Slurms’ Labor Day Weekend Review

by Steve "Slurms" Lichtsinn

So, the extended Labor Day weekend has come and gone. I don’t know about you guys, but I was left well fed, but extremely tired from the events that happened in the last three days. Unfortunately I didn’t get as much game time as I had hoped for. Instead I went to a county fair where I stepped in cow shit, went to my in-laws and let the kids run rampant, peeled some fresh-picked tomatoes and made some salsa with the wife, went to the zoo for possibly the last time this year, and best of all; saw District 9.

As a quick aside before revealing what game time I did get in, I want to talk about District 9. This is a movie that was under the radar to some extent. Sure there were some television spots, but you could not grasp much about what this movie was about. It almost seemed too vaguely reminiscent of Independence Day to garner an excitable reaction to its ad campaign. I really had a hard time gaining much interest about the movie with so many other summer blockbusters leading up to it. Movies such as Transformers or G.I. Joe had their imagery shoved down our throats, whereas District 9 pretty much sat over to the side with a little picket sign saying, “Hey….movie over here….whenever you get time.”

District 9 is this years Matrix, but so much better. If any of you can remember, The Matrix was released the same summer as the infamous Star Wars: Episode One. It was slightly under the radar, but when word spread, people reacted and flocked to it in droves. It was thought by at least some of my friends that if the Matrix would have come out enough time before Episode One, that the realization that the first Star Wars prequel was utter crap would have set in much faster. At least for the people in the circles I run with, District 9 is doing this to many of the summers hot flicks.

If you have not seen District 9, do not look at a single review, do not try to find out what this movie is all about. None of that matters. Go see this movie right now. It is action packed, gritty, intelligent and poignant. It is now firmly planted in my mind as one of the best movies I have had the pleasure of experience in YEARS.

One thing I will say, and those who have seen the film feel free to disagree with me; I hope they do not make sequels to this movie. Even though it’s open ended to a degree, and you can speculate what happens in its aftermath, I hope they do not taint this fine piece of work in the same way that The Matrix was.

With that said, I will now talk about what I have played this weekend. Other than a bit of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and a couple attempts to try out the Aion open beta, not much. It’s been far too busy of a weekend. I’ll write up more about the Aion beta in an upcoming post. I really just wanted an excuse to talk about District 9.

GO NOW!