September 2009. I watched this movie four months ago. This is a period long enough to forget a movie altogether but it seems I still remember plenty. I was chatting with a friend yesterday and recollected some reasons why I loved the film.
- True story revisited on a sci-fi platform: Easy to make the real tale as a drama of oppression and take home an Oscar nomination. But not Neil! No! He sold the real tale through a science-fiction story. Drama transformed to edge of the seat thrills and action.
- Documentary like cinematography: Interesting what this does in this film. In a film about aliens the camera is used like in a documentary. This constantly gave me feeling of watching a true story which, of course, is not true here. This makes the film seem more real than it is in my opinion.
- Wikus Van Der Merwe: What a performance! I'd nominate him (and Jeremy Renner!) for the Oscars right now.
- Christopher Johnson: I call this reverse imagination. An unfamiliar name for the protagonist (at least for some of us) and an everyday name for the alien. Ever heard of an alien called Chris?
- Sense of placement in the action: Follow Wikus and Chris through District 9. I almost knew which way they were going where from the bullets were fired. I was in District 9 for a couple of hours in September.
- Reminder of reasons we live for: Ambition and a sense of achievement are not the reasons Wikus wants to live for. He wants to live (from my understanding) for his family and fear of not being human. There have been points of time in my life when I have felt that living to achieve a goal is not the be all and end all. Why not just live? Take it easy. Be a simpleton. Keep it cool.
