My Thoughts: District 9

I went to see District 9 yesterday afternoon. It is the first time in a long while that I have been to a movie on opening day. I was extremely excited to watch this movie based up the trailers, and I think that it lived up to the hype. In District 9, South Africa has become a haven for refugees–from outer space who have been forced into the slums and live as second class citizens, often called the derogatory term ‘prawns’ by the locals. The story follows Wikus van der Merwe, who is tasked to move 1.8 million aliens to a new camp. I don’t want to get any further into the plot to ensure that it is not completely ruined for anyone out there.

Overall, Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp created an incredibly compelling world that left me wanting more. The beginning of the movie starts out in documentary style which sets out the backstory. They outline the story of how the Aliens came to Earth, and the incredible tensions that are ongoing between the Aliens and the local population. While this is a great way at getting all the facts out in a hurry to really give you a sense of the world, it felt somewhat forced to me. I would much rather be shown gradually the ’state of the world’ in a science fiction movie in order to feel like I’m really a part of the ‘future’, rather than having all the backstory over explained at the beginning of the film . After all, I imagine that first contact would be a remarkable news story of which everyone would be extremely well versed in the intricate details. A documentary on the subject wouldn’t necessarily need to rehash everything.

Although the backstory might have suffered, the movie masterfully created compelling aliens that you end up siding with and feeling sorry for. I don’t remember another movie that was effective at creating aliens that were so believable. There ignored all the usual silly alien cliches – there were no odd tentacles, or diamond shaped eyes that we’ve seen so many times before. That being said, the Prawns definitely look like Aliens – but vulnerable, exploited Aliens. This is helped by the creation of the multinational company MNU which is responsible for herding the Aliens into the slums and at the same time attempting to exploit their technology for military game – in the end the ‘Prawns’ ended up feeling more human than the humans.

When I first saw the previews of this film I was concerned that there would be an obvious social commentary forced upon the viewer. While the attempts to drawn comparison between the treatment of the ‘Prawns’ and South Africia’s own apartheid of recent memory are clear – they are not overdone. About 30 mins into the film I had pretty much forgotten that the film was set in South Africica at all.

Overall, I would highly recommend this film as a must-see for any any science fiction movie fan. While the ending is fairly obvious about 1/2 way through the movie, getting there is an exciting journey. The ending sets up a potential sequel, District 10 and I am already looking forward to it!