District 9
TriStar Pictures
R
112 Minutes
2009
2009 could be the year of the sleeper hit. Commercial successes like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra have also been critically panned. The Hangover has become the year's biggest comedy practically on the strength of word of mouth alone, grossing nearly three times as much as Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, even after an intense bidding war between studios for the latter.
Now we have District 9, the directorial debut of Neill Blomkamp. Though Peter Jackson's name is plastered all over the TV spots and his Wingnut Films production company helped bring the movie to audiences worldwide, Blomkamp wrote (alongside Terri Tatchell) and directed this clever, engrossing sci-fi action thriller and he does so with such style that it's hard to believe this is his first time behind the lens.
Part Cloverfield-style mock documentary, part action, part sci-fi, and part political commentary, District 9 is a fabulous film that is destined to be a cult classic.
The opening moments of District 9 are about as captivating as anything in recent memory, as members of the fictional MNU (Multi-National United) explain the history behind the appearance of a giant spacecraft hovering above Johannesburg, South Africa, and an incident involving Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), one of their field officers.
No one knows exactly why the aliens came to Johannesburg, but they've been set up in what are essentially internment camps, forbidden from leaving. This camp, District 9, houses nearly two million Prawn, as the aliens are called due to their appearance, and like any slum, it is filled with crime and poverty. The aliens live in squalor and the residents of nearby towns don't trust them. They scavenge for any food they can find and have an affinity for cat food, which they will trade their weapons and technology for on the black market.
Crime begins to spill out into neighboring areas, and the natives begin staging protests which often escalate into violence. In an effort to quell the dissent, MNU devises a scheme to move the aliens to a new camp and sends Wikus in with a heavily armed support team to serve the aliens eviction notices.
One cannot help but draw the obvious parallel to apartheid in the film, one that was surely intended by Blomkamp, himself a native of South Africa. Having lived through the end of apartheid, Blomkamp infused his sci-fi action film with a political statement, and the resulting experience is much richer and more thought-provoking than standard sci-fi fare. It's interesting the way the film shifts focus from portraying the aliens as fearsome, violent creatures early on, to more sympathetic, pitiable ones halfway through. You slowly begin to realize that their rights have been violated, and they are just as unhappy as any human would be in that situation.
District 9 is so engrossing, particularly in its earlier, documentary-style moments, that it is honestly easy to forget you're just watching a film, in spite of the strange looking alien creatures. The picture is further served by the cast of unknowns playing the characters. Without any big name stars to break the illusion, the performances become practically transparent and the gritty realism of the putrid conditions in the slum of District 9, you get the sense that you are watching history.
Unlike Cloverfield, however, the film does break out of its presentation for large portions to showcase the action. And though it takes a while to get there, once it starts, it doesn't let up. The film's final 30 minutes or so are practically non-stop action, with guns blazing, big explosions, and lots and lots of blood and guts. It seems the alien weaponry has a tendency to make human beings explode into a bloody mess, and the effect is quite spectacular.
At times, it does seem a little unintentionally humorous to see the Prawn acting like humans, but that's sort of the point in a way. The idea was to simply substitute aliens for people, but the atrocities committed against them are still as revolting as they would be with regular people.
District 9 is well-paced as well, never feeling slow or bogged down with unnecessary details. It doesn't get too caught up in explaining the technology, and it never becomes too preachy or pretentious in the way it slowly turns the Prawn from the aggressors into the victims. At the same time, it doesn't make an explicit statement about the evil of humanity in general, but rather draws comparisons to racism and prejudices we see in every day life.
The documentary scenes help draw you into the world, and by the time you realize the movie has shifted to slightly more generic action fare, you'll be totally engrossed in the story. District 9 has cult classic written all over it, and is far more deserving of box office success than this summer's other action films. It's been a long time since a science fiction film has been this intelligent or engaging, while still balancing its message with enough action to keep it from becoming too heavy or, worse, holier-than-thou. I'm not ready to compare it to the likes of classics like Blade Runner or Dark City, but District 9 is easily the best epic sci-fi picture in many years.
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