District 9 (2009)

Directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp, District 9 opens with an introduction of the character Wikus Van De Merwe (played be another newcomer, Sharlto Copley) and a series of mock news footage compiled together imitating a documentary. The footage shows that during the 1980s, an alien vessel landed (sort of) in Johannesburg, South Africa and was unable to leave. It is never explained why the aliens are here, only that people hate and fear them. The aliens are referred to only as “Prawns.” This is something of a derogatory term and they were labeled this because of the way they look. Anyway, these Prawns were quarantined in an area isolated from humans. This area quickly became a slum complete with crime, extreme poverty, and militarized security. Wikus is a field operative for a organization known as Multinational United (MNU) and is promoted to a position where it becomes his responsibility to inform the Prawns that they are to be evicted to a district 10, which is even smaller and more isolated that the current living conditions; while doing so, he destroys Prawn eggs and smiles to the camera. A little over half of the film is shot in the manner of a documentary and is incredibly reminiscent of footage of real life refugee camps. The film’s commentary on the conditions is obvious and it becomes incredibly easy to sympathize with the Prawns, especially when we are introduced to Christopher Johnson, a Prawn who is considerably smarter than the others we are introduced to and displays more emotion than many of the humans in the film. His plan is to repair a ship that will allow him to rescue his people from the hellhole that they are forced to live in. Things get complicated when Wikus gets infected with a special fluid that slowly, in a manner reminiscent to Jeff Goldblum’s transformation in The Fly (his teeth fall out, etc.), begins changing him into a Prawn.

District 9 works incredibly well in a number of ways: The documentary style portions of the film are easily the strongest, as they create a scenario that feels real and is all too comparable to actual historical situations, more specifically, the apartheid system of racial segregation that was in South Africa for many years. The title is even a reference to District 6, which was one such location in Cape Town in the 60s. The visual effects are very impressive, but with Peter Jackson (Director of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) credited as a producer, this should come as no surprise. The film loses a bit of its steam towards the end however, and becomes more of a typical action sci-fi film, complete with robot suits (that use the inside the helmet view from Iron Man) and laser guns. It’s no surprise that the governments keep the aliens on earth because of the desire for their weaponry. After seeing them in action, it becomes obvious how useful they are at killing people. This begs the question: Why haven’t the aliens been using them? Granted, this would be a different film if the aliens willing to fight back, but with such awesome weaponry, you have to wonder what’s been preventing them from doing so.

The action scenes are spectacular and dramatic, but cinematically, it contrasts greatly with the documentary footage than dominates the first half of the film. The action scenes and most of the film after mutant-Wikus goes on the run are shot more traditionally and this is clearly intended to personalize the story. But what it causes is a bit of a disruption. It feels like Neill Blomkamp was trying to have it both ways: a meaningful sci-fi commenting on a real world problem and at the same time, a blockbuster with people exploding and giant robots. Both of these things are fine, but together, in the way that the film is structured, it comes off as a bit uneven. That being said, District 9 is still a great film with a message, which is a lot more than can be said about other films this summer.