District 9
Thursday, May 7th, 2009To the people who complained that a Halo movie(or rather, Neill Blomkamp’s Halo movie) would be bad, because the promotional short-films funded without studio backing didn’t look like a $200,000,000 Michael Bay Explosion Orgy:
That’s a trailer for a feature-length production based on his short-film “Alive in Joburg”, perhaps his most stunning and effective contribution to film. It is the first of his short-subjects that I saw(not including music videos and commercials), and almost instantly it convinced me that he was the right man for the job. District 9 appears to be an elaboration on that same story, of an African community dealing with “Non-Human” immigrants in a way that is strangely believable, reaches past our optimistic star-gazing and pulls open the realization of how terrifying making contact with extra-terrestrial life would really be. It deals with immigration in a crowded place and time that can’t even sustain itself. Its spiritual successor looks incredible.
This is a director capable of big, wondrous special effects and science fiction, but also not unwilling to bring the weight of truth to it. Yes, making a big-budget “popcorn movie” is different from making a short, personal film that digs into our fears of the new and the beyond(while blending that with startling computer imagery). It’s also -easier-. But judging from his past work, I have little reason to believe he’s even capable of making a disposable movie. Even when he only has music, or a time-frame of 30 seconds to work with, he pours a lot into those frames. As much as he can, and more than we often get.
His “Landfall” short-films/advertisements for Halo 3 were not met with glowing reception. The production values were scorned, by people unaware or unable to reconcile themselves with the fact that the shorts were produced from the crew’s own pockets. Of course they look cheap. What did you expect? Fox and Universal certainly aren’t padding the bill.
And a great decision that was, since they would’ve raked in a ridiculous number of millions from the merchandise alone. Yes, it would have cost 9 digits to make. They’d have gotten 10 digits back. It’s fortunate then, that we live in wonderful and not-at-all pants-shitting economic times where having that much more money would make a difference.
(On that note, I’ve recently become a Fan of the “Sarcasm!” account at Facebook)
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. “Landfall” just has this curious hold on me, right down to the production values. It’s the first of anything inspired by Aliens that actually reminds me of the iconic charm, style and direction of that movie. The old-school static green computer text, the industrial sets, and the graininess in the shot with the Pelican takes me back to a way action movies were once made, when they felt a little closer to real. To being in the same place as you. I like how the first third of it feels like a play on the kind of desensitization that comes with recruitment ads(and possibly whatever they’re injecting into those soldiers). Be all you can be, even if it’s burnt plasma.
Yes, the camera is shaky as all get out from here on. They don’t exactly have IMAX. This is the best they could do with the resources they had, and even then, they have a fully-functioning Warthog for crying out loud. The editing is choppy and confusing, but one must also take into consideration the amount of time he had to present this in. 2 and a half hours of elbow room would very likely alleviate this, but were we so lucky. And ultimately, being a scene acting as an example for the kind of intense moments of warfare one would expect from a Halo movie, it’s not going to have any of the characters quoting Shakespeare.
Still, he managed to scrap together some genuinely entertaining moments in the 3rd act, peppered with some wise artistic touches(the use of Marty O’Donnell’s soundtrack elevates it to a better place). I always like it when an action scene is quiet now and then. There is understanding and patience here, in tiny, sugar-packet doses if you can find it. I commend and applaud his endeavour to do as much as he could with so little.
If anyone could achieve the fine, razor-thin balancing act of Art AND Entertainment, it’s Blomkamp. If anyone could tap the immeasurable potential this franchise has, in the way Bungie(for some inexplicable reason) is reluctant to, it’s Blomkamp. If anyone could bring the locales, the species, the weapons, the gadgets and vehicles to the big screen, it’s WETA. If anyone could act as the guiding force to getting this movie made, and made -right-, it’s Peter Jackson.
Before anyone else, I will gladly say the Halo games are, at best, retarded from a narrative standpoint. But these are the people who could spring that to life. They could have found the prose where there was thought to be none. I am confident Neill Blomkamp is the one who would’ve done for 2008 what George Lucas did for 1977.
That is, if Fox, Universal, Microsoft, Paramount, Dreamworks, Sony and Warner Bros.(Blinking hell, who’s left?!) weren’t so afraid of getting billions in merchandising revenue(and if they weren’t trying to hog all of the creative control). You know, because Halo is such a risky venture, being an underrated, cult-following, indie-darling, that never really caught on with the mainstream public. A real “sleeper-hit”. Not like that billion-dollar juggernaut franchise Grim Fandango.
(It is a cruel universe where these people can’t even make Halo into a movie, but Uwe Boll still gets to crap out “Postal!” and “Far Cry”).
I am going to see District 9 when it comes out. Or later, depending on how badly the studios handle its distribution(this man is certainly no stranger to Hollywood screwing him and his audience over). I will certainly make an effort to see it before I am dead. The difference in presentation quality between “Landfall” and “Alive in Joburg”, and early footage of District 9 is utterly remarkable. Despite the naysayers, he has made the jump to feature-length, and the soul is intact. Now to see how he lands…
Assuming it gets made. If it does, I hope someone from Fox or Universal sees it too. And maybe, just maybe, they will rue their lack of bravery/appreciation for having lots of money. In exchange for letting the fucking movie-makers do their fucking job.
Blinking hell.
{You too can be a fan of “Sarcasm!”}
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~A.H.