barely a review: District 9

Wow, I’m glad I have access to old action movies;  the one’s like “The Outlaw Josey Wales” where everyone gets shot — one or two times. It’s taking me a long time to adjust to the last decade’s fashion of total overkill of shooting and explosions. I kept longing for the cuts to quiet interview scenes to get a break from what ultimately looked a lot like the “Transformers” previews I saw in theaters this summer.

That said, the rest of “District 9” was fascinating in its ability to comment on so many political situations of the current day without becoming self-righteous or pedantic. The main characters are fascinating and believable. I sympathized with the everyman Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) in his quest to do a good job and his failed attempt to save himself; I loved the wife’s steady emotion; and I appreciated the alien scientist’s balanced relationship with Wikus given the treatment his people have received from humans.

The scriptwriters/director decided to leave out a fair amount of the backstory, despite the documentary format. For the most part, I didn’t mind, but I did wonder why only one alien seemed to have the ability and motivation to generate an escape plan. Was he the commander (there was some speculation from one interviewee about the population being workers who followed orders) or did they all have an underlying technical prowess that was somehow not functioning? Why weren’t they using their advanced weaponry to main standard of living gains?

All in all, glad I saw it, though I think all that noise messed with my sleep last night.

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