On Violence

If I had to complain about District 9, I would complain about the last quarter of the film. It turns into an action film, which I enjoyed, but i could see that as a bit distracting.

Nevertheless, I loved it. Perfect sci-fi as an analogy for the real world.

Good review and commentary. Interesting to hear this from a soldier, too.

I really liked District 9 for the real-world and cultural issues. I work with indigenous communities here in British Columbia so the Aboriginal and community element struck a cord with me.

Cultural misunderstandings and settling with ignorance leads to unnecessary stress (and perhaps death and war) for all sides.

I agree with Eric on the last few minutes. When watching though, the depiction of how the aliens were treated and dealt with did seem fairly realistic. Great insight Michael. Is District 9 a better picture than Up though? I say no.

District 9 isn’t better than the first montage in up, but it is better than Up overall. Avatar is better than Up too.

Regarding the action scene, it is a great final thirty minutes.

Very true about smells and sounds… they are so much more difficult to shut out than vision!

Now here’s a really provocative one:
Are you really sure that humans are not aliens?!
Yep, I know Darwin… still not everybody shares that point of view and think about the geological history of earth… do you really think this planet has never been nuked before?!

I’d have to say yes, until proven otherwise.

Alright, that’s understandable.
But do you remember what Einstein said how a fourth world war would be fought? What weapons would be used?

“Sticks and stone.”

Right, Matty.
So and who’s to say that we haven’t already been in a couple of rounds of that fight? Just because we got knocked out and can’t remember?

I’m not saying your theory isn’t plausible. I’m just saying I’d like to see fossil evidence. I wouldn’t be surprised if 10,000 years from now mankind has to re-rise from a nuclear holocaust, I just think there would be some archeological evidence.

You’re right.
And for those who want to see it, they just have to look in the right places. It is there.
I remember when I was at school (about 200 years ago !)…
anyway, I went to this totally fancy school – the intellectual center of that particular country! But theories changed so quickly, there were discoveries all the time, but because our teachers weren’t normal teachers, but all had a doctor grade (higher than a PH.D.) and other titles like that, they had spent so much time at school/university that once they were done with the sour duty they didn’t feel much like staying up-to-date on their subjects… So what they taught was old news – ancient theories. Actually I’m surprised they didn’t tell us the world was flat!
I remember some of the ideas I had… they just laughed right into my face. Yet it did turn out, I was right, these are all acknowledged discoveries today. NASA wasn’t quite as blind as our teachers.
So it’s there Eric, you just gotta look for it, if it’s important to you.
And I would not only go for fossil evidence, but for radiation and look at what rather obvious marks there actually are left on the earth.

And since you guys are talking movies and aliens, I really thought “War of the worlds” had a really good message. And that’s how fast it sometimes goes. It’s something you don’t think of at all, a little fungus or a germ or a weapon you can’t imagine from your POV right now. It can go very, very fast and could be over within minutes before anyone really knows what has happened. Just perfect overwhelm – and that’s it!
And that’s also why I personally am not against all that stuff being classified, because there is no need for the public to worry about it at all – there is too much other crap like that that they can get excited about anyway… and they can always find a new conspiracy theory and another wild idea on the net if they really want to.

Sophia, you pose many interesting points questions. I too was a fan of HG Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” His conclusion about the nature of humanity’s tie to even the smallest life on this planet was intriguing. As far as previous nuclear disaster, from my studies of evolutionary biology, I’ve found nothing to suggest that humanity or any previous species used nukes prior to those dropped on Japan. Fossil records and geological data does suggest multiple astroid strikes that are classified as “global killers,” which can result in fallout similar to nuclear war, sparing the massive amounts of resulting radiation.