Film analysis Benedikt Blomendahl
The movies District 9 and Avatar are similar as they are both sci-fi movies with one major difference, the budget. Avatar is obviously the film with the better quality and has more planning behind it that district 9 but does that mean that it is really the better movie?
District 9 features Wikus Van De Merwe, a bureaucrat in charge of facilitating the relocation program so that the local government can steal the technology from the aliens, referred to as "prawns". The turning point in the story comes when Wikus is exposed to a biological contaminant that slowly transforms him into one of the aliens at which point he is treated as one of them thereby teaching him empathy. This part marks the start of his character
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This is reinforced by cut scenes showing direct interviews with the characters. While Avatar is a film that demonstrates the capabilities of new technology the use of 3D in Avatar was good and the jungle offered some great opportunities to make the effect truly immersive, but while District 9 's visual style reinforced the central theme, Avatar 's theme was really secondary to the visual style and certain elements, like the floating islands, were clearly included to showcase the technology rather than to strengthen the story.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is that District 9 is set in Johannesburg in the modern day. The main location being a refugee camp that calls into mind the conditions of a third-world country with an occupied military presence. And by having the film take place in South Africa, it calls up feelings regarding apartheid and colonialism.
On the other hand, Avatar takes place in an exotic jungle on an alien world where humans are actually the aliens. This is probably the biggest difference between the two with Avatar offering an atmosphere of escapist fantasy while District 9 offers a dark, oppressive, and hostile