Premise of D9 vs Alive in Joburg

Obviously, they're the same basic story, but there were some things I liked about the situation as presented in the original short as opposed to how it was altered in the movie.

1. I liked the idea in AIJ that the aliens had multiple ships and came down in a more active, purposeful manner. They were still hungry and poor, but not utterly helpless like the movie shows them when the humans cut open the ship.

2. Along these lines, they apparently brought a lot of technology with them on purpose. Also, since there were multiple ships, some of the smaller ones might have landed, crashed or come apart which would explain the scattered alien tech throughout District 9.

Some (a warrior class?) were even wearing suits of armor and wielding weapons. The part where one of these was being a sort of one person riot, hurling heavy objects at the cops with some sort of super-magnet or anti-gravity (or whatever) device was cool.

3. Despite the lack of expensive special effects in presenting them, there was more pathos in the rank and file aliens in the short. It was heartbreaking to see them wrapped up in ragged coats and blankets, huddling over barrel fires, pleading for water to the journalist interviewing them.


I love the story of the film as it develops; I just wish the intro sequence had been more of a straightforward modernized remake of AIJ instead of changing the premise.