http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjihaK7HfGs&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgSR71FjPQw
‘Peter Jacksons rewrites sci-fi history with a new a new take on the Alien genre.’ -Rotten Tomatoes
'Aliens. We’ve had cute ones. We’ve had nasty bastards with great big pointy teeth. We’ve had stupid ones, smart ones, ones that look like Jeff Bridges, and ones that eat bridges for breakfast.
In fact, we’ve had so many of the extra-terrestrial buggers that putting a fresh spin on the movie alien is clearly a tricky thing. But, as newcomer and Peter Jackson protégé Neill Blomkamp proves with District 9, it’s not impossible — even if, on closer inspection, there’s nothing really original about the movie’s components. Hero metamorphosing into something more than human?' - Empire Magazine
'District 9 is that modern rarity: an adventure thriller that’s even better than its advertising campaign.' - Daily Telegraph
These Reviews are from 3 different but all say the same thing, they movie is different and will be one of the biggest movies of all time.
Represented
In this movie 2 Specific groups of people are represented these are South African people and the government.
The government are portrayed in 2 ways which are loving and evil. There shown as loving at the begging of the movie this is when they help the aliens and give the AID, they also try to look after the aliens by making a specific area where they can live among humans as the aliens are stranded on earth and cant return back to there planet. Towards the middle of the movie you see the evil stereotyped government, this when they start to have secret experiments and have specific thing they cant show to humans. This links into real life as many people do no trust the government and believe they hide many things. So the government are portrayed as sneaky and evil by the time the movie ends.
The second people group of people that are portrayed is the South African people. South African people are known as poor and find it hard to live and because of this they turn to crime, in the movie they stick to the same stereotypes and because of the aliens also turn into crime and start to live as the South Africans live in shanty towns. They South Africans are portrayed as poor and would do anything to survive.
The reason there seen like this is because of the director Neill Blomkamp from previous experience. The director is from South Africa and the characters in the movie are from his previous life and what he has seen before in his life. The reason he represented the government like that is because he used his own stereotypes.The representation is not accurate and if anything over stereotyped. The South African people are seen as evil poor, violent and money hungry which is a general stereotypes for the entire African nation. The government are also seen as evil and very secretive and from what we know we cant say the government do this.
Genre
The Genre for this movie is Sci-fi. Within the movies there are many generic conventions to show the movie is a Sci-fi movie. Firstly which is the most obvious is that there are Aliens in the movie which is the whole meaning of Sci-fi. Other generic conventions are such things as alien weapons and the round alien ship which is associated with an alien spaceship. This movie gives something new to the Sci-fi and the audience don’t expect it coming. Most alien movies contain some sorts of dooms day and how aliens try to take over the world. In the movie the aliens as incompetent and would of dies if the humans didn’t look after it and its human striving for power that creates this dooms day scenario. The audience don’t see this coming and because of that it shocks the viewer and the scenario is new and has never be done before, and this has contributed to the success to movie and why it would become a instant classic.
The other reason the movie has been success is because is stared a unknown cast and a unknown director, the only known face is Peter Jackson who is the producer of the movie. Peter Jackson is associated with this fantasy sci-fi genre as he has produced and write movies such as king kong, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and I think this helped him to produce this movie. The previous experienced help do something new to the sci-fi genre.
Narrative
The narrative movie is a linear movie. For the movie the audience are positioned very we’ll positioned, the reason for this is because you can relate to people in the movie because it based in the slums of South Africa and Aliens and humans struggling and you see this in the news all the time. So it creates sympathy for the movie and attracts you into the movie because you want all these people/aliens to survive. Heroes or the main character in the movie changes from a villain to a hero. At the beginning you dislike the character as he shows no respect towards the aliens and this creates rage towards him, halfway within the movie something happens to him and you start to feel sorry for the character this makes you bond with the character and by the end of the movie you get emotionally attached to the character. The villain in the movie starts of as a villain this is shown trough his personality and how he abuses his power, the character could have a defence as he has to take orders but its his enjoyment when he does it which people know he’s evil. The sound/music follows the narrative and suits the mood for example is there an action scene they wouldn’t have romantic movie because it does not suit the mood. The sounds also help show it’s a sci-fi movie such as the weapons as the guns they follow an alien type sounds. The genre is followed in certain ways but also changes as it uses a new type of storyline which hasn’t been done yet. The mise-en-scene for the movie is different and new these movies alien situation from other movies usually happen in places such as New York, but in this movie the alien ship is in South Africa and the reason for this because it makes the narrative easier to follow in the later stages in the movie.
Media institutions
The company that made the movie is key creatives which is a new company which is not big, but they have another blockbuster coming out soon ‘lovely bones’.
Media audience
The movie is sci-fi and this makes you think of teenage boy’s ages around 14-18. But because this movie doesn’t follow the normal alien theme and could target many other audiences. The movie can appeal to people who enjoy action movies and people who like drama movies as it contains many elements of that.
