies on intelligence and originality while with its final leg it completely switches gears and goes all "Bay meets Tarantino" on us. It felt, somewhat, like an attempt to please the action junkies who came to the theater expecting 'Halo,' as Blomkamp was originally intended to direct.
Though I will say this, the more I think about it, the more I like it. I've actually seen it twice, now, and the scene where the father-in-law condemns his son-in-law to a vivisection still makes my skin crawl, and seeing human beings annihalated the way they were...well to me it was just disturbing.
But I think in the end that that's how it was supposed to be. I think. Maybe. Who knows, maybe Blomkamp just got bored with allegory and wanted to blow things up and I'm finding meaning where there is none. But I like to think it was supposed to be disturbing and switch gears.
Also, on a side note, I got into a discussion with someone the other day after seeing it about the best special effects ever. She votes for the Transformers movies. I vote for 2005's King Kong. My reasoning is that the Transformers are robots...they can look fake at times and it's okay...whereas the creatures of skull island and the island itself are all organic, which they accomplish brilliantly. I know that's not related to District 9 but I didn't think there was a better blog to throw that in.
I think the mix didn't work on me quite as well, but sheer attempt at black comedy/action/social commentary has made the movie itself grow on me.
The effects comments made me think about Starship Troopers, one of the best looking movies for its time--and I just realized, the other fellow to direct movies with this mix is Paul Verhoeven. He might be snickering a bit more while Blomkamp seems to want to entertain, I can't think of anyone else trying for this sort of thing.
John Hawkes on Lost heck yes.
Have you read this, Geoff? It'll make you weep for the Seasons/movies that never were, and the stuff about the real Sol Star is great.
Milch is bananas, if John From Cincinatti hadn't already given it away. The good kind, though.
James -- oooooh that does look good. Are you a John from Cincinatti supporter? I have never seen it.
I think I only saw the first two, and it seemed interesting? Unsurprisingly it doesn't have the same immediate impact that Deadwood does, and there's an annoying child actor in it. That and me having to download it is probably why I didn't get any further. It's on my To Watch list, with seasons 2-5 of the Wire and 3-4 of BSG. No time.
But yes, hearty recommendations for the book. It's not at all what I expected, which was a basic "here's the real history that informs the show". There's some of that, but it's mainly Milch pouring his brain out. I found the coffee-table format somewhat inconvenient - the main prose is constantly interrupted by actor interviews and archive material (all interesting in their own right) - but it speaks volumes that, with all that unseen TV to watch, I just started Deadwood again from the beginning.
We got to interview Joe Quesada for the Comic Addiction podcast yesterday. http://www.thecomicaddiction.com/podcast/2009/8/20/the-comic-addiction-episode-102.html
If any of the readers of Geoff's Blog would like to critique the script for my next short film - G.H.O.S.T. - feel free to email me at streebo [AT] mutantville.com.
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