released 01 mar 10 / last mod 01 mar 10 / greg goebel / public domain
* The beginning of Neill Blomkamp's movie DISTRICT 9 is in the form of a documentary montage that describes how one day a huge alien spacecraft arrived over Johannesburg, South Africa, and parked itself in the sky there. Everyone waited for something to happen, but three months passed and nothing did. Finally, humans flew up to the spacecraft and cut their way in, to find it packed with crustacean-like humanoid aliens who did not seem to be in a good way. As far as anyone could figure out, the spacecraft was a transport carrying workers whose leadership apparently were killed off by an accident or disease.
The aliens, lacking any place to go, set up shop in a Jo-burg shantytown named "District 9". Twenty years later, the "prawns", as they are known, are a widely-despised public nuisance, with District 9 -- now administered by a mercenary company named MultiNational United (MNU) -- becoming a ghetto where humans are not welcome. The decision is finally made to relocate the aliens to a remote internment camp. Out of sight, out of mind.
The narrative then transitions to focus on Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a nebbishy MNU middle-management type who is helping administer the relocation. During the attempts to evict the prawns from their shanties, Wikus has an accident with alien technology; its effects on him make him a target for MNU's leadership, sending him on the run with company thugs in pursuit, leading to a string of violent confrontations.
* DISTRICT 9 has been regarded as a satire on apartheid, though some suggest the target is actually displaced persons -- apartheid is old news, displaced persons are more relevant than they ever. The distinction hardly matters, since nobody with sense would take this movie all that seriously. DISTRICT 9 is a well-produced, fast-paced, violent action flic that is entertaining to watch but is hardly food for thought. The plot gimmicks don't bear too much close examination, and the script seems overly reminiscent of the old ALIEN NATION series -- but not as well thought out.
I hate to bash DISTRICT 9 too hard. It's a perfectly watchable movie, and Wikus' progress "from zero to hero" is engaging. However, if the production values had been cheaper, DISTRICT 9 would have been just another throwaway B-movie sci-fi production. Fun, yes -- memorable, not really.
