Review: District 9 (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

DISTRICT 9
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ***

DISTRICT 9 is one of the most unusual sci-fi films in some time.  It's a 
B-movie that, except for its extensive special effects, looks like a very 
low budget production.  With hideous, gross monsters (the aliens) that are 
about as realistic as the campy ones in EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS, DISTRICT 9 is 
no spoof and, based on our packed audience, produces little laughter --  
intentional or otherwise.

Set in the unlikely location of Johannesburg, South Africa, DISTRICT 9 
eschews the most popular location for alien landings.  As we know, having 
seen many such movies, aliens almost always point their spaceships toward 
large U.S. cities.  Sometimes, of course, they have landed in Europe or 
Japan, but rarely have they ventured to Africa.

Even more unusual and intriguing is the alien "invasion," which starts off 
as something of a huge dud.  After a massive mother ship parks in a 
stationary position above Johannesburg, earthlings board it only to find a 
bunch of malnourished and frightened aliens who cower when being greeted.

The script by Terri Tatchell and the film's director Neill Blomkamp sets 
most of the movie twenty years later, when the aliens, who turn out to breed 
like the proverbial rabbits, are now almost two million strong and living in 
a large concentration camp called District 9 near Johannesburg.  Using the 
pejorative of "prawns," humans treat the large creatures, which do indeed 
look like seven-foot high prawns, like second class citizens.  As human 
rights advocates demonstrate outside, the "MNU Alien Affairs Office" starts 
rounding up the aliens with plans to move them to another (and less 
hospitable) camp a couple of hundred kilometers away.

The movie is filled with never subtle messages about tolerance, so it is 
easy to see parallels between it and apartheid, as well as forced Native 
American resettlements.  But these aliens are not very lovable, so it's easy 
to think poorly about them.  Their favorite delicacy is cat food, which they 
get from Nigerian gangsters who hang around District 9, trading cat food for 
alien weapons.  The prawns are scavengers who roam the garbage heaps, eating 
whatever food they can find.  The movie can be quite repulsive, so I was not 
surprised when my wife walked out in disgust, saying she couldn't take any 
more of it.

Sharlto Copley, one of the film's cast of unknowns, plays Wikus Van De 
Merwe, the story's central character.  A silly and gregarious wimp, he gets 
the assignment to lead the resettlement efforts, as the prawns are moved 
with being many slaughtered in the process.  Told frequently in mockumentary 
style, the movie held my attention from start to finish, even though the 
first half was way too slow.  The story picked up in the second half, as did 
the action.  Director Blomkamp proved to be especially gifted at staging 
fast-action gunfights.

Although DISTRICT 9's story is quite unique, its look is lifted straight 
from 28 DAYS LATER.  I was fascinated by it throughout, and I am looking 
forward to its sequel which, based on the ending, will undoubtedly be called 
DISTRICT 10.

DISTRICT 9 runs 1:42.  It is rated R for "bloody violence and pervasive 
language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 14, 2009. 
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Cinemark 
theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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