Looking for opinions on Neill Blomkamp

[Casual Shinji]

People criticise him a lot for not being subtle with the political messages in his films but I don't think that really makes sense as a criticism when you're dealing with something like Apartheid. Do we really need to be indirectly suggesting that Apartheid was a bad thing, seriously?

No, but you don't need someone screaming it at you either. Apartheid is something that pretty much speaks for itself with how horrible it is. District 9 didn't do anything interesting with the human/alien relations, it was just a palette swap. It took something horrible from real life and simply replaced the human victims with aliens.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Eh, he's okay I guess. District 9 was one of the most overhyped movies I've ever seen, and had one of the most unrelatably idiotic protagonists I've ever seen (Who just goes home after starting to cough up obviously alien black goo???? Goddammit!!), but I dug Elysium a whole lot. I've only seen both films once, but I'd watch Elysium again if someone put it on. Ignoring the sledgehammer-subtle political commentary it was still an enjoyably energetic and surprisingly gory (counting it as a positive) action movie. Some said Matt Damon was out of place in the Hispanic-ridden future, but it didn't bother me personally. The weaponry certainly was imaginative, punchy and fun to watch at work and Sharlto Copley's performance was entertainingly over the top. Plus I've noticed I have a weak spot for Alice Braga, don't really know why...

I'm kinda indifferent about him for the time being, but if Chappie gets good reviews I might check it out. So far it almost seems he's just repeating himself with another film set in a gritty near-future with scrappy robots, guns and action.

 

[silver wolf009]

He's a bit hamhanded, but delivers on the actiony bits. Not so much the world building ones, to quote CinemaSins, "This future Earth has more graffiti in it than could be accomplished if every human on Earth took up graffiti as their only hobby."

On the topic of Aliens 2: The Revenge, if it isn't a Genesis War, I'm going to just quit. Just flat out quit, 'cuz c'mon guys, we NEED a film adaptation of a Genesis War.

Red Xenos represent!

Or failing that, that just make a movie out of the Female Wars, that book was gud.

 

[chaostheory]

He is okay, his action scenes are pretty fun and I really love his tech designs and special effects. My big problem with him is his writing, mostly in that he lets his politics get in the way of logic. The best example is the ending of Elysium.

Spoilers for Elysium follow.

The end of Elysium has Matt Damon changes the programming of the AI that manages Elysium and Earth to view all humans as being part of Elysium. Thus the AI sends out its fleet of ships with the magic healing boxes on board to go and treat all the sick people of the world. The problem with this ending is that the primary problem plaguing the world of Elysium is overpopulation and all the magic healing boxes are going to do is make the problem worse in the long run. It feels like he wanted to stuff a socialized medicine statement into the movie but he never slowed down to check to make sure that it made sense in the context of the world presented.

 

[Pyrian]

The problem with this ending is that the primary problem plaguing the world of Elysium is overpopulation and all the magic healing boxes are going to do is make the problem worse in the long run.

This is nonsense, BTW. Access to health care does not necessarily or even usually worsen overpopulation - in practice, it usually relieves it. Mind you, Elysium's ending is still a huge "Well what happens next?" moment, but I think that's okay.

 

[Evonisia]

So a mixed bag on the films he's actually made, I should probably not go in with high or low expectations for either of those films.

As for the Alien film, I suppose I should be cautiously optimistic? Could be quite good, but his politics and ham-fisted implementation might easily ruin the film.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Like some have said, I loved District 9, I hated Elysium.

If District 9 was as subtle as a sledgehammer, Elysium was about as subtle as having a mountain dropped on you.

But the biggest problem with Elysium was that Blonkamp so wildly missed the point he was trying to make that he basically made his opposition's point. Think about it:
-Earth's biggest problem is horrendous overpopulation, which Elysium doesn't seem to have an issue with. Earth is depicted as being almost entirely Hispanic or black, Elysium is almost entirely white. In other words, it's pretty much the racial stereotype of "stupid poor (mostly brown and black) people who won't stop having kids even though they have no means to support them" vs. "wealthy intelligent white people who only have kids they can support" brought to life.
-The overall theme of the movie seems to be "poor people can only succeed by stealing technology from rich people, because they're too dumb to fix their own problems".
-We're supposed to hate the Elysians because they won't allow the people from Earth free reign to come to Elysium, but Elysium is about 1/100th the size of earth, what the hell do you think is going to happen when literally billions of people start showing up?

This is before you even get into some of the huge plot holes (if they have robots that are intelligent enough to act as law enforcement officers, why do you still need humans to do menial factory jobs?).

The one thing I will give Blonkamp a lot of credit for is that he does arguably the best depictions of futuristic weapons I've ever seen. Rather than being light shows and fireworks, the weapons feel incredibly brutal and visceral and quite literally tear their victims apart. This, to me, is a far greater depiction of what futuristic weapons might actually be like than disintegration rays or laser beams.

The problem with this ending is that the primary problem plaguing the world of Elysium is overpopulation and all the magic healing boxes are going to do is make the problem worse in the long run.

This is nonsense, BTW. Access to health care does not necessarily or even usually worsen overpopulation - in practice, it usually relieves it. Mind you, Elysium's ending is still a huge "Well what happens next?" moment, but I think that's okay.

It's not the access to healthcare, it's the access to money. Generally, the wealthier a country is, the lower its birthrate is (this also works along social groups in most places as well), and wealthier countries have better access to healthcare. The problem with Elysium is that it gives no indication that the people of earth are going to be any more successful now that they've stolen the Elysian's technology.

 

[beastro]

EDIT: After looking at Chappie's commercial, something occurs to me. He's the smarter version of Michael Bay.

No, he's merely the left-wing version of Michael Bay.

It feels like he wanted to stuff a socialized medicine statement into the movie but he never slowed down to check to make sure that it made sense in the context of the world presented.

Because so much of the politics he was pandering to is people wanting to feel good about doing things without thinking through their consequences.

This is nonsense, BTW. Access to health care does not necessarily or even usually worsen overpopulation - in practice, it usually relieves it. Mind you, Elysium's ending is still a huge "Well what happens next?" moment, but I think that's okay.

Do you even think through what you write? Overpopoulation was near inconceivable before the increase in public health made the population explode.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

To me, he seems... very one-note. I really liked District 9, which, while about as subtle as a fire in a whorehouse, did a good job of being the "blockbuster with a social message" and properly doing the "using SF as a metaphor" kinda thing.

I went to Elysium expecting similar craft - nothing wonderful, but a solid film nonetheless. What I got was a Very Special Film with a Very Special Message which was horribly, painfully beaten into the audience's skulls. Ow. Ow. Ow.

I can't work up any enthusiasm about Chappie, which just seems like more of the same. I can't imagine him going any more anvilicious with his message than in Elysium, but then again, The Battleship Potemkin had a subtler message than Elysium.

So I also don't have much faith in his Aliens thing now.

 

[chikusho]

The problem with this ending is that the primary problem plaguing the world of Elysium is overpopulation and all the magic healing boxes are going to do is make the problem worse in the long run. It feels like he wanted to stuff a socialized medicine statement into the movie but he never slowed down to check to make sure that it made sense in the context of the world presented.

I'm sure you have an argument against ebola doctors as well..?

 

[RedDeadFred]

His movies are decent. Personally, I don't get why the lack of subtlety in his messages enrages some people so much. I see his movies has your everyday sci-fi popcorn flick that pretends to be a bit more. The only reason his movies get more hate than so many others is because one of his movies was nominated for Best Picture.

I guess if his messages distract you so much that to break immersion with the movie, I could see why some people are especially annoyed by it. Personally, I find it much easier to ignore something like that than plenty of other things movies do that actually require a suspension of disbelief.

 

[faefrost]

I've only seen District 9, and while it had some good stuff in it... I don't know, there was a blunt force at work when it came to the story and characters that really annoyed me. The entire political side of it wasn't so much an allegory for apartheid as it was just switching out black people for space bugs. It's like he feels the need to share his political stance by way a freaking dump truck.

Elysium and Chappie just seemed like more of the same, so I never even bothered with them and likely never will.

And seeing as the Alien movies have always been about an evil corperation wanting to weaponize a force of nature and not caring who they have to kill in order to do so... Yeah, Blomkamp is gonna have a field day with this. Remember how even Cameron couldn't stop himself from throwing in that little line about how humans are worse than the Alien cuz GREED? Ugh.

That's just it. The Alien movies have never been about the evil corporation etc etc. in all of them that was just some minor framing to put the actually story in motion. Just a hook, not a theme or major subtext. Just some backstory fluff. With Blomkamp I am fearful he will attempt to make that the theme. And really the only times they have tried that were Alien Ressurection and Promethius's. Both suffered horribly for it.

 

[faefrost]

I've only seen District 9, and while it had some good stuff in it... I don't know, there was a blunt force at work when it came to the story and characters that really annoyed me. The entire political side of it wasn't so much an allegory for apartheid as it was just switching out black people for space bugs. It's like he feels the need to share his political stance by way a freaking dump truck.

Elysium and Chappie just seemed like more of the same, so I never even bothered with them and likely never will.

And seeing as the Alien movies have always been about an evil corperation wanting to weaponize a force of nature and not caring who they have to kill in order to do so... Yeah, Blomkamp is gonna have a field day with this. Remember how even Cameron couldn't stop himself from throwing in that little line about how humans are worse than the Alien cuz GREED? Ugh.

That's just it. The Alien movies have never been about the evil corporation etc etc. in all of them that was just some minor framing to put the actually story in motion. Just a hook, not a theme or major subtext. Just some backstory fluff. With Blomkamp I am fearful he will attempt to make that the theme. And really the only times they have tried that were Alien Ressurection and Promethius's. Both suffered horribly for it.

oh i dunno.

it was Burke that sent Newts parents to the derelict...

what do i expect from a Blomkamp Aliens movie...exceptional production design...if you own the Colonial Marines Technical Manual you're gonna love this movie...other than that i dunno.

Yeah but Burke was really just one evil amoral character in a cast of characters of varying emotions, drives etc. he was just there really to set things in motion. Just as Jurassic Parks theme was not corporations are evil. Hammonds role in the film was to just put the pieces in motion. Not to stand as some sort of political anti corporate piece. It works well when used carefully as a framing mechanism. But if not used very carefully and sparingly you end up with James Cameron's Avatar.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's just it. The Alien movies have never been about the evil corporation etc etc. in all of them that was just some minor framing to put the actually story in motion. Just a hook, not a theme or major subtext. Just some backstory fluff. With Blomkamp I am fearful he will attempt to make that the theme. And really the only times they have tried that were Alien Ressurection and Promethius's. Both suffered horribly for it.

Oh the theme was definately there. It was presented in a manner so as never to take presidence over the actual threat of the Alien, but it's been a running theme throughout the entire franchise. The first movie handles it the best since Ash doesn't so much act by order of the Company, but is driven more by an admiration he has for the creature.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Have seen District 9, Elyisum AND the short films he did prior to those films including the Halo movie, I say he has a distint style to this work manily using similar mech design and human explosion!

With that in mind, if those two crop up in the next Alien fiom, I won't be surpised and immediantly recognise his work,

 

[optimusjamie]

I've only seen Elysium, but I think Blomkamp could be a good fit for Alien. There's a few things I'm uncertain about, but it definitely looks like he has the aesthetic down.

 

[Frezzato]

OP, you should check out Blomkamp's short films instead. Here's a link for five [http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/watch-neill-blomkamps-first-five-films-right-here-right-now.php]

The link for Tempbot doesn't work on that page, so here it is:

Spoiler: Tempbot