District 9 film review: innovative pulse-pounding SCI-FI
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Debut feature filmmaker Neil Blomkamp proves there is much extraterrestrial life left in the well-worn genre of aliens-on-earth movies with District 9, a convention-bending SCI-FI romp that frames pulse-pounding action inside an allegorical context. A massive UFO hovers ominously over Johannesburg, South Africa, but this is no Independance Day: there are no lasers aimed at the buildings below, no reason to whoop ET’s ass. They haven’t come to invade but they haven’t exactly come to chew the fat either.
The aliens in District 9 are derogatorily dubbed “prawns” – they look like them, you see – and are desperate and impoverished, living in the titular cordoned off district, a lawless and squalid shanty town. Soldiers taunt and abuse them. Organised gangs flog black market weapons and food. Human prostitutes sell interspecies sex. Insert comment about how this place is no Disneyland.
It is however a setting ripe for obvious veiled messages about treating others – especially the sick and deprived, the lesson screams in big, thick, multiplex-metaphor letters – with empathy and compassion. After watching District 9 it’s hard not to draw connections with xenophobia or apartheid because Blomkamp’s allegories are as subtle as a whack in the face with a sock full of pennies. His “monsters” are used as prisms to reflect our bigotries and phobias back at us. The question is: “who is the real monster, chump?”
The plot follows Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) who is in charge of a task force dedicated to relocating the aliens from District 9 to District 10 – which, aside from being unimaginatively titled, is an even less desirable location. By law Wikus must serve each alien an eviction notice. Cocksure and contemptuous, he tramples through the District 9 community followed by his team and a camera man. Something happens to Wikus that turns him into a particularly valuable asset for mankind but the less said about what transpires, the better. District 9 is a wild ride, about as unpredictable as a blockbuster gets. Wait until you see how a human fires an alien weapon. Wait until you meet Christopher Johnson.
Embedding monster movies with overripe social commentary is nothing new. Horror auteur George Romero performed a similar metaphoric manoeuvre with zombies in his seminal Night of the Living Dead in 1968, one of the differences being that Romero’s film pioneered its genre, paving the way for an endless supply of off-breed guts-n-limbs pics whereas District 9 arrives after many decades of aliens movies. These movies have conditioned audiences to expect that aliens will be either pure-as-virgin innocents of the phone home variety or “nnooooo peeeacceee!” intergalactic ghouls intent on blowing us all to kingdom come. The District 9 aliens are neither.
In Romero’s film it was a final hard-hitting scene that smacked the audience for six: at the end of a gruelling battle, the humans ripped to pieces by their un-dead aggressors, a last reel shows the zombies mutilated and tortured, puppets for sick games by human soldiers. District 9 roars this “we’re the monsters!” message from virtually the first scene. The audience are not invited to cheer and hoot for the aliens’ demise. They are encouraged to dismiss black-and-whites and look for the greys, at least some of the time, as Blomkamp manages to have it both ways (pro-human and pro-alien). Through a clever plot twist the conflict between alien and human sides of the fence is muddied. Some of the tension comes out of Copley’s stellar performance: it’s flustered, jittery and panic-struck; Wikus is anti-hero who acts largely out of his own interests.
Good science fiction is always about marrying entertainment with something deeper. District 9’s shrewdly constructed story manages to be both plausible and out of this world, with lots of detail and subtle innovative quirks. The final protracted action scene is a little generic but packs a punch. The film has an electric, at times breathless pace, with some very well staged up-close action scenes and outstanding CGI: so good, in fact, it’s easy to forget the prawns aren’t actually on set.
If District 9 sounds a little too intellectual for you – if carnage is what you want, destruction is your thang, SFX chaos is the sole reason you shelled out to see Transformers 2 and Terminator: Salvation – rest assured the film works perfectly well as a down-n-dirty action spectacle. Try really, really hard, and you might not even have to think about anything remotely resembling subtexts or political commentary or social parallels. No promises though.
District 9′s Australian theatrical release date: August 13, 2009
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This is one of the best science fiction movies I’ve seen in the last ten years. The ending was a bit tooo Transformers but still great. It cost 30 million too which by todays standards is pretty cheap!
Great movie, can’t wait for the next one…
Fantastic movie great scifi, lots of humour as well.
Great CGI effects
One of the best films of the year. Best sci-fi since Primer.
As a MIFF regular, I could see this film slotting into the festival’s schedule quite smoothly. I’m actually surprised that it wasn’t snaffled up by MIFF (if it had’ve been, it would’ve ranked as my favourite film of the festival by a league).
Hands down, the best sci-fi film I’ve seen since Matrix (which was, what, like 10 or 11 years ago now??)… …yes, the ending was a tad “generic”, but after such a wild, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, emotional ride, I was actually glad it ended the way it did. I’ll definitely be going to see it again and, suffice to say, I can barely wait for the (expected) sequel… 11/10.
Previews look amazing, though I hadn’t anticipating it being as deep as you outline here – looking forward to it!
I went to see it last night. Wow! I loved it, was thoroughly entertained AND am still thinking about it. Sure leaves an imprint. Copley was truly fantastic as the anti-hero. I can’t wait for the “three years!” to pass…and partake in one of my favorite sci-fi films in many years.
Been waiting to see this movie for 4 months and I have to say, out of all the movies I’ve seen in 2009, this will be the movie that stands out the most in my head.
This was much better than I expected; the effects are spectacular…a great movie and its politics nice and clear. Ya.
It’s good you mentioned Night of the Living Dead because most people seem to be under the misunderstanding that this sort of thing has never been done before. Still yes Blomkamp did it well
I found the film’s premise very interesting, and I especially loved the Jo’burg setting and the frightening ways in which the humans denigrated the “prawns.” But I have to say, the plot itself was disappointing. It appeared to be driven by storyboard outcomes rather than the characters’ motivations and there was nothing grey about the characterisation of the movie’s “villains” at all. When exiting the cinema I thought of the film Children Of Men – by contrast, that film is such a more sophisticated portrayal of dystopian humanity. District 9 had potential for deeper, darker social commentary – potential that was squandered, I felt, by a weak narrative.
Miss S.
Totally with you on this one. I loved the pic but walked away thinking how much better it could have been. My only hope is that it might expand the thinking of some people normally outside the SF scene.
Part of the plot sounds, well familiar. An alien slave ship crashes in the desert. That’s Alien Nation, a movie and (later) TV show from about 20 years ago. But this has a huge twist from Alien Nation. The Newcomers are not assimilated, they are kept in slavery. They look less human. Great idea.
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