District 9 is easily one of my favorite Sci Fi movies. It takes this concept of aliens coming to our planet and spins the normal tacky invasion, end of the world scenario we are accustomed to seeing into something much more real. The concept of the aliens arriving not with a plan or course of action, but broken and crippled is so original and thought provoking. considering the movie never explains the circumstances of their condition trying to come up with theories in my head is a very satisfying (I generally find it boring when all aspects of are story are just laid out on a table for you. No fun in that). And that is only the smallest fraction of what makes this movie so interesting. It completely changes the usual idea of the human reaction to alien life. Instead of being threatened, or in a position of being inferior, humans are placed in control of these aliens that are essentially stranded on our planet. The only plot whole I see here is that the aliens show so little resistance to the the negligent nature of our care considering their more advanced tech and weaponry but, perhaps in the same way their minds seem to degenerate as they live in these slums on our planet they forget how to use their tech besides the intelligent few like Christopher Johnson and his son. Once more this is an other area to fill in the gaps with your own ideas since its not really a story breaking element but an area where you can decide to make sense of what has happened. I hope future writers take example from stories like this. Sometimes the best thing is to allow the viewer to become the writer themselves.
Film Project Log
V for Vendetta and Equilibrium are related on the basis of their overall theme. While V for Vendetta is an inherently better movie being the film adaptation of one of the best graphic novel stories of all time, written by the great Alan Moore, the two stories are linked through their message of caution of overly controlling governments and the protection of our human rights. Both stories feature male protagonists with significant combat skill, greater intelligence, and rage fueled by the leadership they were deceived by.
In V for Vendetta we follow Evey Hammond, a citizen of England in the 2030s. England at this time is ruled under a totalitarian government with High Chancellor Sutler as its leader. Evey is out walking to a co-worker after the government imposed curfew when she is confronted and assaulted by Sutlers “Fingermen”. She is saved from her potential rape by a man whose face is hidden by a mask with a likeness the Guy Fawkes of England’s Gun powder plot. The man refers to himself simply as “V”, no doubt relating to the Plot's date of November the 5th 1605 after he explains to Evey the role government should play in society, stating that “a government should fear its people, people should not fear their government”, he then reveals his plan to dismantle the current oppressing government by blowing up parliament on November 5th of the coming year and instilling a sense of courage and unity to the people of England. The movie continues as V kills several notable people in the uprising of the currently ruling political party under the High Chancellor and we are shown the horrors the party committed to obtain their role as this all ruling government. We see that through a terribly evil ploy the party utilizes an artificially engineered disease to a stage a terrorist attack that kills 80,000 people. Using the fear of further attacks to their advantage the party is elected into power promising protection. Very timely after their election a cure to the disease is released by a pharmaceutical company that we learn has ties to the party.
Comparatively Equilibrium a man, John Preston, who instead of initially being the opposition of the totalitarian government he lives under is a member of that government’s league of super enforcers, the Grammaton Clerics. Similarly to V for Vendetta, the government comes to power under their leader “Father” after the world is thrown into chaos after a third world war. The government rules under the ideology that human emotion is the root of all conflict on the planet and so all displays of emotion and artistic expression are outlawed. In order to keep their emotions in line citizens are to take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions, another similarity to V for Vendetta in that the party uses pharmaceuticals to gain the trust of the people. After John Preston's partner in the Clerics and his wife are executed for “sense offence”, or display of emotion, his own emotions are tapped and begins to refuse his daily injection of the emotion suppressing drug Prozium. After collaborating with rebellion forces to the government, Prestons goal is to kill Father in order to send a message to all people to set themselves free of the government’s grasp, similarly to V's plan of destroying parliament in order to send this same message.
V for Vendetta set the standard for dystopian thriller stories and it is clear Equilibrium follows closely in its footsteps in its process of selling its overall message that people should rule their government not the other way around.
In V for Vendetta we follow Evey Hammond, a citizen of England in the 2030s. England at this time is ruled under a totalitarian government with High Chancellor Sutler as its leader. Evey is out walking to a co-worker after the government imposed curfew when she is confronted and assaulted by Sutlers “Fingermen”. She is saved from her potential rape by a man whose face is hidden by a mask with a likeness the Guy Fawkes of England’s Gun powder plot. The man refers to himself simply as “V”, no doubt relating to the Plot's date of November the 5th 1605 after he explains to Evey the role government should play in society, stating that “a government should fear its people, people should not fear their government”, he then reveals his plan to dismantle the current oppressing government by blowing up parliament on November 5th of the coming year and instilling a sense of courage and unity to the people of England. The movie continues as V kills several notable people in the uprising of the currently ruling political party under the High Chancellor and we are shown the horrors the party committed to obtain their role as this all ruling government. We see that through a terribly evil ploy the party utilizes an artificially engineered disease to a stage a terrorist attack that kills 80,000 people. Using the fear of further attacks to their advantage the party is elected into power promising protection. Very timely after their election a cure to the disease is released by a pharmaceutical company that we learn has ties to the party.
Comparatively Equilibrium a man, John Preston, who instead of initially being the opposition of the totalitarian government he lives under is a member of that government’s league of super enforcers, the Grammaton Clerics. Similarly to V for Vendetta, the government comes to power under their leader “Father” after the world is thrown into chaos after a third world war. The government rules under the ideology that human emotion is the root of all conflict on the planet and so all displays of emotion and artistic expression are outlawed. In order to keep their emotions in line citizens are to take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions, another similarity to V for Vendetta in that the party uses pharmaceuticals to gain the trust of the people. After John Preston's partner in the Clerics and his wife are executed for “sense offence”, or display of emotion, his own emotions are tapped and begins to refuse his daily injection of the emotion suppressing drug Prozium. After collaborating with rebellion forces to the government, Prestons goal is to kill Father in order to send a message to all people to set themselves free of the government’s grasp, similarly to V's plan of destroying parliament in order to send this same message.
V for Vendetta set the standard for dystopian thriller stories and it is clear Equilibrium follows closely in its footsteps in its process of selling its overall message that people should rule their government not the other way around.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do...
Watching 2001: A Space Odyssey even more cemented my true belief that humanity will see its fall at the cold metal hands of robots. It really is one of those threats that we keep feeding rather than to precautions to, like poking an angry bear with a stick or giving a small hyperactive child a hand gun. It's the true goal to not only be sure that robots can out smart us but can get to the level where their own rational will tell them to disobey us. Why exactly do we want robots to act like humans? Sure it would be incredibly impressive to somehow clone the human psyche in to a synthetic body but at what cost to us? If we accomplish this goal then we will have incredibly smart, strong, and moody metal terrorists at large. I read an article the other day that explained how a group actually programmed a robot to get angry if you don't hug it... so the first human emotion they just taught that mechanical potential killing machine was anger... Real great job guys, really thinking ahead. Now I'm no person to be stifled and frightened by all new technology but I'd just prefer it my computer if my computer didn't get angry at me every time I shut it down for the night.
The portrayal of aliens in movies varies so much its hard to decide what might actually happen if we were to encounter some visiting species from another planet come to ours. There's such vicious monsters as the Aliens from Alien or the complete abomination that is The Thing but then there's the cute and cuddly E.T. and the wise Klaatu of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I would like to believe any species advanced enough to travel to other systems would be similar to us in the way of looking to communicate with and study things not familiar to them. Although I suppose the argument could be made that they are like us in that they are power hungry leeches looking to absorb the planets resource after running their own dry. Either way i don't see an alien species all the way to our planet simply to destroy it or for the soul purpose of killing all of us then going on their marry way. I'm just a lowly sci fi enthusiast speculating though, mean while the big guys are doing the real thinking. I a recent discussion, I stumbled upon while browsing the web, Stephen Hawking made his own theory. He speculated that if and alien race were to visit planet Earth it would be for Conquest, similarly to the Spanish coming to the new world. The would be extremely hostile and take what was our as their own, either for colonization or simply for resources as i mentioned before.I would like to believe he is wrong or that hopefully we are the advanced beings stumbling on to the planet of a slightly more primitive race and are nice to them. Show them our awesome tech and BAM new alien buddies.
What have you done?!
I have never been much of a novel read and am definitely guilty of the response "I'll wait for the movie to come out" but now that I have read some of these sci fi novels of which I had previously seen the movie adaptations of, I am starting to understand why all those reading nerds out there are so apprehensive when the movie version of their favorite book is announced. Now that I have read Jurassic Park the movie is completely ruined for me due to the absence of some key thought provoking ideas explained in the book and now that I have read Sandkings I can truly see how monstrously unjust the movie was to such a great and disturbing story. And once more I now find my self in the shoes of those sad book nerds QQing about their favorite books being ruined on the silver screen when I learned that Ender's Game will be receiving attention in Hollywood. You become protective of these works as if they were your child or best friend about to be taken from you. The images you once created in your head when imagining how the protagonist stood are robbed from you and replaced by the director's image. The little tidbits and tiny details explained on the page are sorted through and plucked away like pedals on a once so beautiful flower. All you can do is stand by helplessly and hope that, even with the changes, the movie will still prove your favorite story to be great.
I'm sorry for ever doubting you book nerds. I will never look at a book movie the same way again.
I'm sorry for ever doubting you book nerds. I will never look at a book movie the same way again.
Life uh, uh, finds a way.
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