Alien movies are a dime a dozen. Everyone has their favorite incarnations of visitors from other planets. Everything from a reeses pieces eating, bike riding friendly alien to vicious, war mongering aliens with advanced weaponry who hunt humans for sport, the idea of visitors from another planet is nothing new. District 9 comes along and presents yet a new race of aliens unlike any ever seen on screen before. In doing so it not only highlights the aliens, but also takes a look at humans and our basic nature. To call District 9 a simple alien flick is such an understatement, as this multi layered film explores so much about human instinct while at the same time being an all out action packed masterpiece.
I won’t get too deep into the plot of the film, as it is something that each viewer should discover for themselves. Basically, 20 years ago, a large spaceship descends over Johannesburg. After 3 months, nothing has happened, the ship is simply hovering there. The military finally decides to voyage up to the ship and cut their way inside. Once inside, they find the aliens huddled in the center of the ship, many of them malnourished to the point of death. It is then decided that the “humane” thing to do is to shuttle tthe aliens to earth and establish a camp for them to stay.
The aliens seem almost primitive in their mentality. After a while the humans living in Johannesburg want the alien colony, consisting of 1.8 million “prawns” (nickname for the aliens since they look like walking jumbo shrimp) to be relocated to the middle of nowhere, far from human contact. The story is about the man appointed to be in charge of the relocation, Wikus Van Der Mewe (Sharlto Copley) and his quest to relocate the prawns, many of them unwillingly, to their new home. If it seems like I’ve given away a lot, I haven’t. all of this is revealed within the first 5 minutes of the movie.
On the surface, the aliens are disgusting. Visually, there is nothing appealing about any of them. Yet, by the end of the movie it is the humans who seem the most appaling, due to their barbaric actions and treatment of the prawns. District 9 is shot in a sort of mockumentary style, following Wikus as he and his crew embark on their relocation mission. For such serious topics as the film addresses, it manages to stay pretty humorous throughout. Then the action kicks in, and let me just say there are sequences here that are so crazy and intense they would slap the Transformers back to Cybertron.
As deep as this film’s subject manner can be, it is all maintained with a steady pace. I can honestly say that I was never bored at all for the duration of the film. A large part in this is due to the incredible acting of Sharlto Copley, whose Wikus is both despicable and sympathetic at the same time. Copley doesn’t have any acting experience credited prior to this film, yet he manages to carry it with all the chops of some of the most revered actors around. If this film doesn’t make him an instant star, I will definitely be surprised.
The direction of first timer Neill Blomkamp is also fantastic. He manages to slip between real time action and documentary style almost seamlessly. The pacing of the film is also spot on, as it manages to address some heavy issues but never seems to get bogged down by the weight of its subject matter. This is the guy that Peter Jackson wanted to direct his Halo movie, and if District 9 is any indication of Blomkamp’s potential (and if the movie ever gets off the ground) , the Halo film will certainly be a cinematic force to be reckoned with.
While this summer was full of highly hyped movies, very few of them lived up to their potential. It is refreshing that District 9 comes out of nowhere, with an even smaller budget than The Hangover, to be the film that stays with viewers long after the credits roll. I remember after we watched it, we were almost ready to go to the very next showing to check it out again- it was that good.
I don’t want to overhype the movie for anyone. I went in expecting a pretty decent sci fi flick. What I got was something so much more, and so far it is the best movie I have seen this summer. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is not only looking for an incredible thrill ride of a movie, but also for something a little deeper with some serious substance.
