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You expected him to be a transforming robot or something?
He's unapologetic and honestly I don't think he does learn anything. The only reason he saved Christopher was to save himself becoming a Prawn.
Earlier he proved he cannot pilot an alien ship and if he were to go back to the alien home world I doubt they'd help him.
To me you take from movies what you will.
I don't think that's true. He is prepared to sacrifice himself at the end to protect his alien friends son.
There's been a complete character arc.
The originality in the film is not in the major story arc. It lies in its subversive qualities, making the human political system and humans the enemy in a way I've not seen before.
It just goes further than any other film to show humans brutality. The killing of the babies was absolutely shocking and hit harder than anything I've seen in a Sci-Fi film or pretty much anything I've seen full stop.
It was original in the way Tarantino filsm are. It borrowed ideas from multiples sources to create a fresh whole.
It's a great film. Really inspirational for me as a filmmaker as well. Just so raw, but attainable at the same time.
Peter Jackson makes Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles and Braindead (Dead Alive), three of the greatest movies ever made. Makes it big, does LOTR trilogy, wins more Academy Awards than any Hollywood or arthouse director in history. Makes it bigger, does King Kong for $200,000,000, gets paid $20 million dollars, a bigger salary than any Hollywood director in history... and at the end of the day, the guy is gracious enough to give a first-time director the chance to make any movie he wants with no creative restraints on a genuine Hollywood budget. The result. A pretty damn impressive sci-fi flick.
This is why Peter Jackson is God. In fact, take away District 9, King Kong, LOTR... still God. Dead Alive is the greatest zombie movie ever made. I don't care what anyone says.
That said, I had mixed feelings about this one. Surprisingly, I thought Avatar was a better film even though its obviously pansy in comparison. Seriously. Cute, sexy blue Pandora natives in a gorgeous glow-in-the-dark alien rainforest vs. hideous insectoid freaks in a junkyard slum. Which one are you going to take your kids to see? This is the stuff I loved about District 9. Sci-fi movies for the past 20 years or so have been about flash. Even The Matrix which holds a very dark future for mankind. District 9 has complete disregard for flash. The film is gritty, brutal, messy and repulsive. No Jar-Jar Binks here. The prawns are the grossest aliens I've seen since Predator and yet they have enough emotion that you cared about them. The visuals were amazing as well yet still completely against the norm. A very hostile, borderline-cyberpunk environment. Not to mention there were more guts flying around than lasers. I really wish there was more down-and-dirty sci-fi out there.
I did have some issues with the dialogue. It wasn't particularly bad but it felt lazy at times and melodrama was abundant. The scenes with Wikus trying to talk to his wife were nonsense. After what'd been publicized about Wikus's exploits, I don't think she'd ever want to talk to him ever again. Same goes for Christopher's promises made to Wikus. Frankly, he owed this guy nothing. He was a scumbag, betrayed Christopher numerous times and never genuinely cared about him. I think a lot of the characters made some pretty bad decisions throughout.
That said, I didn't have the problems with Wikus others have had so far. He was a scumbag and a coward, absolutely. Very few redeeming qualities. That said, I wouldn't have had it any other way. He was in charge of keeping the prawns as far from humans as possible. His job practically required him to see them as lesser beings. Scum. Then all of a sudden, he's one of them. One of the very creatures he's come to hate. He's completely shunned by his own kind and has no choice but to turn to the creatures he despises for help. I think he acted in a perfectly natural way given the circumstances.
The documentary stuff was decent and I think the film segwayed into action pretty seemlessly. It wouldn't been interesting to see how it would've turned out if they stuff to the mockumentary format the whole way through.
Overall, I went into District 9 with very few expectations and I think I was both pleasantly surprised and disappointed. Surprised because it was the kind of gritty, down-and-dirty sci-fi I'd like to see more of. Back to its roots so to speak. Alien, Blade Runner, even Total Recall which wasn't all that great. Disappointed because it wasn't better than a sci-fi film that was blatantly mainstream, politically correct and universally accessible. Still, excellent film I think.