Ani Carpenter

District 9

So I went and saw the brand spanking new ‘District 9’ the other week and I totally loved it. Apparently, every newspaper and magazine (that mum and dad had read) had given it 5/5, but I will explain my gross over-generalisation of my opinion all in due course. As all credible newspapers (mum and dad read stuff like The Times and The Guardian) had given it rave reviews, and it was produced by Peter Jackson, who as everyone knows directed the infallible (this is just my opinion as I thought the tone of the movie captured that of the books splendidly) Lord Of The Rings, I sort of expected fireworks.

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I had seen the trailers for ‘District 9’ and I already knew that this was a different sort of film to LOTR so, naturally, I was curious as to see whether Jackson was a one-trick pony. He isn’t. The film is pretty impressive, with some awesome special effects. Basically, the plot is; a mass of aliens come to earth in this spaceship. They’re all ill from malnutrition so the human species decides that they have a responsibility to house them. So the aliens get put into these really grotty slums where crime breeds until they, eventually, get evicted. This is where it get really cool because the guy leading the operation, a cruel, government, desk-job type guy gets infected with this alien ‘fluid’, which they need in order to get the hell outta earth and back home. This guy starts to change into one of the aliens and the government capture him and start testing on him in order to use alien weaponry (as it is so advanced that only aliens can use it). It’s then a race to get the fluid back and up to the spaceship before the guy changes permanently. There’s more going on but I wouldn’t want to spoil it, now!

There are obvious underlying politics to this film, such as the aliens could be compared to racial or religious minorities that government majorities don’t understand so treat like dirt (read The Guardian review for more on the politics ). I wasn’t sure throughout the film whether I liked it or not, as there are some really emotional moments that made me cry (I’m a girl though, so…) and sometimes you just don’t wanna see anymore, you know. But, I figured, in the end, if a film can portray that sort of stuff to an extent so real that you actually shed tears in the middle of the cinema and consider running out, it must be pretty damn remarkable. Back to special effects, there’s this one scene where the spaceship over the city looks real, I swear, you almost can’t tell it’s CGI (the only way you can is that you know it is so you’re specifically looking, but it’s hard to find!) and the design behind the alien’s mental control system in their robots and stuff is really inventive. There aren’t any knobs or levers, they control the ship and their robots with their mind, (but not in a psychic way) and this is quite new as alien films before this, such as ‘Alien’ and ‘ET’ never thought of technology as advanced as this, it was all pretty relatable. So, despite my originally mixed emotions and agitation over the politics behind the film, I would definitely recommend it. Without emotions getting in the way, this is most certainly a spectacle and another score from Jackson, as a producer.

Written by Ani Carpenter

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Ani Carpenter

First of all the album has fab artwork. The front design is of a sort of woman made from boobs and faces and legs and flowers, a collage of shapes and colours. I actually hadn’t heard of Little Dragon until a few weeks ago when I saw the video for ‘Twice’, which reminded me of the video for ‘Bedshaped’ by Keane and I quite liked them. Made up of Swedish vocalist Yukimi Nagano and some close friends from high school, they are how you would expect a modern group from that hemisphere to sound, kind of Sigur Ros; dreamy and atmospheric. Although I wouldn’t say they’re atmospheric in the Sigur Ros extent, they definitely have that dreamy, hallucinogenic depth, especially on tracks like ‘Feather’ and ‘A New’, which I thought made a good album intro. However, they replace the heaviness with electro vibes and synths a-plenty. It’s cool and very 80’s sounding. One of the best things, I think, is Nagano’s voice. She’s a bit Gwen Stefani-esque and it really compliments the synths and electronic vibe to the album. Read on >>>>>

 
‘My Step’ is another great track and it sounds like something you would find on ‘GTA: Vice City’, and everyone loves that so this must be cool? J Some said on YouTube that ‘Blinking Pigs’ made them want to run. Now, I’ve listened to it and, I can see where they’re coming from. It’s nothing like Godskitchen or Pendulum (old stuff!) or, I dunno, whatever it is that I work out to but it does have a strong beat and a nice melody to which one could dance. Worth listening to. My opinion of ‘Little Dragon’ is that, I like them. They’re a quirky, original-ish band from Sweden, always a plus, with some good chillout songs. And I like to chillout. There are also tracks that you may wanna put on at a disco for an 80’s feel, and I do like the 80’s. It’s not the stuff I’d rave about but I would give them a thumbs up and anyone who likes dreamy, synth-y songs with a retro vibe, it’d be right up your street. It’s quite clever really, in how they’ve produced their electro-pop, synthetic sound. Nagano said she wanted to convey man’s reliance on machines in their sound by making music with computers and effects. Quite poetic, if you think about it. It’s deep. Also ‘Twice’, that I mentioned earlier, seems quite big. It was apparently on ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ and there are remixes and stuff of it. YouTube it.

Written by Ani Carpenter

To contribute to Union Versity check out the ABOUT US page to find out more.