Left: Is That an Alien Prawn I See?
MOVIE REVIEW: DISTRICT 9
On a GPA scale of 1 (low) – 4 (high)
District 9 is 1.3.
I’m no sci fi fan, but the reviews led me to believe this movie would be better—maybe even sci fi for grownups. It wasn’t.
The visual impact of aliens as giant shrimp was nicely comic and interesting for maybe ten minutes. The image of the space ship hovering was, for some reason, haunting; it felt like a god. The rest of the movie was typically dime-store moralizing and hyper action, accentuated by extreme gore.
I am baffled by the high ratings this flick is getting from the pro reviewers—its average on Metacritic.com is a remarkable 81.
By comparison, here, with their Metacritic.com average ratings, are some middle- or low-brow movies I could argue for, especially if you include popcorn. For more notes on these and others, see this blog, August 13.
A Perfect Getaway 63.
The Hangover 73
Funny People 60.
More serious films that deserve at least their high average on Metacritic.com are: The Hurt Locker, 94 (see my review here on July 28 -- a 3.98 movie) and France’s Summer Hours, 84 (which I have not reviewed, but would rate a 3.8).
TGIF.
I prefer to rate the movies I haven't seen. I find it surprisingly easy. Work in progress: Panning Julie/Julia.
ReplyDeleteMadam, have you no conscience?
ReplyDeleteOh well, I confess I've done it too--even with books.
About Julie/Julia, I think those two actresses are so good that I intend to see the movie. In fact, I have a rough draft of an entry on Amy Adams. Maybe I'll post it after all. In case I don't, let me say here that those who have not seen her 2005 breakout movie, "Junebug"--you owe it to yourselves. Ditto for "Doubt," but it was appropriately ballyhooed whereas "Junebug" sort of dropped out of the sky.