District 9: Movie Review

District 9: Movie Review

Rating 9/10
Cast: Sharlto Copley, an entire cast of relative unknowns
Director: Neill Blomkamp

It's very rare in this game for a film to slip under the radar without masses of pre-publicity and end up surprising those who watch it.
District 9 is one of those films.
Basically aliens came to Earth one day 20 years ago - and instead of landing in Manhattan or New York, they landed in the skies atop Johannesburg in South Africa.
The huge alien craft sat in the skies - and it was only when the powers that be broke into the ship that they found millions of aliens alive and malnourished within.
So while the equivalent of the United Nations discussed what to do with these refugee creatures (affectionately given the racist term "prawns" because of their appearance), they were brought down to earth and put in slum areas, segregated away from the rest of humanity.
As private company MNU (Multi National United) investigates the alien technology to no avail, it's decided to rehome the Prawns from their settlements (it's in their best interests apparently) which have now become riddled with crime and Nigerian gangs.
District 9 follows the unraveling of events as a doco crew follows MNU worker Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) who's given the job of overseeing the evictions - and who inadvertently sets in motion a series of events which change the equilibrium of the last 20 years.
It's very difficult to discuss this astonishing film from Blomkamp without spoiling it too much - so consider this your warning - read on at your own peril.
District 9 was "produced by Peter Jackson" and is a Wingnut films production - and quite frankly, it's one of the smartest pieces of sci fi based film I've seen for a while.
It's hard to pigeonhole is as one particular genre - it's sci-fi, it's guns and explosions, it's unexpected humour, it's geek overload in places, it's Predator, it's reminiscent of Black Hawk Down, Aliens, Robocop - and amazingly, it's buddy cop movie a la Fly - but none of it is derivative
What Blomkamp's come up with is a real mash up of genres - and with a lead who's pretty damn impressive for a first time actor and with rumours most of the dialogue was improvised, it's even more impressive.
The film's initial doco style as a crew follows the start of the MNU led evictions soon passes - and the film abandons its cinema verite ways to follow what exactly happens to Wikus.
There's a sense of foreboding and dread at the start of the film as it becomes clear Wikus has played a major part in what's about to unfold - and there's a real dread as the convoys roll into District 9 where the "Prawns" are and the evictions are put in place.
It's only a matter of time before the touch paper's been lit and soon tempers boil over - and yes, many will draw the parallels with Apartheid and South Africa (as well as what happened in District 6 there) - but District 9 is about more than that.
There's satire as Wikus finds himself hunted thanks to the intervention of the 24 hour ever present media which follows every single event on the day of the eviction.
But at its heart, District 9 is about humanity - what it is to be human, how far you will go to fight for that when you're ethically and morally compromised.
Eventually Wikus finds his rights crushed and threatened in the same manner in which he treats the Prawns (after an encounter with some alien biotechnology) - and as his father in law sells him out for greed, it's downright black and further proof of how depressing the human race can sometimes be.
The only (very minor) disappointment is the last few minutes - which screams "sequel" over all it (even though it's alluded to earlier on) and is a reminder really of why sometimes one, no matter how big it is, is enough.

District 9 is a real jolt to the senses; packs a surprise in virtually every frame - there's so much to engulf yourself in - and most of the major questions are left unanswered (where did the Prawns come from is just one of them) - but in a day and age when movies sometimes often fail to dazzle and be inventive, this original flick is head and shoulders above anything else I've seen on the big screen this year.