Moviegoers who are faint of heart: This one is not for you! Needless to say, though, I enjoyed District 9 greatly. It is rated R and contains graphic violence, disturbing situations, and foul profanity. It is also a strikingly realistic sci-fi film brought to us by director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson, of whom I have been such a fan since Lord of the Rings.
I guess I was expecting to see some big budget version of Bad Taste; one of his earliest works in which aliens come to earth in an attempt to harvest humans for the menu of their intergalactic fast food chain, but what I saw instead was something unlike anything I could have ever imagined coming to an American movie screen.
The film is set in Johannesburg, South Africa, and establishes immediately that an alien mothership came and lost power above the city many years ago. Instead of being the advanced race from which humans will either learn from, or be destroyed by, the idea is put forth that perhaps aliens have problems too, and what would we as a people do if they needed help from us?
Out of the ship come some of the most pathetic aliens you will ever see. They are filthy and emaciated, bringing the residents of Johannesburg the challenge of setting these creatures up with food, and shelter in the form of a refugee camp that quickly degenerates into a slum.
20 years after the mothership first came to a halt above the city, the aliens are experiencing the corruption and racial hostility of their human saviors. Their camp, called District 9, segregates them in a way that reminds us of the apartheid in that country, and holds up a mirror to our fears of anyone or anything different from ourselves.
District 9 is a science fiction film, but it is also very applicable to our social issues and prejudices. Along with that, it is an action-packed and entertaining movie, not to mention the spectacular special effects.
I have hopes that someday it will be watched by our children (not before their teens, hopefully!) during some classic sci-fi marathon they have with films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Star Wars (1977), and The Matrix (1999). District 9 has all of the elements it needs to stand the test of time as they have, and I hope that it does.
My only "Oh, pleeease!" moment came very near the end when it seemed to me they were departing with a cliffhanger and leaving the plot open for a sequel. It takes talent to tell a story with multiple movies, I know, but it is also a talent to tie up your tale into a neat 2-3 hour movie that I can watch in one sitting. In Hollywood nowadays, that seems to be an outdated idea. Example: Harry Potter movies.
Again I am resisting the urge to ramble on here, and will sum up with this - See District 9 for yourself! I highly recommend it.
-Dani
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