D-9 Debriefing

My friend and I really didn't know what to think when we stepped out of the theater after seeing District 9 tonight. I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what I experienced. The best way I can describe it is like watching a more cinematic two hour game of Halo.



A Halo game at which I'm not behind the controls because although I would love to be a gamer, I particularly suck at the ones in which you have to navigate and shoot with two different controls, especially when they are inverted. Why?! It's complicated enough as it is! Now I have to remember that when I aim the joystick down that I am actually looking up? My ex-boyfriend and his frat brothers took full advantage of this fact and delighted in repeatedly running me over, ambushing and sniping me. The best I could do was memorize where the turrets were, attempt to reach them and make it rain bullets! And I still rarely ended up with a positive kill score. (If we were playing Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers, it would be a different story. Oh yes.)

Anyways, I don't really get into ARG (Alternative Reality Games) but I heard the one promoting District 9 was decent. They scattered stuff all over the web, which appeared to come from several different "sources." (I think they recently aggregated them at D-9.com since the movie is out now).




They even arrived in full force at Comic Con to warn/inform people.



I don't this ARG was as widespread or as popular as the one for The Dark Knight (which won the Grand Prix in the Cyber Lions category at Cannes this year), but hey, I went to see the movie so at least some part of it worked on me.



I still don't know exactly what to think of the movie. It left me with more questions than answers, which I suspect was it's intention. It was definitely unlike any other movie I've ever seen. Weird how movies are becoming more like video games, whether subtly like this one or blatantly like Gamer, which I will probably end up seeing thanks to all the action and explosions I've seen in the trailers.

Afterthought: I found this screen junkies review online which states that the original intention of this movie WAS actually supposed to an adaptation of Halo. Hmmm...

the dark knight

...was pretty much the most amazing movie i've seen in a while. it completely lived up to and in some ways surpassed my expectations, including heath ledger's performance of the joker. i finally got to see it last night because even though it came out about a month ago in the states, it just came out in germany. fortunately we found a theatre that played the original sans dubbing and subtitles.

anyways, i liked the fact that i didn't notice that much product placement in the movie, other than the standard luxury cars (lamborghini, bentley) and of course the mysterious cell phone that morgan freeman had in hong kong. i decided to investigate and found a whole website called brand cameo that tracks product placement in all the new movies coming out. their archives date back to 2001 and they are a sub-site of brandchannel.com.

here's a list of the brands that you may or may not notice throughout the movie: Armani, Bang & Olufsen, Belstaff, Bentley, Dodge, Ford, Harris Bank, Lamborghini, Magnum Products, Mercedes, MV Agusta, Nokia, Powerball, Scottrade, Volkswagen Beetle.

Apparently the cell phone is the new touchscreen model by nokia, which isn't even in stores yet. It's the Nokia 5800 Tube, clearly hoping to compete with the iphone. i guess it's a cooler way to introduce a new product rather than just the standard print/tvc/internet campaign.

i also really liked the creative newspaper/movie poster give-aways. they are placed at the theatres like a normal newspaper you would find on the streets of gotham city and on the inside it folds out to become a movie poster. simple, yet genius. (the one i got last night is extra-special because it's in german).