District 9: Internet sensation or mediocre sci-fi?

[The Fake Shemp]

My friends are going to the Arclight screening tonight, so I guess I'll have personal confirmation today.  I'm always wary when AICN begins to hype something as "the best film of its kind in several decades", usually followed by Harry Knowles talking about watching a 35mm print of some movie nobody has ever heard of.

[Phoenix Dark]

Is this the friend who saved our non-Kentuckian members $10 on Harry Potter?

[Great Rumbler]

Should be better than any other scifi movie this year, except possibly Moon.

[The Fake Shemp]

lol transformers

It'll probably be better than Transformers 2!

... That "friend" that badmouthed Harry Potter was Synthesizer Patel, Maurice.

[Tauntaun]

Should be better than any other scifi movie this year, except possibly Moon.

I forgot about that movie.   

sci-fi

[Kestastrophe]

Going to see it this weekend with the wife, I will be satisfied if it manages to not suck.

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

Why don't we give it the same coronation as Killzone 2:

Internet sensation AND mediocre sci-fi

[The Fake Shemp]

 

[tiesto]

Want to see this pretty bad, didn't realize that there was a whole internet sensation about the film, I just saw the trailer before Terminator and thought it looked interesting. Still holding out hope that AVATAR lives up to the hype.

[dammitmattt]

I think it looks fantastic so far, and more importantly, it looks completely different than 99% of what we get out of Hollywood these days.  It will be especially welcome after this summer of mostly shitty blockbusters.  Thank God that there's so much good TV right now.  Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Friday Night Lights got me through the summer since Hollywood failed me this year.

[Diunx]

Should be better than any other scifi movie this year, except possibly Moon.

Dude AVATAR.

[muckhole]

The teaser trailer for it really had me sold, but the full trailer just didn't quite grab me as much. Still cautiously optomistic though.

[Great Rumbler]

Should be better than any other scifi movie this year, except possibly Moon.

Dude AVATAR.

I keep forgetting that it even exists, or at least that it's actually coming out this year.

James Cameron hype train FAIL.

[BlueTsunami]

I have faith in this movie 

I've relegated Avatar to the possible mediocre sci-fi and internet sensation.

[Joe Molotov]

Want to see this pretty bad, didn't realize that there was a whole internet sensation about the film, I just saw the trailer before Terminator and thought it looked interesting. Still holding out hope that AVATAR lives up to the hype.

It's directed by the guy that was going to direct the Halo movie before it got cancelled, and it's based on the short film he directed that made the rounds on the internet back when his name was announced as the Halo director. I think that's where the Internet hype comes from, that and it looks pretty awesome.

[ManaByte]

The #1 reality-based opinion of Avatar coming out of Comic Con:

LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Hell, I heard more than one person complain that the CGI in Avatar wasn't that good. That it looked too much like a Dreamworks animated movie and less like ILM running around with millions of dollars. Digital Domain fail.

[ManaByte]

BTW the same people hyping District 9 to no end are the same people who were humping the Cloverfield hype train.

[Joe Molotov]

Sounds like a winner, then.

[Great Rumbler]

The #1 reality-based opinion of Avatar coming out of Comic Con:

LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS

From "OMG CAMERON IS GOD BEST MOVIE EVER BRAIN EXPLODES" to "Holy Moses, this is some awesome stuff!", yes.

BTW the same people hyping District 9 to no end are the same people who were humping the Cloverfield hype train.

Very little about those movies seem at all similar.

[The Fake Shemp]

I thought Cloverfield was fun, especially for January fare.

[Great Rumbler]

I thought Cloverfield was fun, especially for January fare.

Yeah, I don't get the "hate" for it. It's a monster movie set at the ground level. Some of the stuff at the beginning, like the never-ending party, was stupid, but once things got going, it was a pretty fun ride.

[CajoleJuice]

Put me in on the side that enjoyed Cloverfield.

And yeah, I want to see this.

[Human Snorenado]

I want to see this and thought Cloverfield blew.

[brawndolicious]

Cloverfield was just good fun, horrible ending though.  And I think Quarantine was some sort of actual sequel to it but there's not really any direct connections and now I'm worrying that there's a lot of cool stuff in there that I can't understand because of hush-hush hype psycho trilogy bullshit or something.

But I think this movie looks cool.

[Mr. Gundam]

I think Quarantine was some sort of actual sequel to it

Quarantine is an American remake of [REC], it has no relation to Cloverfield.

[brawndolicious]

I would not have guessed that.  With both of them being thrillers shot in first-person.  I think quarantine would actually work as a sequel to cloverfield though.

[Great Rumbler]

I would not have guessed that.  With both of them being thrillers shot in first-person.

Wha-?

[The Fake Shemp]

I would not have guessed that.  With both of them being thrillers shot in first-person.  I think quarantine would actually work as a sequel to cloverfield though.

Seriously, dude, are you mildly distinguished mentally-challenged?

[Human Snorenado]

I would not have guessed that.  With both of them being thrillers shot in first-person.  I think quarantine would actually work as a sequel to cloverfield though.

Seriously, dude, are you mildly distinguished mentally-challenged?

Whoa whoa whoa.  Not cool, Federman.

MILDLY?

[The Fake Shemp]

But seriously, that's like saying you thought Corky Romano was the sequel to The Godfather, because they both have mobsters.

Except am nintenho's comparison is even worse!

[fistfulofmetal]

i still maintain that Made is a sequel to Swingers. fuck everyone who disagrees

[The Fake Shemp]

I'd argue that it's at least the spiritual successor to Swingers.  But that's not a crazy allegation - they feature the same cast and crew!

Much like The Sting is a spiritual successor to Butch Cassidy.

[CajoleJuice]

I always thought Goodfellas was the sequel to the theatrical version of Blade Runner, since they both feature narration.

[The Fake Shemp]

 

[brawndolicious]

Uh..that's not really a good example.  Cloverfield had a very "conspiracy theorist" geared hype campaign, I think the first commercials didn't even mention the name of the movie because they wanted you to go into it with as little info as possible.  And then the movie barely explained what the monster is before it ended ABRUPTLY, so it made me think that there must be a sequel coming along.  About a year later we get Quarantine, same genre and the exact same gimmick that I had only seen in one other movie, and even a very shitty ending.  Plus it had that government doomsday cover-up angle sort of so it kind of felt like they were going for the exact same audience.

If you were shown both movies back-to-back and you knew nothing about them beforehand, you might guess that there was some sort of connection.

[Great Rumbler]

Cloverfield - New York City gets torn up by a giant monster and people flee from it.

Quarantine - People get trapped inside an apartment that's sealed up by the government and weird monsters/zombies menace them.

Yeah, you're right, they're pretty much exactly the same.

[Great Rumbler]

both movies were forgettable and rather boring, so i can see the confusion.

Cloverfield was forgettable, but most of it wasn't boring.

[Solo]

D9 has long since hit and surpassed the distinguished mentally-challenged level of hyperbolic hype that makes me hate the internet. At this point it pretty much needs to fellate me to live up to the praise.

[Great Rumbler]

D9 has long since hit and surpassed the distinguished mentally-challenged level of hyperbolic hype that makes me hate the internet. At this point it pretty much needs to fellate me to live up to the praise.

You're thinking of Avatar.

Also, D9 just got it's first negative review. Any guesses as to which reviewer it was? It's our good buddy Armond White! 

[Solo]

Nope, Im thinking of D9. The only hyperbole for Avatar is coming from Jim Cameron and Scullibundo over at GAF. Otherwise, its not getting a lot of buzz. D9 on the other hand has been christened the lord and savior of sci-fi for the past few months.

[BlueTsunami]

Its gonna rock your dick, Solo. YOUR DICK.

[Robo]

Armond White wrote up a scathing review.

http://www.nypress.com/article-20206-from-mothership-to-bullship.html

it must be AWESOME   

[Tauntaun]

Nope, Im thinking of D9. The only hyperbole for Avatar is coming from Jim Cameron and Scullibundo over at GAF. Otherwise, its not getting a lot of buzz. D9 on the other hand has been christened the lord and savior of sci-fi for the past few months.

I never heard about this movie 'til recently, I accidentally stumbled on its trailer on youtube. AVATAR on the other hand is in my face wherever I go, ugh.

Really?  I don't see much for Avatar in NY.  Maybe I'm tarded.   

[Joe Molotov]

Nope, Im thinking of D9. The only hyperbole for Avatar is coming from Jim Cameron and Scullibundo over at GAF. Otherwise, its not getting a lot of buzz. D9 on the other hand has been christened the lord and savior of sci-fi for the past few months.

Well, GI Joe's still showing. Have fun!

[twerd]

I'll be there Friday. It's the first movie I can remember being excited for pre-release in a while.

[Veidt]

[Great Rumbler]

Some words of wisdom from Armond White:

Let’s see if the Spielberg bashers put-off by the metaphysics in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be as offended by District 9’s mangled anthropology.

District 9 represents the sloppiest and dopiest pop cinema—the kind that comes from a second-rate film culture. No surprise, this South African fantasia from director Neill Blomkamp was produced by the intellectually juvenile New Zealander Peter Jackson.

This contemporaryset dystopic, sci-fi flick never becomes fun. (Michael Bay bashers who stupidly complain about the cultural-status of the twin Autobots in Transformers 2 should park their rectitude here.)

G.I. Joe's unabashed appeal to the pop-commercial synapses also demonstrates livelier filmmaking than such utter banality as Iron Man and Star Trek and Harry Potter’s Half-Blooded Chintz.

With inconsistent and arbitrary affectation, they demean defensible movies like Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe as if to deny that what used to be called “mass culture” has, generally, lost its former standards.

None of its stunts are especially witty—and real distinctions must be made for Transporter 3 and Torque's superior pop art—but G.I. Joe’s in the same innocuous class as the Laura Croft and Thunderbirds movies. It has the spirit of Saturday Afternoon toy commercials, even to the extent of extolling basic American values: the very realistic appreciation of militarism as a foundation for capitalist freedom that supplies delight in both G.I. Joe and Transformers 2. There’s more realpolitik here than in the now-overrated The Hurt Locker.

Sommers isn’t quite in Michael Bay’s directorial class, but he has the ability to envision a nightmare and spin it into a provocative coup the Surrealists wouldn’t dare.

This Eiffel Tower image also recalls the postmodern epigraph that closes Godard’s In Praise of Love : “I will go to my grave with more visions than man has previously ever known.” The trashy secret of G.I. Joe is its ironic capitalizing on the fact that awesome, dread-filled visions don’t necessarily destroy childhood innocence. Seeing the Eiffel Tower fall is part of loving it (which could not be said of the World Trade Center). The Brothers Grimm understood.

 

[CajoleJuice]

I wish I could be paid to troll.

[Solo]

wow, Solo dinging something for internet hype

Im all about hyping the shit out of something if Ive actually seen it and loved it. Im talking about this hype from people who havent seen anything more than a trailer before placing it above 2001 or Blade Runner or whatever.

Nope, Im thinking of D9. The only hyperbole for Avatar is coming from Jim Cameron and Scullibundo over at GAF. Otherwise, its not getting a lot of buzz. D9 on the other hand has been christened the lord and savior of sci-fi for the past few months.

Well, GI Joe's still showing. Have fun!

I saw it. And I did  

[Great Rumbler]

wow, Solo dinging something for internet hype

Im all about hyping the shit out of something if Ive actually seen it and loved it. Im talking about this hype from people who havent seen anything more than a trailer before placing it above 2001 or Blade Runner or whatever.

Take it up with the people who are actually saying it, then.

[Solo]

wow, Solo dinging something for internet hype

Im all about hyping the shit out of something if Ive actually seen it and loved it. Im talking about this hype from people who havent seen anything more than a trailer before placing it above 2001 or Blade Runner or whatever.

Take it up with the people who are actually saying it, then.

Is not the thread asking whether its an internet sensation or not? Im simply giving my 0.02.

[The Fake Shemp]

Just got off the phone with my buddies who saw it last night:

"It's one of the best popcorn flicks of the summer, but considering the summer, that's not saying much."

"Turns into an action film half way in."

"The main character is not likeable whatsoever."

"It's not 'this generation's' anything. People comparing it to Blade Runner need to get shot."

"Director shows promise, but this also feels like a filmmaker's first, real feature."

"Pay matinee price."

[muckhole]

"Turns into an action film half way in."

  This is what worried me after the second trailer.

[Diunx]

"Turns into an action film half way in."

Awesome.

[The Fake Shemp]

The upside is that they said they've seen only two other mainstream films that they've enjoyed more (that's kind of a back-handed compliment considering how awful this summer has been, though). It is apparently not Transformers/GI Joe awful.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm going to see this tomorrow at the midnight showing, after getting up at 5:00 am, driving to Grapevine, standing in line for several hours, setting up my computer at Quakecon, spazzing out on a bunch of LAN gaming, and downing a few Bawls.

[anthonyOA]

Just got off the phone with my buddies who saw it last night:

"It's one of the best popcorn flicks of the summer, but considering the summer, that's not saying much."

"Turns into an action film half way in."

"The main character is not likeable whatsoever."

"It's not 'this generation's' anything. People comparing it to Blade Runner need to get shot."

"Director shows promise, but this also feels like a filmmaker's first, real feature."

"Pay matinee price."

hmmm i was looking forward to this in a kind of "this could have been halo" way.

whatever, it's gotta be better than Signs (m.shymyalyananaahn <--- there's a silent "h" in there)

[Human Snorenado]

So what's the verdict on this?

[Tucah]

Just got off the phone with my buddies who saw it last night:

"It's one of the best popcorn flicks of the summer, but considering the summer, that's not saying much."

"Turns into an action film half way in."

"The main character is not likeable whatsoever."

"It's not 'this generation's' anything. People comparing it to Blade Runner need to get shot."

"Director shows promise, but this also feels like a filmmaker's first, real feature."

"Pay matinee price."

I saw this last night and completely agree with every one of these.

[Dickie Dee]

It's kinda hard to gauge reactions to this as alot of people are embracing it as a palate cleanser to what was the horrid aftertaste of TF2.