Review: District 9 (2009)

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Cast: Sharlto Copley, David James, Vanessa Haywood

The Deal: A group of aliens (referred to as Prawns) become refugees in South Africa living in slums, called District 9, which is controlled by MNU, the world's second largest arms manufacturer. Over the years, MNU's sole interest has shifted into unlocking the alien's technology, specifically their weapons, to gain an edge in the industry, and they now hire out mercenaries to help control the alien population. When MNU agent Wikus Van De Merwe (Copley) becomes infected with an alien virus that starts mutating his DNA to that of the alien's, MNU realizes he's the key to unlocking the alien weaponry. Not wanting to be a lab rat, Wikus escapes into District 9 where he joins up with a couple of unlikely alien allies, but MNU has no intention of letting him get away.

Thoughts: Wow. Really, I don't know of a better way to start this. Blomkamp has done a fantastic job in his debut, especially given the small budget he had to work with. The docu-drama style is incredibly effective and the story is quite original. Many critics are in love with the film for its endless amount of possible metaphors towards the real life situation in Africa, but until I hear Blomkamp confirm these, I'll just ignore them as fancy critic comments that most viewers have no care about. What does matter is whether or not the film is both good and entertaining. It's a very serious film for the first half, and it's only when the situation boils over at about the half-way mark when the action starts to build and the viewers finally see some alien technology at work. This works very well, as it informs the viewer of the entire situation from it's start until the present.

If you go to the IMDb page for the film and start looking up the actors, you'll notice one thing almost all of them have in common-- no previous acting credentials. I think that is a very big point to make given the performances in the film. Sharlto Copley is excellent in the lead as Wikus. He does a great job of portraying a character the audience can fall behind and understand, and his emotions are in check and quite natural. David James plays the lead mercenary, one of the few other characters in the film that actually gets some focus. He's the very hard-nosed and violence-loving mercenary (really, would you want anything less) that viewers will hate for his lack of emotion and compassion, but James plays the part perfectly. Aside from these two, the rest of the non-Prawn characters have very small roles, but in their moments, the actors and actresses are all fairly believable and register no complaints from me.

As I mentioned before, the first half of the film is very serious and informative. It's quite interesting, and if the entire film was that way, I'd still think it was a good film. What pushed it over the edge for me was the last half where the sci-fi action finally comes to life. I love sci-fi, so this may be far more pleasing for me than others, but from the general sound throughout the theater, most of the audience tended to agree with me. The alien technology is very cool, and a lot of thought and variety is displayed in their weaponry. There's your basic alien machine guns and what-not, but there's also an awesome lightning gun that contributes to a vast majority of the blood and gore since it causes its victim to explode. For all of you Half-Life fans out there, there is a gravity gun, and it is as cool and satisfying as one could ever hope for. As you would know, anything can become a projectile, whether it be inanimate or a living creature (wink, wink). Despite the small budget for the film, you'd never know it watching that last hour play out on screen.

Verdict: The docu-drama style excellently portrays the seriousness of the film while the sci-fi elements deliver all the action one could hope for. Blomkamp could not have hoped for a better directorial debut, and this has become my favorite movie of the summer. Go see it now. ☆☆☆☆1/2