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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Another day off

I went to the movies and saw District 9. I thought it would be good. I hoped I'd enjoy it. I was wrong.

It was amazing!!

I'm not normally a movie critic, so take this with a grain of salt. But this movie had everything I wanted from a film. A strong but flawed protagonist I found myself at first reluctantly, then whole-heartedly rooting for. A strong antagonist who mirrored the protagonist in every way, so much so that I had to root for him as well, alien or no. A truly evil villain I could hate in good conscious. (In fact, we got two good villains for the price of one.) And an adorable and spunky child to boot.

This is more than just a science fiction movie. It's political satire at it's best, there's a location that is new to most of us, Johannesburg South Africa, and therefore exotic, there's a government and business conspiracy (there really are a lot of secrets in District 9) and a good buddy picture.

So help me, the aliens are uglier than the guy in the Predator movies. Yet, somehow they aren't hard to look at, and actually kind of endearing, although the idea of inter-species prostitution did strike me as going a little far. Speaking of which, this shoes that the human race will go on, even if aliens were to invade. There will always be someone, probably several someones, who will figure out ways to profit from the deal. And, as always, the child is endearing, no matter what he looks like.

The human's biggest fault is that he actually trusts the officials around him and thinks he is doing a worthwhile job. The alien's biggest fault is that he is just too darn honest.

Of course there will be a sequel. There has to be. I need to know. I just hope they're wrong and it doesn't take three whole years.

In the opinion of this amateur film critic - five stars. And I think I'm going to see it again.

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