Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Is your message clear?

Yesterday I wrote a review of the movie District 9 that has offended a few people. Seems the movie has some really important message about apartheid. I had no clue. My review still stands though. The movie was a total bummer and I don’t like getting hammered over the head with heavy drama when I am expecting to be entertained. The thing you must now think about is why did most viewers of the movie not have a clue that it was going to be a pseudo-documentary about something as heavy as apartheid? I am pretty damn sure that most had no clue going into it or even after the movie was played. This means that the movie was more of a failure than I originally thought. If they had a message they thought was so important why didn’t they make the message more clear? Why? because they knew that the movie would have not been seen by even a tenth of the amount of people. Maybe their own greed got in the way of this message that was so important?

I mention this to make one point clear to you bands. if you have a message, make that message clear. Don’t be a wuss and hide it like the people behind this movie did. Especially if it is such an important message. Say it loud and say it proud!

Now let me make this clear, I in no way mean to belittle the importance of apartheid. I do however mean to belittle the extremely massive ego’s of people that get on their high horse and look down on me because I didn’t get some really vague message buried under a movie that didn’t offer what the previews suggested it would. I listened to more podcasts than I can count that talked about the movie and not one mentioned apartheid. I watched every promo I could find on the movie and never once saw a mention of apartheid. I heard interviews with Peter Jackson and he never mentioned apartheid. Not one movie poster says anything about apartheid. Like 99% of the people that went this weekend, if I would have known it was going to be SECRETLY about apartheid I would have stayed home. Not because I don’t care about apartheid, but because I don’t need to be beat over the head with the message that it is bad. I already know it is bad.

Rage Against The Machine talked all the time about how their songs had some big heavy message. You want to know why? Because they knew that no one would have a clue otherwise. It is not my fault that the creators of this movie let their greed get the best of them. it is not my fault that they let the message get so buried that the great majority have no clue that it is secretly about apartheid. Of course maybe I am wrong since that has happened more times than I care to count as well. So I am making a poll. Please send this message to as many people as possible. I want to know how many people had a clue that this movie had something to do with apartheid. If nothing else we can do what the movie makers obviously failed to do. Get their message out. It is an important message after all…which would explain why it was such a bummer of a movie.

Ok, there needs to be two categories where SciFi used to be. There seems to be a trend in scifi to be overly melodramatic. What got me into scifi was that it was a fun escape from real life. Real life sucks so bad that we need these escapes. We need something that is FUN! District 9 was well done for what it was, but the thing was a total bummer! It was simply no fun. Let’s compare the original Star Wars to District 9. Can you count how many times Star Wars made you laugh? How about Firefly? That show cracked me up more than most comedies. Even Hellboy had a ton of laughs. So if you are expecting to have a good time avoid District 9. If you want to have fun avoid District 9. If you want a total bummer of a movie that leaves you exhausted and maybe a little depressed, go see this movie now! If you like being beat over the head with extremely heavy drama and conflict go see District 9.

Now I also hated the recent reboot of Battlestar Galactica for the same reasons, so I am sure there will be many who rave about how great District 9 is. It was original I will give it that. I have heard that the biggest complaint about Transformer 2 is that there are too many jokes and it is too lighthearted. So just like those reviews makes me want to go see Transformer 2, this review will probably make some excited about what to me was a complete downer. For those people I give the following positive tidbits on District 9. The previews do nothing to prepare you. Hell, there are many scenes in the trailer below that are not even in the movie! The movie is done like a documentary. Imagine the BBC doing a documentary on a million aliens being evicted from a slum in Johannesburg and you get the basic idea. It is very well done and Peter Jackson has proved that he still has a few more tricks up his sleeve. It is a very unique and original way to approach scifi. The bug like aliens are very well done and you do forget at times that it is CGI. They do have a robot of sorts that is obviously strongly influenced by the first Transformers movie. The storyline is a story about the underdog fighting the powerful. There are great underlining messages about racism that are done well. I just think the whole thing is depressing and doesn’t offer any escape from the depressing world we currently live in already.

So I wouldn’t say this movie is total garbage. It just all depends on what you are looking for when you go to the movies. If you are the type that want something that is full of really heavy drama and leaves you feeling like you need to watch classic Tex Avery cartoons for a few hours to avoid slighting your wrists, this is your movie! I highly recommend watching it on the big screen. If you are looking for a fun escape of pure fun, a few laughs, and a lighthearted story, stay at home and watch your Firefly, Star Wars, Hellboy, and Eureka DVDs instead. Hell, even the show Heroes. is a better escape but I could list scifi entertainment I prefer for hours and hours. This just wasn’t my thing. If it is your kind of scifi, can we create a new term to separate the two approaches? I could have done without Peter Jackson hitting me over the head with an over sized hammer for two hours. Can you drama queens start using Syfi instead?