District 9

Starring

Sharlto Copley as Wikus van de Merwe
David James as Koobus Venter
Eugene Khumbanyiwa as Obesandjo


Okay, so believe me when I say I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about its plot, the people who were in it or the people who made it.

So when Peter Jackson's name flashed up on the screen, I said aloud "Oh shit, this movie's gonna be three hours long."

I was wrong.

Clocking in at a respectable 107 minutes, District 9 is about an alien invasion of the rather mundane sort. In 1982, a ship enters the Earth's atmosphere over Johannesburg and... does nothing. Not a damn thing. Proving that humans are impatient, the UN decides to fly a bunch of people up in helicopters with really big can openers to see what toys the aliens have inside. What they find are a bunch of malnourished insect-like creatures they'd later call "Prawns". In a gesture that seems grand at first, the humans allow the Prawns to take over a section of Johannesburg they nickname... wait for it... District 9. The District rapidly turns into a slum and is overrun with corruption, crime, and apparently alien-on-human prostitution.

"Ew."

 

The crime in the District ends up spilling over into Johannesburg proper, and the human residents quickly get fed up with the shenanigans. They call in the authorities who decide that rather than cleaning up the District and chasing out the Nigerian crime lords, they'd rather relocate the aliens to a new District 200km outside of Johannesburg. 

The lucky sod who gets to spearhead this mission is Wikus van de Merwe, a real Michael Scott type. During the eviction, Wikus is injured and exposed to an alien fluid that we earlier see gathered by an alien named Christopher. This fluid starts doing Bad Things to Wikus, including making black fluid leak from his nose and his fingernails to fall out.

I love this image.

 

After collapsing at a party, Wikus is rushed to the hospital where it's discovered his injured arm has mutated into a Prawn's arm. Tests are done on Wikus and it's discovered he can fire alien weapons, which humans can't because they're biologically locked to the Prawns. 

The Powers That Be decide to sell Wikus' body parts to the highest bidder. Wikus, for his part, disagrees with their decision and busts out. The rest of the movie then happens.

I was not impressed with the documentary-style shooting of the movie at first. I'm currently watching both The Office and Modern Family with my wife, and that style is wearing thin with me. That feeling quickly passed as things got more and more interesting. Wikus changed from being a twit who mugs for the camera (which is where my earlier Michael Scott comparison comes from) into a man driven by a desire to survive and see his wife again. It was a believable transformation, as Wikus is hardly an action hero type. He doesn't dive in and save the day, he doesn't exhibit superhuman abilities to withstand multiple bullet wounds, he just lucks and bungles his way through and somehow doesn't get everyone around him killed.

The biggest problem I had with the movie was the accents. As this movie is set in South Africa, not everyone is a native English speaker. I found myself rewinding and re-watching a few scenes to try and catch what was being said, for fear of losing a plot point. Again, this is not a problem with the movie - kudos to director Neil Blomkamp & co. for being authentic - bur rather a problem with me.

I rather enjoyed District 9, and the inevitable sequel the movie sets itself up for is long overdue. This movie comes highly recommended.

FINAL REVIEW

 

District 9

4 snowflakes out of 5

TL;DR - Highly enjoyable tale with interesting leads (namely Wikus and Christopher) that is well worth your 2 hours.

We're 2 for 2 in enjoyable movies! Let's see if tomorrow can make it 3.