Whether it becomes some sort of mini-franchise from here, we'll know one way or another in time. District 9 certainly put a fair amount of fresh talent on the market, from director Neil Blomkamp to star Sharlto Copley. On top of that, it became one of the more profitable movies of last year on one of the smallest budgets (excluding Paranormal Activity as an outlier). I was going to hold off on writing about Sony's rather excellent Blu-ray of the movie, but then word seeped out that they're making the next Spider-Man movie with director Marc Webb for $80 million.
I started tapping away at this just after a brief and pointless argument with HitFix's Drew McWeeny on Twitter that began when I misquoted D9's budget as "$40 million" (it was actually closer to 30, or to have Drew tell you, exactly $30 million dollars according to "PJ"). Said argument appears to have been more about Drew getting the final word than what I was initially talking about in the first place: You could make two District 9's with an $80 million bank account.
My biggest beef with the first Spider-movie was that they spent a lot of money and ended up with not-so-great effects overall (it got worse through the series). The leaping from roof to roof bit comes to mind most immediately. The approach D9 took was "what do we have to show, how do we make that happen the most effectively, and how cheap can we do it?" I'm very pleased by the idea that this approach is now appealing to studios that will hopefully greenlight more and more movies like this. When you consider that Guillermo del Toro made Hellboy 2 for $60 million and could have done yet more with another $20 mill, things are encouraging rather than pessimistic ("they're cheaping out on Spidey!"). Pouring mountains of money into Spider-Man 3 only made things worse. Splice out the Sandman stuff and you basically have the only part of the movie I cared for at all.
Months ago, I stepped out of the Austin press screening and said to an esteemed acquaintance that I was most thrilled that what I'd just seen was "real Sci-Fi" done for $30 million. I spent five minutes promising and assuring him that it only cost 30. He was blown away by that number more than the movie. His initial "eh, it was pretty good, I suppose" morphed into "it was pretty good, but if it cost 30, that's going to change how the studios make these things." We're already seeing that change going rapidly into motion. My only fear is that the studios will shave things down so lean that veteran directors will just drop off the radar for years at a time.
The extras on the Blu-ray don't try too hard to squeeze more minutes out of the same info as the vast majority of new releases. That isn't to say that I don't expect a second edition of this to come along at some point. Knowing Peter Jackson's outfit from the Lord of the Rings sets, they are aware that fans don't want to be bled dry and they pack in reasonable added value for people already disposed to re-buy the same movie.
Blomkamp goes solo on the commentary, which is extremely fulfilling and without useless crap to fill dead air nor much dead air either. If I were to peg something for the theoretical Collector's or 5th Anniversary Edition, it'd be a group track with Blomkamp, co-writer Terri Tatchell, and star Copley. Having gone through it all now, the commentary plays best after having gone through the three-part doc, deleted scenes, and featurettes. The deleted scenes are a testament to movies truly being made in the editing, as a lot of fat got wisely trimmed off. The doc and featurettes get their business done and over with pretty expeditiously. The Blu-ray exclusives include an interactive satellite map of the staging area for the movie, which I skipped, the Sony Blu-standard movieIQ trivia/info track, and useless to me and other non-gamers (I'm retired, back off) is a God of War III demo for the Playstation 3 that keeps Sony's vertical integration standard in check. All told, this is one of the very few new releases from last year that I can actually recommend buying as not only a "vote" for the movie and what it represents creatively, but as an entertainment package.
The disc hit the street nearly a month ago, but I expect we'll see another resurgence in awareness once Oscar nominations come out. I think this first "ten pictures" year in a long while could see D9 nominated for Best Picture along with Avatar and Star Trek as a Sci-Fi trifecta. Hugh Jackman declared that the musical was "back" last year, so I expect a Sci-Fi dance number this year. Break out the blue body paint, miniskirts, and most importantly, the shellfish costumes.