Advertised as the best Alien Nation since Alien Nation, D9 is actually more like the best Dilbert Meets Robocop With Some Macek-ized Alien Nation Bits since Dilbert, Robocop, or Alien Nation.
Put another way, imagine if The Office met Robocop and the two wandered off and gang-raped Alien Nation before heading home to throw up in the bathtub and pass out on the floor.
Seriously. Gibs. Best film mecha since the ED-209. Lots of good stuff - my only real gripe is the "Body horror," in which the according-to-io9-"LOW"-budget shows up - feels like trying to pull a few Dead Alive scenes from a Cronenberg perspective... and while it's gross enough, it feels like a cinematic trainwreck. As a plot point, teeth and fingernails feel more like like producer-mandated on-a-budget gross-outs than part of the process. Out of place in the face of how well everything else is handled.
The social commentary here isn't race-related, in my opinion - it's not a meditation of black-on-white or skin-on-exoskeleton. It's a meditation on the "value" of middle and upper management. The Prawns have neither, the humans have both - and both are complete assholes. Gloriously incompetent assholes.
As social commentary, it's a step in the right direction.
As mecha design, it's the sexiest thing since the Guges and the best shit-your-pants design since the ED-209.
Otherwise... go read the reviews. Or watch it. Out of this year's Big Screen Scifi, it pushes forward (or Forward Back - see Robocop comments above). Star Trek and Terminator hold the franchise line - D9, being new, also had the balls to be good in a number of ways.
Dilbert. Robocop. The "value" of the PHB in the Modern Urban Environment.
DVD? I'll probably buy it.
Sequel? I'd definitely watch it.
If only for the gore.
THE GIBS. Did they hire Verhoeven as a consultant? The gibs, man. The gibs.
Much love for the gibs. |
