Movie Review - 'District 9'

District 9 Starring Sharlto Copley, Louis Minnaar, and Vanessa Haywood Directed by Neill Blomkamp Rated R

Around the time the narrative thrust of District 9 loses a bit of steam and you begin to put the pieces in place for how things might end, something else takes over. There is a great discussion to be had about the morality of the characters and the story, a discussion that director Neill Blomkamp leaves fairly open. That isn't to say there aren't conclusions or consequences, but more than in most contemporary science fiction movies, the events of District 9 aren't an escape but rather a parable for something we're confronted with everyday, whether we know it or not. Despite appearances, Blomkamp's film is not just about aliens versus humans. In fact, it's almost never about that dynamic specifically, but rather it's about human nature at its best and worst. You see, District 9 takes place in Blomkamp's home country of South Africa. Over 20 years ago, we're told, an alien mothership descended over Johannesburg and just stayed there. This massive space craft has been hovering over the capital city ever since and yet it still took months for humans to make contact with its inhabitants. When the government finally cut through the exterior of the ship, the first contact involved witnessing literally thousands upon thousands of malnourished aliens dying out in filthy conditions. Left with no other choice, the governments of the world, operating under the corporate banner of MNU, set up a massive refugee camp for the surviving aliens. There, in District 9, the aliens lived as second class citizens or prisoners, subsisting on cat food and garbage. They became known as "Prawns" because of their appearance, and though there were skirmishes, an outright war never broke out. In the years prior to this story, MNU built a new camp for the aliens a couple hundred miles outside of Johannesburg, which would be better for the humans, obviously, but what about the aliens? Leading the alien eviction for MNU is Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a mild-mannered middle manager whose job seems simple enough on paper: Notify all the aliens that they're going to be moved out and load 'em up. You don't have to have a very strong social conscience to see District 9 as a metaphor for the Apartheid movement in South Africa, which displaced millions and killed tens of thousands of majority black citizens between 1948 and 1994. Interestingly, and pointing to the savagery of mob rule that has seen unfortunate spikes in our history, Blomkamps South Africa includes just as many blacks as whites who want the aliens forced out or worse. The film never comments on Apartheid or draws a conscious line between fact and fiction, but the timeline would indicate an overlap, and it's hard to imagine that a movie that so transparently echoes Apartheid would pretend in its backstory that the embarrassing years of violence and institutionalized bigotry never occurred. The science fiction is probably the least fascinating part of District 9. The Prawns look fairly believable, because they're drawn so rough and bug-like. The other special effects work seamlessly within the story and don't detract from the plot or constanly occupy our minds. Michael Bay could learn quite a bit here, if he chose to. But the visuals won't wow you, and because roughly 50% of this movie operates as a pseudo-documentary, you wouldn't want them to. As I mentioned earlier, you eventually settle into the story, the metaphor, and all the rest and you can kind of imagine what will follow. But where District 9 really becomes something to see is in the final 20 minutes, and it's not because of some action sequence with too many things that go boom. What will all of these characters do, Blomkamp shows us, while implicitly asking what we would do ourselves. The best that can be said about District 9 is that it is uncommon science fiction in a time dominated by the common. It has a fantastic rookie performance by Sharlto Copley, is more challenging than we expect the genre to be, and it's told the right way, from the perspective of the human characters and not the post production team or the bottom line.

Comments

[whitewolf2k3]

I can't honestly judge until tomorrow when I see it, but I was expecting a 5 out of you on this. It just looks (not meaning graphically) better than Hurt Locker. Completely different movies obviously, but whereas Hurt Locker snuck up on alot of people, this has been looking really decent in the last couple months. Curious, if it can be done spoiler free, what caused you to ding it? I'm hearing great things about Copley.

[whitewolf2k3]

Granted a 4 is, in it's own rights, a very positive review so not knocking it.

[Get The Big Picture]

The first half of the first sentence of the review...

[Orinn]

Wooo it doesn't suck. I dont think I have seen a summer movie outside of star trek and hangover.
I will this weekend.

[Brandon]

What is that something else that takes over? That left me wondering this enigma you left us with.

[Get The Big Picture]

The second sentence in the first paragraph, the morality discussion...

[Honz Brix]

Saw it today and was going to go again tonight but got out of work late. This is the best movie of the year so far in my opinion. Great performance by the lead actor. Incredible story with great political influence. Great action and emotion! It was a little weird at the beginning but I still give it 5 stars

[spluftin]

I just saw it and thought it was great. Very original story and it wasn't like every other movie out there where you just see everything that is coming up and know what's going to happen. The prawns were very believable and I'm glad they showed them a lot, and weren't afraid to like other movies do, cause they know they didn't pull off a realistic look for aliens.
And as for the main characters performance, it was wonderful. Did a great job and showed a lot of realistic emotion. 9 out of 10, fantastic movie.