Film: District 9

[clearspira]

This is a great movie. And part of the reason why it is so great is the fact that there are no correct answers. Because whilst a lot of the problems are due to the humans - and they are assholes don't think i'm downplaying that - the fact is that the prawns are USELESS. They don't work. They don't produce. They don't seem to be creative, or artistic, or cultured. They are just there, consuming the resources of a place that clearly doesn't have enough to go around. Anyone who has ever tried to link this to real migrants or Apartheid do miss this point as real migrants can get jobs and can contribute to society. Its not hard to hate someone who really does give back nothing.

And this BTW is why the ''workers without a queen'' theory is suspect to me. Even headless, the workers of an intergalactic spaceship should be more competent than this. There should be more than just one prawn trying to rebuild their ship. And what cements this idea is that an ant colony or a beehive without a queen doesn't just shut down. They still go about their jobs. I think this is a criminal transport or, perhaps even more likely, that they are soldier drones without a queen. Look at how professionally the ones who do have guns use those guns. Look at how quick to anger they are, how easily they overpower the humans. And why are there so many high-powered guns and fighting mechs on board? Maybe this actually was an invasion fleet... just a thought.

The decision to make the prawns look like aliens was also a great idea. Imagine if these aliens were completely unchanged from their current portrayal... but all of them looked liked Orion slave girls. We would be falling over ourselves to help them. Which again does cycle back to the humans being complete assholes. Our empathy is limited by what you produce - be that money or sex.

And it really is in it its favour that its not another ''America saves the world'' movie. Every alien race in the universe seems to be sexually attracted to Washington DC or New York.

[Madner Kami]

And this BTW is why the ''workers without a queen'' theory is suspect to me. Even headless, the workers of an intergalactic spaceship should be more competent than this.

They very clearly are more capable than this. Red couldn't have burried the shuttle in time, before the humans, who saw it detach (it's mentioned in the movie), could have been where it landed, if he were all alone. It's also very much implied, that the shacks were built by the prawns and they learned the human language to a high functioning degree, which is shown in the movie and implied through the legal roombamajig, which would be even more worthless than it is, if they couldn't even write their own name. They also clearly understand and work in hierarchies, as they interact with the nigerians in a very organized way.

It's simply down to nobody bothering with trying to integrate them into a mutually benefitial way, plus them likely withholding the knowledge about their technology (what little they appear to know).

[MrEvers]

...aaaand it's blocked

[TGLS]

...aaaand it's blocked

Seems territorial for the moment.

[phantom000]

And this BTW is why the ''workers without a queen'' theory is suspect to me. Even headless, the workers of an intergalactic spaceship should be more competent than this. There should be more than just one prawn trying to rebuild their ship. And what cements this idea is that an ant colony or a beehive without a queen doesn't just shut down. They still go about their jobs. I think this is a criminal transport or, perhaps even more likely, that they are soldier drones without a queen. Look at how professionally the ones who do have guns use those guns. Look at how quick to anger they are, how easily they overpower the humans. And why are there so many high-powered guns and fighting mechs on board? Maybe this actually was an invasion fleet... just a thought.

I don't know about that, soldiers seem like they would require a great deal more social structure then what we see in the film. If that were the case District 9 would look more like a barracks (okay, an improvised barracks but still a barracks) with buildings clearly organized and life within strictly regimented and doubt even the mafia would casually murder one of them right in the middle of the distract as that would likely provoke a mass retaliation (soldiers aren't really trained to simply ignore threats to themselves or their comrades). Even without a commander, which a chain of command is supposed to prevent, they would still likely fall into old patterns of behavior.

I lean more towards workers since they are not animals, they are clearly intelligent and reasoning creatures but they seem to lack any drive beyond survival and reproduction. They can build advanced weapons, so they clearly understand science and technology which they barter for food so they can grasp the concept of trade but there is no sign they are trying to build a farm to grow their own food. Red Vest seems to be an exception, maybe an odd mutation or maybe he learned from interacting with humans but he still seems to be driven by the need to look after his child.

[Mabus]

I never saw the trailers for the film at the time, and only heard about the film from other people, so I only saw it years later. It's a really good film with a unique aesthetic, it's raw and dirty. Also, kind of nice to see the main character not be some know it all hero, he makes all kinds of stupid mistakes since he's way above his head.

Also, that "Holy shit!" from the gangster was the actor's genuine reaction to the air compressor prop having a bit too much power when it blew a hole through the wall. Which I suppose it fits well in the film, given that most of it was improvised by the actors and Blomkamp kept everything. They even filmed in the abandoned slums of Johannesburg, which is kind of metal.

I am curious about one thing though: given how easy the prawns traded their guns & tech for cat food, how come there weren't any CIA or FSB or Mossad or MI6 or MSS agents driving entire trucks of the stuff to District 9 to buy their tech? Or at the very least re-buy the stuff from the crime lords in exchange for other stuff, since I doubt any country would have allowed such advanced tech to stay in the hands of warlords or shady corporations, regardless if they can use it or not. The MNU was not able to understand the prawn tech even after years of studying it, and even if the world's governments somehow secretly agreed to let MNU do the dirty work for them, you'd think that after years of no results, they'd decide to take matters into their own hands, since it's clear that the MNU was probably just siphoning their funds into their own pockets rather than use them to properly study the alien tech.

[Thebestoftherest]

Assuming they didn't give them like half the guns and have the other half be well made fakes, if you don't understand the tech you wouldn't be able to tell the different.

[McAvoy]

It's both familiar and different at the same time while entertaining where I want a sequel. That's my view on it.