I’ll be seeing Chappie this weekend (in the meantime, go read Travis’ review), but I’ll admit to going in with one bias: it looks like every other Neill Blomkamp movie. His specific future aesthetic really hasn’t changed over the course of three films, and it’s gotten to the point of feeling unoriginal.
Neill Blomkamp agrees with me! While speaking to IGN, Blomkamp teased his non-specific idea for District 10, but really took the opportunity to say he wants to get away from that kind of aesthetic. Here’s the dude’s own words:
“I have an idea for District 10, which is really cool. The problem is I feel like Chappie is the end of three films that have a similar stylistic approach to them. Chappie is the odd one out in that is has no socio-political underpinnings. It doesn’t have my experiences as a kid in South Africa incorporated into it. And Elysium– although it doesn’t have my experiences as a kid in South Africa, it has the same notion of oppressor in the elites, and the large population base beneath it. And Chappie doesn’t, but they are still part of a trilogy. So moving forward I would love to realize this idea of District 10 – I have every intention to do it, I just need to find the right time to do it – to not go back to Johannesburg and shoot something similar, yet.”
Considering Blomkamp has come out in the past and admitted his disappointment with Elysium, I commend the guy for recognizing how the mass audience is perceiving him and his films. I don’t know if a new Alien film is the best way to escape those visual trappings, but Blomkamp’s self-awareness is mildly refreshing. As far as talking a little more about District 10, Blomkamp mentions that he never envisioned District 9 as something needing a sequel.
“It was a completely self-contained story about the Nazi becoming the Holocaust victim, basically. It was the oppressor becoming the oppressed. And when it’s based on a character like that, it ends on that character. The inadvertent world creation that came with it, which to me is my perfect kind of thing that I love – having a bunch of weird alien weapons in the back of a shack that you can discover – that’s just ripe for creative insanity, so it took a few years to process what that could be. And I think that the story that I have now is what I would want to see as a fan of the first film, I think. I know I would want to see it – I assume other people would.
I don’t really need a sequel to District 9 (I think it works perfectly on its own), but I seem to be in the minority with that opinion. Still, it’s nice to know Blomkamp hasn’t forgotten the film that launched his career, nor the people who still enjoy it and want another visit to that world.
Time to discuss, Chewers. Is anyone else in agreement with me that District 10 should remain non-sequelized? Will you make me eat cat food for saying such a thing?