# District 9: Rave Reviews So Far... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152 "2009-08-12T07:49:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/281 "2009-08-23T03:23:56Z")
**Unauthorized Cinnamon** The abortion scene was the most visceral scene in the whole movie, and I didn’t see it as over the top at all. It was perfect to show precisely how horrid the conditions the Prawns lived in were. ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/282 "2009-08-23T03:29:43Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Yes. You may only eat one pie, the “I saw it coming” pie or the “Deus Ex Machina” pie. You may not eat both pies. > > Unless you wanted to bake a third pie, a “Deus Ex Checkov’s Gun” pie. That would be a silly pie, though. This post is pure gold. Nice one. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/283 "2009-08-23T03:33:26Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > It would be absurd if that’s what I stated. Being made “faster” and “stronger” doesn’t automatically equate to “catching rockets”–there’s still, I would presume, reflexes involve. Not to mention the fact that even being faster and strong wouldn’t automatically enable one to perform miraculous feats without practice. But whatever, it did in the movie, right? So I should I be questioning it? The suit’s got a built in targeting computer, and a threat recognition system, both demonstrated directly in the film. Combined together, grabbing a rocket out of the air is not beyond credulity. > [@](#): > > Was it? Or are you just inferring that based on other scenes in movie? As far as I recall, they did not “explicitly” state such at the time of the scene (though I’m willing to accept I’m wrong). If I’d inferred it, I’d have said I inferred it. If I say it was directly stated in the movie, that’s cause it’s directly stated in the movie. It was not, however, stated in the scene where he breaks free of his restraints, but rather, when he’s first brought into the lab and they begin doing experiments on him. > [@](#): > > Even then, one would think they could strike a compromise between human sedatives and Prawn sedatives (surely they figured what would sedate a Prawn within that 20+ year period). So, someone breaking free of a restraint is unbelievable, but doctors whipping up a cocktail of sedatives for two radically different physiologies to be used on a third physiology that’s entirely unique, with no concern for side effects, is okay? You have a strange concept of believability, man. > [@](#): > > Fine, still seems a silly and \*very \*contrived plot point. So, what do you expect them to do with Wikus? They’ve got a very narrow window before he turns into a Prawn completely, at which point he’s no more valuable than any other alien in District 9. How do you think they’d go about using him to develop soldiers who can actually use the alien weapons? > [@](#): > > It’s a good thing I didn’t say that. Miller: 1, Strawman: 0. Again, since you seem unable to grasp this, the technology itself is irrelevant. What is relevant (to me, seems not to be for you) is the fact that this previously undefined ability of the ship (specifically, the fact that is had a tractor beam–not that it uses “anti-gravity technology” appeared miraculously in the nick of time to fulfill a plot point. What do you think a tractor beam is, if not anti-gravity technology? And what do you think is holding the ship up in the air like that? This is what I was talking about earlier about bogging down a film with constant exposition drops. The only way you’ll accept this is if they shoehorn in an explanation of every function and ability of every piece of tech that shows up in the movie. It’s a ridiculous expectation to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s also something that you’ll find in every single science fiction movie ever made. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/284 "2009-08-23T03:41:27Z")
I’m sorta new here, but is it normal for a discussion about a sci-fi movie, a summer movie, or _any_ movie to go on this long? If not, we may have decent indication that D9 is going to be one of the most significant sci-fi movies of the decade. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/285 "2009-08-23T03:49:21Z")
Well, to be fair, the first few pages were mostly just **Red Barchetta** and **cmyk** sparring about what constitutes an official _deus ex machina_. I just got back from seeing this the 2nd time and found myself cringing in suspense even though I knew what was going to happen. Cripes. (Saw it twice not because I was so desperately to see it again, but because the first time MrWhatsit was not with me, and he wanted to see it, so I went with him.) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/286 "2009-08-23T04:00:11Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > I’m sorta new here, but is it normal for a discussion about a sci-fi movie, a summer movie, or _any_ movie to go on this long? No, this is pretty normal. If you want to see _long_, check out the [re-write Lord of the Rings](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=138905&perpage=50&pagenumber=1) thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/287 "2009-08-23T04:10:18Z")
If I remember correctly, the thread on the latest Star Trek went to over 1,000 posts. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/288 "2009-08-23T04:16:39Z")
And looking over the longest CS threads, there’re a dozen or so movie threads longer than this one, including ones for Casino Royale, X2, Pirates of the Caribbean, and at least two Harry Potter movies. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/289 "2009-08-23T05:03:06Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > **Unauthorized Cinnamon** The abortion scene was the most visceral scene in the whole movie, and I didn’t see it as over the top at all. It was perfect to show precisely how horrid the conditions the Prawns lived in were. Wikus being forced to shoot the prawn was the most horrifying moment for me. The _look_ on his face… ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/290 "2009-08-23T05:10:06Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#): > > Wikus being forced to shoot the prawn was the most horrifying moment for me. The _look_ on his face… That’s cool, but for me it was Wikus’s look and reaction during the abortion-by-fire scene that got me the most. It was like if Charlie Sheen’s character in \*Platoon \*had decided to take his turn raping the girl during the village raid instead of stopping those soldiers. I was completely set adrift not knowing what to identify with. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/291 "2009-08-23T13:25:51Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Also, I’m now done posting to this thread. I’m simply drained talking about this movie for a week+ and myriad posts and I’ve had enough. I’m glad you all enjoyed it, just please accept that I didn’t as much. > > Cheers 🙂 I think it was the emptiness of most of your objections and your long-windedness, actually, not the fact you did not enjoy the film that drew such a consistently rebuttal oriented reaction… ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/292 "2009-08-23T15:55:02Z")
Saw it last night, so, late to the thread. A few pages back there was discussion about tracing the phone calls, these were cell phones, and location is determined by seeing which cell tower is getting the best signal from that number, and there were large towers in the background of these scenes. As for the RPG-7, it does have a “launch phase” and “flight phase”. The launch, a gunpowder propellant, gets it out to about 33 feet (10m) at about 115 m/sec (377 fps, or 257 mph) after which the rocket kicks in and it speeds up. It seems the mech was further away from the launch than 10m, so he would have intercepted it at a higher speed than 377 fps, but the RoboCop auto targeting system would have helped immensely. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/293 "2009-08-23T20:03:24Z")
I liked the movie. It was interesting. That said, now that this conversation has almost fully morphed into a discussion of DEM and contrivance, I’ll comment on that, because that’s even more interesting. 😃 If you ask me, and indeed no one did, the real contrivance would have been to insert a scene into the movie where one of the prawns remote-controls the mech for no particular reason other than to show that they can do that. Personally, I hate it when filmmakers do things like that.\* I acknowledge that I seem to be the only one who feels this way, but I truly don’t believe they need to go out of their way to establish non-extraordinary circumstances, and it gets on my nerves when they do. If one of your characters is a Security Forces sergeant in Baghdad, I really don’t need a scene where he stops to tie his shoe and, with a slow and deliberate close-up on his foot, reveals the knife holstered in his left boot (“LOOK EVERYONE, I HAVE A KNIFE IN MY BOOT!”). He’s a military member in a combat zone. When the time comes for him to run out of ammo and pull the knife, I’ll buy that he had it, I promise. If you’re going to give him time-stopping powers, then yeah, I’ll take an expository line or two, but the knife is cool. In short, screw Chekov’s gun if Chekov would have had a gun anyway. The same principle applies to the mech in District 9. As others have said, we accept with no problems that this race’s technology is sufficient for interstellar travel. Yet, some of us have trouble buying that they got the radio-control thing down, without a shoehorned-in scene where a Nigerian says “Hey, it’s that robot armor! You know, I heard they can remotely control it! Did you hear me, boss? THEY CAN REMOTELY CONTROL IT!”? Up until that point, there was no reason for Christopher or his son to remotely control the mech, and no reason for anyone to mention that it could be done. The first time they had both the ability (ie, fuel) and a reason to activate the thing remotely was when the same time that became a plot point, which was when Wikus was in danger and it could help him. That’s not a contrivance; that just makes sense. If the filmmakers had included a scene where the prawns remotely controlled something just for shits and giggles (“Hey audience! They have remote controls! Also, ballpoint pens, in case one of them has to write something down later! Can you believe it?!”), _that_ would have been the contrivance. Alas, I’ve been losing this fight for years, and I fully expect to continue lose it now. Nonetheless, props to Blomkamp for assuming the audience has some modicum of intelligence and reasonability. \*…almost as much as I hate the “Ah Yes, I Remember When The Movie Explained That!” flashback sequence that these days almost inevitably happens right before Chekov’s gun is fired. This movie managed to avoid doing this, too, which fact I think is responsible for a large percentage of the “PLOT HOLE!” complaints. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/294 "2009-08-23T20:21:34Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > \*…almost as much as I hate the “Ah Yes, I Remember When The Movie Explained That!” flashback sequence that these days almost inevitably happens right before Chekov’s gun is fired. That’s one thing that bugs the crap out of me in the tv show _Leverage_. A lot of the show is about conning a mark, but in doing so they’re usually conning the audience as well. Almost every time a con is revealed, there’s a corny flashback of when that con was set up and we just didn’t know it. Sometimes that flashback is of something that happened 30 seconds ago. And it’s not like an alternate angle where more info is revealed, it’s just like they stopped the show, rewound it, played that scene again, and then skipped back to normaltime. The show’s talking down to me. > [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > He’s a military member in a combat zone. When the time comes for him to run out of ammo and pull the knife, I’ll buy that he had it, I promise. If you’re going to give him time-stopping powers, then yeah, I’ll take an expository line or two, but the knife is cool. “Hey, O’Chansky, whaccha lookin at? A picture of your dame back home?” “Nah, Rigurgio, just an instruction manual for stopping time.” ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/295 "2009-08-24T13:09:25Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > Up until that point, there was no reason for Christopher or his son to remotely control the mech, and no reason for anyone to mention that it could be done. I really dont have a problem with the mech, except for why it was there in the first place. They showed the mockumentary footage of the command module coming down, it looks no bigger than a 727, when we finally do see it and yet no one sees a prawn away team digging a hole and burying it. We have an area thats going to be sanitized by the military, who have ground penetrating radars and yet they miss the CM, possibly they did not miss it and purposely avoided looking for it, and by the by, keep a battery of rapier missiles on standby at a refugee camp. So along with a **combat** mech, and not a construction mech thats been modified, Earths security forces, fail to totally quarantine the area by moving the nigerians out of the way, with all the hardware they have, they miss both weapons and weaponized tools. The least unbelievable aspect was johnny prawn putting the combat mech into autonomous mode, when his dad was in danger. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/296 "2009-08-24T16:41:03Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > I really dont have a problem with the mech, except for why it was there in the first place. They showed the mockumentary footage of the command module coming down, it looks no bigger than a 727, when we finally do see it and yet no one sees a prawn away team digging a hole and burying it. > > We have an area thats going to be sanitized by the military, who have ground penetrating radars and yet they miss the CM, possibly they did not miss it and purposely avoided looking for it, and by the by, keep a battery of rapier missiles on standby at a refugee camp. > > So along with a **combat** mech, and not a construction mech thats been modified, Earths security forces, fail to totally quarantine the area by moving the nigerians out of the way, with all the hardware they have, they miss both weapons and weaponized tools. > > The least unbelievable aspect was johnny prawn putting the combat mech into autonomous mode, when his dad was in danger. > > Declan The combat suit in autonomous mode could easily protect dad, after all it can stop bullets and shoot them back, automatically identify enemies of the prawns and eliminate them. The problem is that despite the fact that aliens have mastered interstellar travel, r/c, and ballpoint pens, the ability to have the suit really kill the baddies is seemingly eliminated when Wikus gets inside. Because it likely has an either manual or automatic mode, but no hybrid mode… or sumpthin’. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/297 "2009-08-24T16:59:40Z")
> [@Quint](#): > > The combat suit in autonomous mode could easily protect dad, after all it can stop bullets and shoot them back, automatically identify enemies of the prawns and eliminate them. The problem is that despite the fact that aliens have mastered interstellar travel, r/c, and ballpoint pens, the ability to have the suit really kill the baddies is seemingly eliminated when Wikus gets inside. Because it likely has an either manual or automatic mode, but no hybrid mode… or sumpthin’. Perhaps it can be done, but Wikus just doesn’t know how to use it. If I got in a strange car, I’d know how to drive it right away but not how to enable cruise control, or even know such a thing existed. District 9 has [made $73 million dollars](http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=district9.htm) so far (two weekends). Granted, that’s not Star Trek money (ST made $74m opening weekend), but it’s over twice its shooting budget. Sequel probability hovers ever near 1. ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/298 "2009-08-24T19:54:37Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Perhaps it can be done, but Wikus just doesn’t know how to use it. If I got in a strange car, I’d know how to drive it right away but not how to enable cruise control, or even know such a thing existed. Of course. But if you got into an r/c car, the cruise control could be operated remotely. Unless the r/c only works when no one is in it, cuz the interstellar travelling, bic-pen using aliens would never anticipate a scenario where operating the suit remotely would be useful if someone is in it, or somethin’. All perfectly thought through, makes absolute sense. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/299 "2009-08-24T20:18:22Z")
> [@Quint](#): > > I knew the gun was going to go off, I just never expected it would go off by itself and kill all the baddies in the room to save our hero’s life. That it was going to go off was a given, the manner in which it did was DEM. That to me is not in doubt, nor does it really detract from the film. As I said before DEM is pretty standard in lots of Hollywood films. Your conception of DEM seems indistinguishable from “surprise” lol. You must really be miserable watching detective movies. ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152/300 "2009-08-24T22:18:08Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Your conception of DEM seems indistinguishable from “surprise” lol. You must really be miserable watching detective movies. Hmmmmmm, a suit of armor comes to life at the very last possible second with the exact capabilities required to free our hero from the impossible situation he finds himself in. Classic Hollywood- ratchet up tension to impossibly high levels by putting hero in impossible situation, throw in suspension-of-disbelievable DEM, audience thrills ensue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/district-9-rave-reviews-so-far/506152.md?page=16)