Watched: District 9
Observations:
- Not my first viewing, though it is my first since it came out in 2009. Ah, that was a good summer.
- I forgot how quickly everything is introduced in this film. Exposition by talking heads is very efficient.
- I also forgot how quickly they lay out the fact that this is being told after the events of the film, so they really lay the sense of foreboding on thick. I’m not sure if it feels that way because I knew what happened, but you know something bad’s about to happen.
- Wikus is kind of a shit, isn’t he? I get that he undergoes a (heh) transformation over the course of the film, but to appreciate that the “prawns” are sentient creatures and then hand a colleague a device with the line “ah, a souvenir for your first abortion” while laughing as a bunch of prawn fetuses are burned to death is kind of macabre.
- That said, Sharlto Copley really is fantastic, especially given he landed the role by accident.
- I think it needs reiterating quite how impressive the VFX is in this, especially considering that we had the Tintin film since this. The integration between the CGI elements and the real-world imagery hasn’t really been surpassed aside from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Even The Hobbit looks a little silly next to this.
- Big on the body horror, too. I still cringe at the bits with the teeth and the nails (oh god, the nails.) I keep thinking about The Fly, and how that got an 18 certificate but this didn’t. I have no idea how. It’s fucking grotesque.
- It still bothers me that it starts out as found footage and abandons the idea about twenty minutes in. It doesn’t break the film, but it’s not a seamless transition.
- He threw a pig! How did I miss that first time around?
- Still impressive second time around.