My first exposure to District 9 was walking by a bus shelter that had one of those great posters in it. I remember thinking, "well, isn't that neat... I wonder what it's all about." I even called the phone number - which is the most awesome advertising since the Blair Witch project. Anyway, on to the movie.What can I say? It was just this side of brilliant. The pseudo-doc feel is really reinforced by the unknown actors, the handcam filming and the wonderful just-enough use of special effects. Seriously, those aliens looked extremely believable. Everything Cloverfield wanted to accomplish in look and feel, but didn't.
Many critics - including the Famous magazine article - talk about how the aliens were deliberately made to be unappealing and gross, that audiences would have a hard time relating to the "prawns"... perhaps I'm a big softie, but from the moment the camera crews entered their mother ship and filmed those pathetic creatures living in squalor, obviously diseased or starving or both, I was rooting for them. And as if I needed to feel more empathy, they not only show the callous treatment of the aliens' spawn but show a little prawn who is completely adorable and not at at all saccharine.
The allusions to holocaust, apartheid and segregation are obvious: Wikus van de Merwe (very ably played by newcomer Sharlto Copley) refers to the districts as "concentration camps" to his alien counterpart, Christopher Johnson. I won't bore you with a plot overview, but I will say that it's the many layers of the film that make it most interesting. I love that they decided it would be shot in South Africa, for its obvious connections to apartheid and its implicit thumbing-of-the-nose at Manhattan-centred Hollywood action movies. I like that the typical movie hero moment (marine walking through the wreckage, having amazingly survived when all his comrades are dead) is reserved for the slightly psychotic and obvious speciesist, Koobus Venter (played like any other movie monster who just won't die by David James).
There are some plot hiccups: why did the aliens choose Earth? why didn't the aliens leave earlier? How do the humans know how to speak to the aliens? Why haven't they ask the aliens how they can expedite the alien's departure? Add to this, the ending is very... abrupt. I mean, I couldn't have been the only one who needed a "three years later" clip. It's perfectly set up for a sequel, but I think a sequel will ruin the integrity of the movie.
I really the film overall. While it isn't perfect, it's the most thought-provoking sci-fi flick we've gotten in a long while. If nothing else, it generates lots of discussion. I think you should go watch it - it's excellent movie fare. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
2 comments:
Just to answer the question as to why the aliens didn't leave sooner was because the mothership was out of fuel and it took Christopher 20 years to produce enough for the ship to leave and make it home.
Also, I suppose the majority of the aliens were not aware as to how to get out of there. Remember they were part of the working class and not very knowledgeable as to how starships run. It would be pretty much be like if our plane crashed in a remote area and we lost all our fuel...would the average person be able to figure out how to make jet fuel to get out of there? Likely not.
Anywho I do agree with your assessment this was an awesome movie. Easily the best movie of the summer.
of course, you're right. I remember having this conversation as we were leaving the theatre and coming up with these answers. I still felt like there lots of questions, though, with no answers. AND I just remembered that the clip they showed in the teaser was completely missing from the film - the one where they're interrogating an alien.
I suppose, in the end, the humans (MNU in particular) ddn't want the aliens to leave and didn't care how they lived - they wanted access to their technology and having them leave, even if they left their weapons behind, would only serve as a roadblock.
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