9
This is a symbolic interpretive picture of the movie. Work with me here. I was too lazy to look for a good image.
(possible plot spoilers ahead!)
It was good! I cannot believe I enjoyed a movie about aliens, but it happened. I am so not an alien person, or an action person. And when I heard the plot line I was convinced I would not like it. I mean, how obvious is the Apartheid/ Xenophobia metaphor? Could they not have made it slightly more subtle?
I was wrong though because it worked. I am not sure how but it did. The metaphor translated well to the screen. The documentary style was good, it was real and gritty and dirty, not whitewashed Hollywood. And the acting was natural; apparently Sharlto Copely improvised most of his lines, and his dialogue did seem to just flow out of his mouth. He played a bumbling doos very well.
Apparently there had been talk of using Tom Cruise's voice over Sharlto's.
CRINGE. They made the right choice. Nuff said.
The movie was not perfect. I was left wondering what exactly I was supposed to feel or understand at the end. It did not have a coherent ending at all.
I have heard that there is talk of a sequel. Oh God no. There should never be a sequel to a good movie, it will denigrate the integrity of the first, no doubt.
I can't say the movie had any kind of message to it, except maybe that humans are fuckers. I don't think that all movies should have messages, but it felt like this was trying to carry one but never completed the idea. But it was still good. The way I decide if movies are good or bad is just by a feeling, and I got the "good" feeling from this movie.
The thing that puzzled me the most though, was "The Nigerians". Not just a group of Nigerians, or some Nigerians, but "The Nigerians". Tamara, and Africa is a country also mentioned the portrayal of the Nigerians in the movie.
I am not sure if the director used them to fulfill a cliche because he wanted to show us how biased all South Africans (and most of the world) are against Nigerians, or if he just bought into the cliche for the convenience of his movie. Seeing as the xenophobia theme is strong in the movie I doubt he could have missed the obvious xenophobic connotations of "the Nigerians" so I feel he must have done it on purpose. Any thoughts?
There are about 4 movies a year that I think are good. This was not my favourite but it makes my good list. I am not sure that the audience we were with quite knew what had hit them. I heard one guy say "what the hell was that all about?"
But by bliksem, BFG and I got it.
That is all I have to say about the movie, and that was far too much already. Go see it.
