Lunchtime Poll: So, you're turning into an alien...
Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 1:00PM by Nathaniel R
Today marks the 10th anniversary of District 9 (2009), a major sleeper hit and Oscar success in its year. Remember that year when it seemed like anything was possible for the sudden extra Best Picture slots ... before the awards strategists and specialty distributors conquered the new system to make it more like the old system again in terms of what got a Best Picture nod.
District 9 was totally snubbed in Best Makeup which was insane. What does the makeup branch have against body horror anyway? Which brings us to today's lunchtime poll. You've become infected and are turning into an alien. Choose which movie alien you'd like to become and why. Here are some of movie aliens for inspiration and to get the conversation started...
Powerful, deadly, and feared. *sigourney not included
If you're Navi you get to have sex with your hair which is kind of cool
Awesome singing voice... but that look isn't very flexible for every day life now is it?
healing powers and telekinesis... but the tradeoff is that you're a total sap and kinda fugly. Worth it?
Pros: very hypnotic and seductive. Cons: you're a sociophatic fuckd up asshole with an identity crisis
Pros: Lots of wisdom; Con: not in touch with your emotions. A killjoy
Living in giant tree villages would be baller... but imagine the ridicule!
Can pass at (hot) human. But Kryptonite allergies and that stuff is apparently everywhere.
Reader Comments (19)
Ah yes, a terrific choice for the Best Picture category.
It wasn't just awards strategists and specialty distributors who made the category more like it was - it was the Academy too! They did so in 2011, when, after two years of inviting voters to nominate up to 10 films for Best Picture, they changed the category into 5-10 and asked voters to nominate 5 films. That meant that, rather than filling up their 10 with the likes of District 9, Winter's Bone, 127 Hours and An Education, they were more conditioned just to list 5 'Oscary' films. Hence the 5-10 (or, in reality, 8-9) nominees we get these days are more of a kind, less diverse that in those two years of 2009 and 2010 when we got a more exciting range of nominees.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that I think all the choices since then have been poor. It's great that we've had films such as The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road and Amour and Call Me By Your Name and Black Panther nominated. And there have been plenty of great films nominated that would have been likely to figure in a field of five in the olden days - films such as Spotlight, 12 Years a Slave etc. etc. I just think that the Academy should ask voters to list 10 films rather than 5 at the nominating stage. That might help, say, a documentary get nominated - something that Sid Ganis said he would like to see happen when he announced the move to 10 nominees on that fateful day in 2009!
Under the Skin, no question. She makes it all look so easy.
Kim Basinger, My Stepmother Is An Alien. Easy question.
Mareko -- makes what look so easy? Seducing men? Yes, that's tough.
One of the Jeffs -- Bridges in Starman or Goldblum in Earth Girls Are Easy
Never understood the love for District 9. But Neill Blomkamp has since demonstrated he was always inept at filmmaking. Elysium and Chappie are soooo bad. I actually walked out on Chappie.
I like the aliens from Galaxy Quest. Enrico Colantoni and Missi Pyle are hilariously weird and earnest in that.
If I had to choose an alien strictly the domain of the movies? Yeah, I'd be THE Alien. If I could also choose from TV? An Irken. Zipper toothed insectoid? Yeah, I'm DOWN.
Best martian to be:
Megamind, because his mind and humor are beyond good and evil, the minion included is a fun company and his look is very cool.
Worst martian to be:
The martians from Mars Attacks!, because of their allergy to music.
The Alien from "Alien". Reason? I want to take the shit of everyone when they feel my presence and I want La Weaver saying to me: My daughter no, your bitch.
The Henry Cavill's alien: oh lord! I married this man any time!
Ian: I liked District 9, thought the main problem with Elysium was casting (the lead should have been Michael Pena, not Matt Damon) more than the direction/script, but still haven't gone back to Chappie. I'm...probably more optimistic than I should be...about him doing the next RoboCop movie, though.
Put me down for being one of the aliens in "Arrival", I would like to be a hectopod, and speak to Amy Adams.
@Lady Edith
Girl, i miss that! Plus one of my favorite aliens movies: Close encounters of the third kind
no alien at all!
Cesar -- that's hilarious. Music allegories WOULD suck.
Scar-Jo 3:16 for Under the Skin but... I can't believe no one here chose Thomas Jerome Newton from The Man Who Fell to Earth. And you all call yourselves film buffs. FOR SHAME!!!!!
according to those descriptions, i'm already spock
Dr. Who but Im black so...my Doctor’s in order; David Oyelowo, Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Michaela Coel, Chiewetl Ejiofor, Letitia Wright aaaannnndddd Richard Ayoade.
“Scar-Jo 3:16” Ew Michelle...
I would like to be an Alien who looks like Henry Cavill and mates with Chris Hemsworth