District 9 Review
Prawn. Its either something you eat or something you stay the hell away from because the ghastly seafood smell repulses you. Well actually now, it's a racist term.

District 9 is almost undoubtedly the best mainstream Sci-fi action film of this year. Whilst I haven't yet seen "Gamer" where Gerrard Butler plays a convict that must compete in a series of gladiatorial combat battles controlled by a kid playing a computer game (or rather it's Arny's The Running Man meets Counter Strike), I'm not hearing a lot of good things. That and District 9 is generally streaks ahead of the abysmal Transformers sequel that was only ever good whilst Optimus Prime was on screen and an enjoyable but ultimately lackluster Terminator Salvation.

Over the last few years, film producers have aimed at showing epic scenes in their trailers to try and draw in audiences. Unfortunately this often leads at viewers being disappointed that the trailer was better than the film, or that they'd seen all the best bits. District 9 on the other hand never attempted to do that. It worked on intrigue and was potentially rather confusing. I thought the film was going to culminate in an alien virus wiping out most of human life and so a small bunch of rebels were going to have to fight against their bug like overlords, to which I'd be yawning and poo-pooing it as a 50s b-movie wannabe. I didn't think it'd be a film with as much depth. Almost as a result, I want to tell you very little about the plot and might be better off making a few comparisons with the other blockbusters.

Where Revenge of the Fallen suffered from being aimed at eleven year olds with little or no effort in character development, misguided attempts at comedy (script writers take note: A) token black robots weren't funny in the first one B) there is only so many times we can laugh at dogs having sex C) Robot bollocks?) and scenes that had so much slow motion they almost went backwards, District 9 is crisp, believably written and contains depth to the scenario.

Where gaping plot holes might have deterred some viewer's enjoyment of Terminator Salvation, District 9 is about as water tight as can be for a sci-fi film. One could nitpick over bits and pieces but generally they can be overlooked if your prepared to suspend your sense of disbelief enough to watch a film about aliens living as refugees in Johannesburg.

Whilst both of these films got caught up in the standard Hollywood "destined one", what's refreshing about District 9 is that everything feels accidental. The protagonist, Wikus isn't your standard action hero; he's almost like a nervous but nice civil servant character. Whats great about this is we empathize with him as he faces the trials and tribulatons that he endures. Actor Sharloto Copley does a great job of working with the extensive blue screen being employed and the excellent CGI has its own sort of character. The prawn-like aliens have an interesting design to them and move in an intelligent way. The special effects of the weapons are also hugely entertaining and we're left wishing we had the ability to fire them ourselves even if it did mean being a little bit more extra-terrestrial than usual. From
imaginative and well thought out sci-fi universes, cult followings often bloom and I suspect District 9 will be do different due to the depth of the story and the variety of ideas being employed within it. Mixing voodoo and gang warfare into an "aliens come to earth" movie was borderline genius. One might try and say the film tries to be too smart for its own good because of it at times seems to have an underlying moral message and a broader comment on racism, politics, money and corporations (mixing apartide and aliens may also offend a few)and perhaps this is true at times but its hard to be vicious about it. District 9 is a film you will talk about after watching and you will want to watch a second time to pick up the things you missed.

For his first film, Blompkamp has ultimately done a great job. The variety in camera angles and effects adds to the intrigue and build of the film. By starting it as a documentary, using webcams, camcorders and helicopter gun sights we initially feel detached from the story and it whets our appetite. One could say that the transition from this style to traditional movie style is a bit clunky and if something similar were attempted again could be done smoother and with more gusto but at least its something new.

One other flaw you could complain about is the now almost bog standard use of orchestra used to score the film. Whilst it fits, it is almost an overly-standard Peter Jackson manuever. And therein lies my only other major gripe with this film is because of this new trend in big name directors "presenting" a film to bring in a crowd i.e. they say "yeah, I've watched it and I'll say it was good if you give me a cut". Fuck you Tarrintino for starting that.

Anyway, there you have it. On estimation, I'll say 2/3 people who watch this will enjoy it for at least something. There'll always be a snob who picks apart little things and there will always be some chav who doesn't enjoy it because it's got aliens in it. Fuck them, the film will probably win an oscar or two along the way for special effects, lighting or make-up. Go see it and worse case scenario you'll have an interesting debate on your hands afterwards.

**** (out of 5)