Superpowers. Action Figures. Aliens.

Ah, to be young again. As we get older all we have are our memories....

I remember, back in my day, when I watched PUSH a few weeks ago and the walk to my car was uphill BOTH WAYS. PUSH was a decent enough movie. Nothing stands out to seperate the movie from all the other superhero movies that are on the market today. It's got the standard abilities that superheros have. The organization trying to control them, and the motive: Weaponry. Because that's where the moneys at these days. Right? It's a good movie though. Worth watching at least once. I'm not buying it. I usually only buy movies that have struck me as "Holy crap! That was awesome" or " I can't believe that happened!". You know the sort. Jaws or The Dark Knight. Something you could watch over and over again. Still, PUSH is pretty good, and I like the fact that you're almost doubting what's going on. It's set up for a sequel, so maybe the next one will knock our socks off.

G.I. Joe. I've no knowledge of the characters or the history of GI Joe. The only thing I ever knew about them, was when we were little and me and my cousin used to play, his GI Joes and Transformers were not nice to my Barbies and Polly Pockets. That being the case, I thought it was a good movie. Plenty of action. One lady at the theater called it "a steady stream of chaos". Which is exactly the case. The almost two hour movie had enough plot for two movies. There was the present storyline in which the characters are trying to save the world from evil and then there were the flashbacks. The long flashbacks. They gave you the "this is what happened to make the characters who they are in the present" side of things. I felt that they gave to much into the back story and made everything connected to a point where it was almost too much. They could have made more money if they made a GI Joe Orgins movie as well as this movie. The action sequences were awesome. I loved the accelerator suits. I thought they were pretty cool. However, there were some shotty graphics involved. More than once, the crafts they are flying look fake and computerized, and the metal mask that Destro wears at the end of the movie looks awful. It's almost as if they killed the budget with the action sequences and said screw it on a few minor details here and there. I've heard fans say that they varied from the original GI Joe storyline of the cartoons. And that the movie was awful. I don't plan on catching up on all those years of GI Joe cartoons so I'll never know. Overall, I thought the movie was good. Not the best of the summer by far but still worth a view.

Now to the real gem. District 9. I loved it. It was an excellent movie. Beware though, the first half can be boring if all you went for was mindless alien-human violence. It's shot as a documentry would be to begin with. And then it switches to the standard movie style. I like the handheld look (think Cloverfield or BlairWitch). It adds to the story. The commentary from random people is also a plus. The aliens are different from other aliens. They are have a strange obsession with cat food and want nothing more than to go home. But of course the humans in control have a different plan in mind. And once again its all about the weapons. I think this movie is a closer look at ourselves. It resembles the events from the 1970's of District Six. The experiments on the aliens, called 'prawns', resembles those of the Holocaust. The actions taken towards the aliens are nothing that humans haven't already done to one another. I might be over thinking it a bit, but some of the greatest movies of all times have underlying tones that most people never pick up on. Some people are there for the fact that a movie is two hours you don't have to think, just watch. I'm one of these people sometimes, and other times I like my movies with a little more intellect. Either way, District 9 is a enjoyable movie. There are plenty of explosions (mainly of people) and the gore is on a higher level than most movies, even splattering the camera lens at times. There's much more to be said about the movie. The line between duty and survival, the extent to which people will go to gain knowledge, power, wealth. The boundaries that are pushed when backed into a corner and the understanding of both sides of the conflict. The movie, like so many today, sets the end up perfectly for a sequel. Will they come back? What happens to the other millions of aliens left? What about Wickus? It's left off with a ton of questions and only one way for them to be answered: to watch the sequel when it's released. Darn you Hollywood, you sure know how to make those dollars!

Of course, there is always the possiblity of a MIB/District 9 crossover. Or maybe a Alien/Distict 9 Fight Club (Aliens win, no doubt.) Or District Wars: Episode II. Starship Troopers 4: District of Prawns. War of the Districts. Indiana Jones and the Golden Catfood Can. It could go on forever....