I knew very little about the movie going into the film. I had seen the teaser trailer and the theatrical trailer, but neither of those gave much away. Thankfully, we had marketing that allowed the audience to discover the movie as it was meant to be discovered, unlike certain other summer blockbusters (*cough* Terminator).
Most of the joy of the movie was in the discovery. I had few expectations as to what the story would hold, and I was richly rewarded for it as this dark world revealed itself. Make no mistake, many, many things in this movie were done correctly, but the true pleasure of the movie is watching as it defies what we have come to expect from our sci-fi movies. This is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi. No. This breaks the barrier of brainless sci-fi movies and enters the realm of Science Fiction - it is intelligent, it requires you to think, and it's got something to say.
This is why, dear readers, I cannot write a full, detailed review - the fear of spoiling something. The less you have heard about this movie going in, the more you will enjoy it.
I will say that Sharlto Copley turns in an absolutely stellar performace as a naive but intelligent lead who is just brimming with character. The score is sparse, but spot on. Most importantly, though, Neill Blomkamp does a truly excellent job of creating this alien species with whom you can't help but sympathize. Not only that, but they completely steal the show. The sheer amount of chacter the "Prawns" have is awe-inspiring, and it will be hard to pay attention to anything else any time they're on the screen.
District 9 is a remarkable, groundbreaking achievement in modern film. It will surely go down as a classic, one that taught the modern movie-going audience that movies need not spoon feed us to grab our attention, and they can defy even the most concrete genre expectations to make something completely original and utterly brilliant.
Score: 9.8/10.0
No comments:
Post a Comment