Don't be sad bro, you made back your tiny budget in one friggin weekend.How the fuck did they make this movie with $30 million?
I saw District 9 today because I wanted to be able to use the internet again without having anything else spoiled for me. All anyone can talk about is how awesome this movie is. I was pretty skeptical of all the hype, but holy butt, it was way better than I expected. It's a genuinely interesting story and even if that's not your cup of tea it keeps your attention with its awesome CGI aliens and sexy alien weaponry (there's lots of explosions). The lead character, Wikus, is at some points kind of a dweeb, going against the stock "all-around badass" action hero. That's not to say District 9 is cliche free, but the cliches it does have are the awesome kind. In my mind it was basically a perfect movie. THAT'S RIGHT, PERFECT. It's at the very least the best movie ever made where a guy is killed by a flying pig carcass.
Director Neill Blomkamp is from Africa but is now based in Vancouver (that's in Canada!). He has quite a bit of experience doing 3-D animation, and even worked on one of my favourite Vancouver-shot shows, Stargate SG-1, before making District 9. I'm guessing his experience doing CGI helped them be efficient and keep the total cost down. It's either that or the entire crew was made up of impoverished African children working for pennies a day. It's still mind bending, because the prawns look amazing, hands down the most realistic looking CGI aliens that I can think of.
Anyway, it's nice to see something good take #1 at the box office after a summer that had Transformers 2, GI Joe, The Proposal, Angels and Demons, and I'm going to stop listing movies now because I'm getting depressed.
After the jump, check out the original short film made by Neill Blomkamp that District 9 was based on. The effects aren't as good (and by that I mean the CGI sucks and the prawns are just people in masks with blankets on) and the short isn't even all that great, but check it out anyway.
Blomkamp, more like Blom-CHAMP, am I right? No? Okay, fine, I know where the corner is. *puts on dunce cap*
Budgets for some other weekend box office winners this summer:
GI JOE: $170 million
Transformers: $200 million
Angels and Demons: $150 million
The Proposal: $40 million
D-9 definitely has a lot going for it -- character development, great acting a at least a few people, awesome alien weapons; it felt a bit preachy at times at different times though
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