Dumbing Down of America

Rating: 4/10 (1 September 2009)

Ranked #44 on the list of all-time movies? Are you kidding me? I am flabbergasted that this movie would be ranked so high. District 9 should really be called Titanic 9 because if it was screened for a group of rationale, intelligent lifeforms, it would sink under the weight of its own implausibility. Would an intelligent alien lifeform simply toss the key to its freedom in the bottom of a cannister so easily found? Isn't there a more plausible scenario there? Would a superior in charge of so many logistics accidentally put the alien piece of technology up to his face and smell it to see what it is? Ridiculous! With its cardboard cutout characters of an evil father and doting wife, District 9 is not even close to being in the top #500 of the all-time greatest movies. It's simply a mashup of more eye-popping, special effect/CGI crap that relies less on substance and more on gadgets and guns.
However, the biggest problem of District 9 is its continuity and frame of reference. The first 30 minutes have us following around a nitwit character, documentary-style. It's kind of like watching a crappy episode of COPS. Instead of maintaining its frame of reference, the narration turns into an action flick with no sign of the documentary film crew around. Where did they go? Why start with the documentary style, then switch in the middle of the film? Alfred Hitchcock would be turning in his grave if he saw this movie.
I get the allegory to apartheid and the persecution of minorities. I understand where the filmmakers where going. It was a different angle, that's for sure.
I really wanted to enjoy District 9 and I am a very forgiving movie-goer. But don't get caught up in the hype. Just because a movie has some cool special effects, that doesn't make it a great movie. Just an expensive one.