Comments on: South African sci-fi

By: Maryanne Njeri

Maryanne Njeri — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:29:29 +0000

It was quite violent and traumatic. But it felt a bit related to the xenophobia that occurred here last year.I do not understand why the Nigerian gang leader had a Zimbabwean accent and his gang spoke a South African language and Swahili. That is ignorance o the directing team. In all respect, that was a very poor representation of the Nigerians. I don’t blame the information minister for banning it in Nigeria.The main message in the movie is still unclear.

By: Tioedong

Tioedong — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:16:56 +0000

The film District nine was not about South Africa per se but about how countries try to assimilate immigrants who don’t fit in…By putting the story in fantasy, it allows one to apply various parts of the story to today’s realities, and to see them a new and more thoughtful way.Setting it in South Africa and having a local cast was a great improvement on having Hollywood pretty men star in the film.As for angry Nigerians: Well, the main bad guys were white industrialists. So maybe Europeans should be angry too…

By: B

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:46:36 +0000

C’mon guys it’s a movie

By: Gary Huntington

Gary Huntington — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:43:17 +0000

Check Ur Baggage at the door, stop the racial pandering, this was a fun and crazy look at humanity. the movie was truly enjoyable, stop looking for excuses to cry racism every time, enjoy the blockbuster, and lets all… as Africans gloat about the great successes of one of our sons! Neill you did us proud.

By: Dele Adefowope

Dele Adefowope — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:33:39 +0000

My personal opinion of the movie District 9 is that its a poor excuse for a movie. I’m watching the film and then i’m thinking gosh! “its the South African crossover for the Independence Day and Black hawk Down(relating to urban shootout)”.The storyline is chaotic cause its hardly depicts the Apartheid era, one hardly knows the reason for the Alien’s invading South Africa like its done in other Sci-fi films…e.g world domination, humans as food, pure lust for power, vital minerals e.t.c. District 9 just plays out, on and on it goes. At a point i got tired of being bored. For instance these aliens are meant to be far intelligent than humans yet they don’t have a translator gadget to communicate in english!…South African-born director Neill Blomkamp’s attempt of creating a Sci-fi movie definitely shows his out of his league. Being an ardent fan of Sci-fi movies, i think he should look for another profession.Lastly being a Nigerian and all, i think Neill Blomkamp owes Nigerians a public apology for the way Nigerians were depicted in the movie as cannibals, pimps, gun dealers and more. Its shameful that he has the audacity to embrass a whole country so crudely too. Something i’m sure he can’t do to nations like Britain or America. He’s also being a hypocrite because of the way he depicts Nigerians, his country is not far off…their murder rates is one of the highest in the world( 18,000 killings per year), their burglaries and sex offences is nothing to write home about. So why show Nigerians in such an image when his fellow S.A.’s aren’t better off…In essence we’rent perfect, no matter where we’re from. So others shouldn’t try to feel better by damaging other Nations images, after all i thought we’re leaving in a Global village…

By: Thomas Birch

Thomas Birch — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:08:52 +0000

My father, mother, wife and I went to see this and walked out after about an hour. Apart from the accents, it was no different to any other shoot-’em-up. Boring and predictable. The attempts at drawing parallels between the aliens and racial division in South Africa were so painfully unsubtle as to be downright insulting. The acting was pitiful. And, strangest of all considering the fact that the film seems to want to play with the big boys and deal with important themes such as racism, the Nigerian people in the film are subtitled, despite the fact they’re speaking English. Obviously, white South Africans’ accents are presumed to be easy to understand, whereas the Nigerians speech is seen as completely impenetrable. Seems a trifle on the racist side to me.

By: anon1

anon1 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:40:17 +0000

Great movieinteresting take on racism – nice to see a movie that doesn’t pretend whites cornered the market. good special effects.interesting also the aliens kept breeding and district 9 starts with a million of them. by the end it’s 2.5 million…. the struggle to keep providing housing for multiplying refugees and slum dwellers is draining South Africa. Nice to see it recognised

By: Frank Phiri

Frank Phiri — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:06:21 +0000

I hope the Zimbabweans are not the ‘prawns’.