9

I did like it. The sound and visuals were pretty great. I didn't get into the story too much, but it wasn't bad.

I watched District 9 on the plane last night and thought it was good. Nice visual effects, decent story, cute little alien, lovely weapons.

The cute alien had nice weapons?

I liked District 9, but I was surprised to see it get a nomination for Best Picture. I think they threw that one and The Hangover in there just to try and boost interest in the Oscars.

“District 9” was a shoe in for a Best Picture nomination because it’s message is that Apartheid = bad. As was “Avatar” because of it’s message that indigenous peoples = good and exploitive Western capitalists = bad. The best picture nominee that surprised me most was “Inglourious Bastards.” While killing Nazis is always a winning theme in Hollywood it’s not usually as well received when it’s done so glibly and gleefully.

Yeah, James Cameron went for the soapbox hat trick by villainizing 1) invaders oppressing the indigenous people, 2) capitalists who have no regard for the environment, and 3) the antiterror military offensive.

That last one isn't as pervasive; there was just that one scene where my wife and I looked at each other and said, in our best Texas drawl, "Dubbah yuh!"

Can’t believe I missed that one.

Being an indigenous-people-oppressing-no-regard-for-the-environment-capitalist-anti-terror-militarist has done quite well for me BTW. Though for a long time it was “anti-commie-militarist.

Well, that's kinda the point, then, innit?

Why yes! Yes it is.

I've been trying to watch Heroic Age, but it's just not grabbing me. The writing is juvenile, with the characters having no discernible depth, and the action is uninspired, so that isn't redeeming it. If it doesn't get better soon, I'll have to give up on it.

It's also getting old seeing the original-language tracks being lesser in quality or number of channels than the English dubs. With all of the anime fans who prefer to watch in the original language, it's hard to understand why they're doing this.