It’s not unusual to find myself completely removed from the mainstream, so discovering that I loathed nearly every second of District 9 didn’t comes as a shock. My last experience with feeling overwhelming alienation was The Dark Knight, a movie that literally bored me too sleep. One may suspect that I hate science-fiction and action movies, but that isn’t the case. I adore the genre, it’s just that I like to see it done well.
What do I consider excellent science fiction movies?
2001: A Space Odyssey
Alien
Aliens
Primer
Timecrimes
The Quiet Earth
Brazil
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Soylent Green
Blade Runner
The Road Warrior
The Terminator
Moon
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Planet of the Apes
E.T.
All of these movies have one thing in common: originality. Some have huge budgets while others, like Primer, were made for $2,000.
So when I see District 9 receive quotes such as this…
“No true fan of science fiction — or, for that matter, cinema — can help but thrill to the action, high stakes and suspense built around a very original chase movie.” – Hollywood Reporter
…I have to wonder if I saw the same movie as everyone else. I’ve read thousands of science-fiction books, from Asimov to Gene Wolfe, Robert Silverberg to Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Clarke to Mike Resnick and everyone in-between. I also happen to be a cinemaphile, adoring the work of Akira Kurasawa, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Werner Herzog, Sam Peckinpah, Scorsese and Hitchcock.
But, according to the Hollywood Reporter and countless critics, I neither like science-fiction or cinema.
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News to me.
District 9 is being held aloft like the second coming of science fiction. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve heard or read the following statement: District 9 is the best science-fiction movie of the past 20 years. All I can say in defense is, “Oh, so you haven’t seen Moon, huh?” District 9 isn’t even the best science-fiction of the past four months.
So what exaclty are my problems with District 9? Read More
