DISTRICT 9
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Genre: Science fiction/Body Horror/Action
THE MOVIE
A sleeper hit back in 2009, District 9 stands out as one of the best science fiction films of the naughts, with great special effects and performances as well as thought provoking themes that, like many of the greatest sci-fi films, feature a veiled social commentary. This movie was so well-received that it was even nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, which is a rare feat for a genre movie like this.
District 9 was produced by filmmaker Peter Jackson and helmed by first-time director Neill Blomkamp. The two had originally teamed up to make a movie adaptation of the popular video game Halo but after that project fell through, the commenced work on a project that Blomkamp had been thinking about for a while, a story set in an alien refugee camp in South Africa, which would be an expansion of his 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg.
District 9 quickly establishes a faux-documentary style (which it abandons when convenient) and introduces its protagonist, the feckless bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe, who comes across as an Afrikaner version of Michael Scott from The Office. The movie uses "archival footage" to show the aftermath of the arrival of a massive alien ship over Johannesburg and how humanity had cut its way into the vessel to find a population of starving insect-like beings, who were eventually relocated to District 9, which has become a squalid shanty town by the beginning of the movie.
Wikus is tasked by the giant multinational company that operates District 9 to obtain signatures so that there can be some semblance of legality when the aliens are forcibly relocated to District 10, a new, more prison-like settlement. The aliens, who are referred to as Prawns by the humans, are largely considered of sub-human intelligence (it is speculated by the humans that they were the ship's workers and subservient to another group of aliens, unseen in the movie) and are mostly uneducated and easily manipulated (they have a strange obsession with catfood). However, the movie soon introduces us to the alien known as Christopher Johnson and his young son. Christopher, unlike most of the other aliens, can read and reason and has been toiling away on a secret project involving a mysterious cylinder filled with an unknown substance.
When Wikus comes across this cylinder while doing his rounds, it sprays him in the face and initiates a transformation that recalls that of Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. Wikus' hand suddenly begins to change into something resembling one of the prawns and he soon finds himself on the run from the government and his former corporate employers. He turns to the only place where he can hide: District 9.
Arriving at the shack of Christopher Johnson, Wikus learns that the cylinder is the missing component of the long lost command capsule that will allow Johnson to return to the alien ship and escape from the Earth with his son. He also promises that, once on the ship, he will be able to treat Wikus and reverse his transformation.
Needless to say, things don't go as planned. District 9 really kicks up the action in its last act, almost jarringly so for those who had been previously invested in the movie's heavy themes and interesting characters. The ending is fairly open-ended, and there's plenty of room for a sequel or two. District 9 is a great movie, although there are some story things that don't make a whole lot of sense, like who being sprayed in the face with fuel would change one into a totally different species or the mysterious disappearance of the beings that were actually running the ship, conveniently leaving behind these "primitive" creatures or how the alien ship is not crawling with human technicians when Johnson arrives on it.
The movie takes what could have been a very heavy handed analogy-the Prawns as proxies for black South Africans during apartheid-and deftly creates a story that stands on its own but feels very rooted in our world. Like the fantastic Alfonso Cuaron movie, Children of Men or Duncan Jones' amazing Moon, District 9, takes the world that we live in, adds a sci-fi premise and extrapolates a believable future from it. Corporate exploitation, poverty, tribalism, these things are all fodder for District 9 and, even without the inconsistent documentary style, make it feel like something that could actually happen.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
Where the movie really shines is the realization of the prawns both in design and characterization. Despite the fact that he is a revolting bug moo-cap creature, I actually found myself deeply invested in Christopher and by the end of the movie I was very concerned about his fate. His relationship with his small son is quite touching and provides a nice emotional hook allowing the audience to empathize for the rather alien-looking prawns.
Designwise, the prawns are pretty good creatures and mostly avoid the "Cloverfield trap" of creature design, which is to make monsters into incomprehensible wasp-waisted hodgepodges of different scary animals. The prawns are a pretty coherent design and not overly complicated, so that you can take a quick look at them and understand how they work. They are bipedal insectoids, seemingly with a chitinous exoskeleton, and generally of human height or taller.
They possess a pair of large antennae on their heads which are covered in movable plate-like scales, which allow them a good amount of recognizable facial expression. Unlike most arthropods, they posses lensed eyes with a distinct pupil, a design decision that makes them easier to relate to than, say, more bug-like compound eyes. Instead of jaws or mandibles, they have a set of short tentacle-like organs that presumably hang in front of their mouths. The prawns do not speak English in the movie but in their own alien language of clicking sounds. Their dialogue is subtitled for the audience and understood by the human characters who are trained to interact with them.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
During the movie's climax, there is a harrowing sequence in which Christopher Johnson has to race to the crashed command capsule where his son is waiting for him. By this point, I was so invested in this relationship that I was practically cheering for him to get to his son in one piece. And I really hate bugs.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
District 9 is widely available on DVD and Bluray. The Bluray transfer is really nice and brings out a ton of detail, really showing this movie off in its squalid glory. The movie has also been available on-and-off for Netflix streaming.
SEE ALSO
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) is another tale of man's relationship to a mistreated, non-human "other" which also features amazing mo-cap/CGI characters that are far more compelling than the humans in the movie.
THE TRAILER
Patrick Garone
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Author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
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