Last night, I got the chance to watch an early showing of District 9, the highly anticipated Science Fiction film by director Neill Blomkamp. To say that I was impressed is quite the understatement. Here’s a quick synopsis and review.
In the early ’80s, an alien spacecraft appeared in the sky above the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The ship’s inhabitants are stuck on Earth after running out of fuel and need a new place to live. The government, feeling international pressure to assist the aliens, task the private company Multi-National United (MNU) with the settlement and protection of the aliens. MNU builds a camp in the outskirts of the city and dubs it District 9. The camp becomes a slum and after twenty years of tension and pressure from the human population of South Africa, the government decides to move the aliens, known as “prawns”, to a resettlement camp further away from the city. It’s then that we meet our hero, Wikus. Working for the MNU, it’s his responsibility to inform the residents of District 9 of their evictions. After entering one of the shacks to investigate for weapons, something goes wrong. I’d hate to spoil anything, so I’ll leave the synopsis there, on to the review.
The film is shot as a documentary/SF film hybrid. It’s an approach that allows for exposition in the form of interviews with experts and people closely related to the incident, without resorting to pathetic, “creative uses of angles” and seemingly magical cellphone cameras to capture the action (I’m looking at you Diary of the Dead.) This mix of styles is put together wonderfully: It’s never jarring to go from security footage, to a close-up, to a soldiers gun camera. Another aspect that I loved about the film is that it never feels the need to flaunt. Every shot is there for a reason, there is no grandstanding, no fan service, nothing like that. In this world, aliens have been around for twenty years, their ship has been hovering over the city for so long that people barely even notice it anymore and the camera makes sure to follow that same principle. The prawns are incredibly detailed and feel real enough to sympathize with, which is key to the story.
The fact that the story takes place in South Africa is no coincidence. This is, like all good SF, a social commentary. The prawns are stuck on Earth and want nothing more than to go home. They are treated as less-than by humanity, forced to live in small tin shacks, fenced off from the rest of the world. It’s message of anti-racism isn’t heavy-handed though. There aren’t any rousing speeches, filled with flowery prose, talking about how we’ve all got to get along. No, District 9 doesn’t need to resort to such petty tactics. The character development is so well done that at times I was actually uncomfortable with the brutality that was on screen. The film isn’t really all that gory. The brutality comes from the complete disregard and hatred that the humans have for the prawns. It’s scary to think that people have treated each other in a lot of the same ways, but that’s the key to good SF. It opens your mind to seeing things in a different light.
The characters are real, the story is real, the message is real, but perhaps most importantly for moviegoers today, the action is real too. Plot and character development only make things more intense as bullets fly and various things, both living and non-living, explode into showers of whatever-the-hell they were made. The trailers promise action, and while its not the type that most people were expecting, it is far from disappointing.
Overall, the film is excellent. The performances, both in terms of acting and directing, are fantastic. Especially when you consider that both are first timers. District 9 is a solid SF film that is able to appeal to a wide audience without giving up any ground on intelligent, plot or sympathetic characters. I suggest that everyone go see this movie and spread the word. This is the type of Science Fiction that we need: A smart, action packed movie that doesn’t feel the need to talk down to people.
Watch it.
