So i got over my horriblecinemaophobia and watched the film. Not bad, if somewhat overhyped. I thought the acting was good (very true-to-life in my experience), the CG was stunning (WOW! the prawn really fit into the JHB setting well, and it all seems real). The production was also real good. Gritty, seamless switched from a documentary perspective to narrative work and back. And the movie felt a bit "independence day" to me... not sure why, but i loved Independence day, so i don't mind. one thing that annoyed me a bit was the heavy use of bad accents the f-bomb. Yes, the pronunciation was more-or-less on... but even the Afrikaaners around here (and some of then have that accent THICK) manage to pronounce the word more english and less "foook. But i'm sure that that's one of those things that you only notice if you know the people portraied quite well. Same with the nigerian bloke shouting something in Xhosa... quite odd, that one.
You do realise the actor playing Wikus van de Merwe is south african don't ya? And also currently lives in South Africa? I'm fairly certain his accent was an authentic one, albeit maybe not one you're used to hearing.
It might be authentic but I think BentAnat is trying to say they overdid it a bit, and in the end it sounded a little wrong.
If you had noticed my location, you'd realise that i am also from that part of the world, and i travel to SA regularly on business. Krikkit is spot on: it's overdone a bit... irritated me later in the movie... but i suppose that's for consistency. Afrikaans accents can be surprisingly inconsistent at times. Especially when it ccomes to foul language. I also assume that the accent is a bit of a play on the "old regime" in South Africa. These days if you walk through town in JHB and speak Afrikaans, you'll get nasty looks... they all speak a hoity-toity english with a fake accent. It's like that ever since the "I can laike to be wearing a jean pant" jokes took off. /me wait for some JHB citizen to disagree with me
I suspect they did it because that fits with the image of how most people see Jo'burg: a crime-riddled place filled with the South African equivalent of Glaswegians, so you need to lay the thick accents on all the time.
Probably. Let's not forget, that while it's labelled as a "south african" film, there was major US funding behind the picture, so stereotyping would happen.
I noticed the "foook" thing too - to the point where at the end of the film I was convinced Wikus was actually played by a non-south african...only to be instructed otherwise by Wikipedia. I think it's fairly likely that there will have been emphasis on the accent - many people find it hard to differentiate between the accents of the SANZAR nations in totality if they aren't used to it; and given how poignant the message of the film is, I'm sure the director was thinking "viewers HAVE to know this is in deep SA".
the real afrikaans pronounciation of it would be quite similar to the english one, just with a single O rather than a U.
really enjoyed the film, im not sure that there are as many underlying themes as many seem to be pushing, its just a good action/sci-fi film to me that happens to be set in south africa
Well they're not so much underlying themes as patently obvious, smack-you in the face themes; they're not exactly subtle.
it just struck me that besides the obvious "smack in the face" aparteid references at the start of the film, the second half of the film certainly makes no effort to elaborate greatly on those themes. its as if they are saying 'there are obvious parallels here, but we just want to make an action film' nothing wrong with that imo, its the just the way i read the film.
Fair point - a good one too actually. The messages could have been dragged out a lot further to the point of it not being enjoyable - I didn't look at it like that. +Rep.
I finally saw this tonight, and thought it was pretty crap. Characters were all one dimensional, the movie didn't bother to answer any questions (why were the aliens there, why did the command bit just fall out of their ship, why were they all dying aboard the ship?). Then at the end you were left wondering WTH is going to happen to the main character, and what about all the aliens left behind? As far as I could tell, it was a shameless setup for a sequel. Really poor effort, and I don't think I've been so disappointed leaving the cinema in a while.
I really liked it, as did my housemate. Great acting, especially from the main two characters (Wickus and Christopher) and excellent special effects. Shame about the obvious set up for a potential sequel and the blatent product placement, especially at the start. Lucky Peter Jackson was producing, I don't know how good the film would have been without the involvement of the geniuses at Weta. Probably won't see it at the cinema again, but I will get it on Blu-ray.