Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

New trailer for District 9 has been posted online.

District 9 Trailer 2

I have to say that for once, Hollywood is really playing the promotion game well with District 9. Columbia and Sony are really marketing this thing smartly rather than just hitting everyone over the head with the typical cliched "In a world where..." trailers and dumb crap. District 9 has been skillfully teased with posters and viral marketing, passed through word of mouth and disseminated over the net for months. It’s got this great print promotion, where you’ll see random posters and billboards of District 9 with a very eye-catching graphic design all over your city. It’s getting to the point of subliminal propagation. Almost everyone has seen something of District 9 for most of the year, but few realize it and even fewer know anything about it. It’s making the potential audience incredibly curious.

This latest trailer is filled with tension and suspense. I gotta say, for better or worse, the promotion for District 9 has really dug under my skin. I'm curious to see this film in spite of myself. Clever work.

Oh, OK, this is the Alien Nation reimagining with the aliens with sexually explicit mouthparts, right?!


Just kidding. I hope to catch this one, too. Haven't heard or seen anything about it over here, though. (Maybe there's stuff in Tokyo, but I don't go there. Teg, seen anything? )

Yeah!!!! I'm looking forward to this and now it's got Mecha.

SandChigger wrote:Oh, OK, this is the Alien Nation reimagining with the aliens with sexually explicit mouthparts, right?!

Well that depends. I guess in your neck of the woods, they mate with tarantula orifices

inhuien wrote:Yeah!!!! I'm looking forward to this and now it's got Mecha.

I knooooow. It just keeps getting better. All they need now is an alien ripping out Michael Bay's throat and we've got a good candidate for film of the decade!

The trailer looks great, hopefully the movie is as good.

I'm also really, really, really liking the choice of South Africa as the setting, given their history.

I saw the trailer today, it looks silly, like it should be a comedy or something.

Hmm... that doesn't look like the movie I was expecting...

(Still quite up for it though )

Here's the short that D9 is based on, clicky.

Ive been waiting for this on pins and needles. I was in L.A. a few weeks ago and there were several of those building sized posters for this film. They were everywhere.

I'm digging the marketing, too. Instead of marginalizing the film with "THE ACTION EVENT OF THE SUMMER" crap, it's more subtle, almost propaganda.

inhuien wrote:Here's the short that D9 is based on, clicky.

That was good for such a zero budget short film. I like that the setting has remained the same as the short film in the new feature film.

We got in several stick em's for this movie ot place on the doors, windows, mirrors, etc.

The basic theme is Non-Humans not allowed. The one we put in the mens restroom says non-human waste may be explosive, they obviously have not dealt with the sub -strata of humanity that makes up our customer base.

There is also a toll free phone number that if you call provides info on how to go about reporting non-humans.

Compared to other campaigns this summer, this one is damn smart and a hell of a lot of fun.

Rob

I saw a new ad for this tonight. It was an emergency broadcast (in an American accented voice) that aliens had busted out and were causing trouble.

I've only seen the ad on TV that's like a government public service announcement

took several times to pay attention & see it was a movie, figured it was
another video game

I agree, clever, new, fresh, good ideas ....

too bad the same concept will be beat into the ground in the coming years ...

the story in there seems almost like a parody/commentary on apartheid to a degree. i wonder if some of those themes will be explored in district 9

Yea, i'm really excited to see where they take this movie. With the setting being in South Africa it's at least obvious it's going to have the apartheid themes. This movie has the potential to be a great film.

Hmmmm...it "looks" ok...we'll see if it has depth...

Hells yeah!

Now this is what I liked to hear

A glowing early review of "District 9" from Io9.com

Been watching this one from afar, Was hoping it wasn't going to be "alien nation" revisited, although I liked that film for the most part. This looks a lot different and better done. That review sounds pretty straight forward.

I'm on vacation the last part of August, so will most likely slip out and see it:)

Wonder if its to late to get Jackson and this new fellow on board and they could take over for Berg for Dune remake? Wishful thinking I guess.

Kagemusha wrote:

the story in there seems almost like a parody/commentary on apartheid to a degree. i wonder if some of those themes will be explored in district 9

Yea, i'm really excited to see where they take this movie. With the setting being in South Africa it's at least obvious it's going to have the apartheid themes. This movie has the potential to be a great film.

The apartheid theme seems more forced than productive to me.

Yeah. People are stupid. I get it. But is anyone else going to get it? "Racism is dead." "We're past that." "That sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore." I'm sorry, but the only people to get the point, if it's as obvious as the trailer makes it out to be, wont need the movie to tell them so.

Redstar wrote:

Kagemusha wrote:

the story in there seems almost like a parody/commentary on apartheid to a degree. i wonder if some of those themes will be explored in district 9

Yea, i'm really excited to see where they take this movie. With the setting being in South Africa it's at least obvious it's going to have the apartheid themes. This movie has the potential to be a great film.

The apartheid theme seems more forced than productive to me.

Yeah. People are stupid. I get it. But is anyone else going to get it? "Racism is dead." "We're past that." "That sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore." I'm sorry, but the only people to get the point, if it's as obvious as the trailer makes it out to be, wont need the movie to tell them so.

The point is about how they come out of it at the end. Do they take away any lessons from the conflict of the movie. Nobody can judge that until they see the movie, because its not in the trailers. I personally cannot wait.

Omphalos wrote:

Redstar wrote:

Kagemusha wrote:

the story in there seems almost like a parody/commentary on apartheid to a degree. i wonder if some of those themes will be explored in district 9

Yea, i'm really excited to see where they take this movie. With the setting being in South Africa it's at least obvious it's going to have the apartheid themes. This movie has the potential to be a great film.

The apartheid theme seems more forced than productive to me.

Yeah. People are stupid. I get it. But is anyone else going to get it? "Racism is dead." "We're past that." "That sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore." I'm sorry, but the only people to get the point, if it's as obvious as the trailer makes it out to be, wont need the movie to tell them so.

The point is about how they come out of it at the end. Do they take away any lessons from the conflict of the movie. Nobody can judge that until they see the movie, because its not in the trailers. I personally cannot wait.

I realize the trailers are made by people other than the director and writer, so it's not an accurate portrayal of what the movie's ultimate theme and message is. I'm excited for the film, and have been following it for over a year now, (maybe even two), and am confident it'll satisfy in the right ways.

Saw it tonight. Pure awesome sauce.
I'll post a better review when I have some time tomorrow.

District 9 (2009)

District 9 is a story about alien visitation to Earth. A group of over a million alien beings arrive in a gigantic gravity-defying spacecraft that has met with mechanical failure, necessitating the aliens habitation near their landing site in South Africa. Unprepared and at times unwilling, the humans accommodate the aliens in a segregated area called district 9. Managed by a multinational corporation called MNU, the living conditions in district 9 falter and most of the aliens live in squalor. In an effort to alleviate inter-species tensions and poverty after nearly two decades of makeshift housing of the aliens, recently promoted MNU employee Wikus van der Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley) is given the task of relocating the alien population to a new district 10 located several hundred kilometers away from Johannesburg.

District 9 does not sell itself on the strength of the fictional science, which ranges from plausible to outright fantasy. Rather, the film floats upon the power of the viscerally violent action, the wonderfully performed drama and the intense issue-infused subtext. Or is it subtext at all? Through use of the visually revolting aliens derogatorily referred to as “prawns”, District 9 vividly places at its forefront a story grappling with such issues as racism, war, immigration, integration and poverty. The film’s setting placed in Johannseburg, South Africa provides not only a relevant social geography for the issues explored in the story but also a welcome creative vacation from more conventional North American-centric alien visitations.

District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is offering promise with his first full length feature. Shot and staged largely in a documentary-like style, District 9 plays like both a linear drama and a talking-head retrospective of that same story. While the film is interesting and always visually dynamic, the script is lacking in pacing and at times the story drags. The script also relies a bit too much upon convention and the staples of the science fiction genre. Yet District 9 is hard to fault when the conventions are used for such worthwhile subject matter and performed to perfection by an able cast. District 9 lead Sharlto Copley offers a solid portrayal of Wikus van der Merwe, a largely despicable MNU employee complicit in many of the film’s harrowing alien atrocities. That Sharlto’s subsequent plight and tragic choices ultimately allow us to identify with his humanity is doubly impressive praise for Copley given the initial dislike the audience feels for Wikus.

There is plenty in District 9 to please many different audiences, from action junkies and horror aficionados to socially conscious film philes and serious drama fans. Perhaps no more does District 9 service certain audience demographics than when displaying the amazing alien technology. From unusual gravity and lightning weapons to spacecraft and bipedal mecha, the toys of District 9 show heavy technical and stylistic influences from such notable video games as Valve Software’s Half-Life 2. A final nod must also be given to the competency of the special effects, particularly the alien “prawns” which are created via pervasive and near-seamlessly integrated CGI throughout the film.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Not as creative or innovative as it might be billed, District 9 is nonetheless stand out science fiction, engaging action adventure, important filmmaking and serious drama that audiences won't want to miss.