It wasn’t a Deus Ex Machina. A Deus Ex Machina is something that comes from out of nowhere, with no logical connection to any previous part of the plot.
It’s a weak element to fixate on anyway, since the movie is so much more than the sum of its action sequences.
I didn’t feel that the movie was overly actiony, mostly because during all of the action sequences, I was less focused on the tech and the guns and so forth, than I was on the characters who were involved in the action. Contrast that with a movie like Transformers, where not only did I not care who was shooting at whom, but most of the time I couldn’t even tell, because the action was so over-the-top and confusing.
I noticed, at the screening I attended, that the audience was dead quiet for the duration of the film, which doesn’t happen much around here. I mean, not even rustling around or munching popcorn or anything like that. (Although, I suspect popcorn sales for this movie will be low. I bought a small and threw half of it away at the end.)
I didn’t “fixate” on it–it’s but one of numerous subpar elements of the movie which detracted from what could have been a good film. And when the disappointing “action sequences” comprise a majority of a movie’s third act, that’s a pretty significant hinderance if one doesn’t like its execution. That aside, do you disagree with the definitions of “deus ex machina” I quoted before, as their definitions don’t seem to align with yours.
OMG, Yes! Except for the occasional gasp or chuckle, the VERY full movie theatre I saw it in (on opening Friday) was dead silent.
Me and the SO loved the movie and we can’t stop talking about and thinking about it. Go to The Onion and read the interviews with Neil Blomkamp and Sharlto? The guy that played Wikus.
Really riveting.
Also, it was my understanding–based on the conversation when they had him strapped to the table–that they needed to harvest his biological material before his transformation progressed too much, while he was still more human than prawn. The implication being that they might develop their own hybrids who could use the alien weapons, but would still have human minds. If they kept Wikus alive, he would presumably continue to transform and he would become only as useful to them as any other prawn.
On a different note, I really appreciate the slow internal (moral/ethical) transformation that Wikus undergoes and that he’s not a very sympathetic character for most of the film. He starts out as a pathetic bastard who treats the prawn like cattle. (Like the kid who gets picked on at school and then goes home and kicks the dog.) The scene where he orders the burning of the nest of eggs and jokes about the popping sounds is particularly chilling. And he’s relatively weak and spineless when confronted by the military guy or his father-in-law. Then he’s forced into action to protect himself but at this point his actions against the MNU “bad guys” are simply self-preservation and not heroic in any greater sense. Even when he begins working with Christopher, Wikus is still treating him and his son as merely pawns that can help him in his own predicament. It wasn’t until the very end–when he knew he himself couldn’t make it–that he seemed to “get it” and began to think of Christopher as an equal. The actor who played Wikus, Sharlto Copley, really did a great job and I’m sure he’ll be getting a lot of attention after this.
I will say that there’s a mild taste of Anakin in The Phantom Menace about it to be sure, but it’s not out of the blue.
I disagree that your definitions are applicable to this movie.
I also disagree that it was a “subpar movie,” as do the vast majority of professional movie critics. That doesn’t mean you have to like it, but yours is a minority opinion.
What is the purpose of pointing this out? I imagine lots of people hold the “minority” view on at least some movies. Did you like Titanic? If not, you’re in the “minority.” I also hope you like every one of the “Top 250” movies on IMDB’s list, because if you don’t, you’d be in the minority then too, god forbid.
This is a meaningless point that I can only imagine was meant to use to try and devalue an opinion you disagree with. I apologize if expressing an opinion about a movie in a thread inviting such somehow offended you.
Agreed about Copely’s performance. The audience goes from despising him to to cheering for him, but his performace isn’t as simple as going from villain to action hero. What work so well about it is that he’s essentially so ordinary throughout the entire arc. At his most despicable, he’s not an intimidating, powerful, calculating villain, he’s just a mundane, weaselly little bureaucrat – the embodiment of the banality of evil. Even at his best, he’s not a movie hero. He’s still an ordinary, kind of wimpy little dude just pushed to his limits. It’s a remarkably well grounded and believable character – all the more astonishing since Sharlton Copely had never acted before this movie.
Indeed. And how Copely handles his Kafka-esque change is just wonderfully done. He just knocks it out of the park in the movie. He really does do the selfish bureaucrat well (and scary as how sub-human he considers the prawns, but even then he’s some what better than most of MNU, as shown when they make him shoot the innocent prawn when testing weapons). Almost like the stereotypical Nazi bureaucrat who treats Jews like slime, but acts like its perfectly ordinary. And then when he realizes he’s lost, he changes to protector, so that he’s done something good. And where it could have ended up cheesy, Copely handles is superbly
I dunno Red, if you’re going to critique the movie based on your opinion, at least don’t be disingenuous about it. Deus Ex Machina has a very specific meaning, the primary one, as noted a zillion times in this thread, is some resolution that comes from outside the internal logic of the story, usually of the “WTF?!” variety.
Anytime you see a convenient/contrived coincidence, just call it that. Is it something used in movies all the time? Yes, especially of the ‘diffusing the bomb at the last second’ variety, but can be used well (granted not nearly every time), to great dramatic effect. The case you mention, actually got an applause the night I went to see it, in a packed theater. Yet, you give the impression of deliberately trying to make whatever perceived transgressions you have of the movie, sound that much more awful by prescribing a much derided plot device to whatever wrinkles your nose in order to spread the smell. You can’t just redefine a broadly, well-known, ancient concept and expect everyone to be on board.
Do you call it a Deus Ex Machina everytime someone gets shot, but doesn’t happen to die, just because they’re the protagonist? Coincidence, amazing timing, and profound luck happen all the time in real life, so working that into a story, while may seem contrived or trite sometimes, isn’t something that necessarily commits a Deus Ex Machina.
Most of the “zillion” by you, with I think two others who chimed in. I’ve already offered my take, with cites, and you yours. Even if I’m applying the term incorrect (which I don’t believe I am, by how its used by most people), the criticism remains that it was contrived and undermined the movie’s attempt at realism. Again, we’re splitting hairs–the title one applies to a criticism is hardly more note-worthy than the underlying critique itself.
Transformers 2 also got applause at the showing I went to. So what? It’s no surprise that most people who see the movie opening weekend are going to be the ones most enthusiastic about it. Go back in a couple weeks and see if anyone cheers then.
Missed the edit window.
You never addressed how my use of the term defies this definition, provided by dictionary.com:
“2) any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.”
Just got back myself. Really liked it alot. The effects were excellent and very believable. Widkus was very well played too. It wasn’t exactly what I thought, or hoped, it would be, but it was still very good.
2 things didn’t sit well with me, and I think they are the same as the ones Red has mentioned.
The robot saving him. I don’t know whether it fits the exact dictionary definition of a DEM, but the fact that he was on the very edge of death and a robot, which had been shown earlier to require a driver inside, turns on and kills everyone in the room. I realize that the boy was controlling it, but the timing and the fact that all of the sudden there’s no need for a driver was a pretty far fetched. He should have just driven it the whole time instead of letting Widkus get inside. Then he wouldn’t have been in danger of getting shot-up like he did.
I also sighed when Widkus sat down and started piloting the ship without ever having been exposed to it before. I mean, he stuck his hand in the goo and turned it on. Hmmm… He seemed to have knowledge of how to fly the ship because the plot required him to do so at that moment.
With that said, the movie was really good and I’ve never seen a movie have a more plain set-up for a sequel with Christopher promising him he’d be back in 3 years, leaving the rest of the prawn on earth, and showing Widkus alive at the end. I’m sure it’’’ be called District 10.
Good movie.
(Oh, what’s up with Final Destination? Is that a remake of a movie thats only like 10 years old or is it a continuation of the story?)
Wish you had shown up sooner, as you described it better than I did 
It wasn’t the fact that the suit exists, it’s that it was being used in a manner that wasn’t established (or so far as I know, even hinted at) before…and then there was the whole “just in time” thing. I ascribe my poor description to the fact that I had mentally marked it as an DEM at the time I was watching it, but couldn’t recall the finer details of such beyond my initial post.
I also feel the same way regarding him being able to pilot the ship with zero experience…and by extension his ability to control the suit to such a degree he could pluck an RPG right out of the air. It was demonstrated to that he was a clutz before (hence him spraying himself with the liquid) and the person he turned into wasn’t believable given the mere 3-dayish time-span.
To further clarify my opinion of the movie: I was rather enjoying it up until that last 3rd, at which point it fell apart in a manner similar to Collateral, and left an overall negative impression.
Which is an incredibly vague definition, and not a very pithy description, for such a specific concept.
And yet it’s offered as a definition, which would suggest that it’s how it’s being used in modern contexts. Despite this, Cubsfan’s post offers a better description (which I since elaborated on) which better describes why I believe “deux ex machina” is a suitable (heh) term, what with the suit gaining abilities that had not yet been specified, and at a most convenient time too.
I just got back from the theater. Overall, “District 9” is an excellent movie. I had not heard of this movie until I saw this thread earlier today, so this was an unexpected gem of a film to me. Like most gems, it has its imperfections. But it’s definitely a solid film.
The main character was terrific.
I don’t think we were meant to hate him at the beginning of the film, even though we were meant to understand that what he was doing was wrong. He’s a bureaucrat who gets great enjoyment out of doing his job efficiently. The fact that he’s being efficient at evil doesn’t concern him, but he’s shown clearly preferring nonviolent action in most cases. He would greatly prefer going around gathering signatures without having to (directly) inflict any pain or death on anyone. (The scene with the popping eggs is the only counter-example I can think of from the beginning of the film.)
In short, he perpetuates evil, but he is not really a source of it. If he had been ordered to hand out puppies and ice cream to the aliens, he would have done that happily (and very efficiently). Instead, he was ordered to relocate them. He starts out amoral, but not malicious.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs. But I think this is important because it makes the ending more believable. If he had started out as jovially malicious as the commando guy, I never would have bought his change of heart. As it is, his transformation through the film is expertly portrayed.
The robot’s artillery could be operated remotely, but to in order to maneuver it, it needed a driver in its cockpit. It just sat there after it had killed all the thugs, waiting for Wikus to get in and use it to save his ass (and the kid’s father’s).
Admittedly, I sighed a little too when he seemed to have no problem adjusting to a complex piece of mobile machinery he’d never used before. It’s not a perfect movie, but, I found it easily forgivable… we can choose to think the Prawns designed the suit to be so intuitive and reactive, that using it is as easy as walking.
[spoiler]My impression regarding the mech wasn’t that the kid was controlling it, but that when the mothership was activated, all of the alien’s technology was activated. The mech, then, thought Wikus was a prawn and detected that he was being attacked and so it automatically killed the attackers.
And since the mech suits were shown earlier in the movie, as far as even showing the Nigerians buying it, it’s not really that unexpected that the mech, which is unusable by humans, would be exactly where we last saw it. [/spoiler]