Salt Lake Tribune Review
About the only way \"District 9\" -- a bloody marvelous action movie that\'s part science-fiction allegory and part unabashed mayhem -- could get more in your face is if it was shot in 3D, so that the alien appendages and spurting blood could land in your lap.
South African director
Neill Blomkamp nimbly sets up the backstory, in quick strokes and a documentary-like opening: 28 years ago, a UFO parked in the sky above Johannesburg, and just sat there for three months before any humans had the nerve to knock on the door. Inside the ship, the humans found about a million creatures living in malnourished squalor, apparently enslaved by the ship\'s now-absent overlords.
Flash-forward to today. The aliens, derisively nicknamed \"Prawns\" for their crustacean-like appearance, are living in a squalid shantytown called District 9, while the humans still haven\'t figured out how to make the aliens\' technology -- especially their weapons -- work. On this day, the Multi-National Union, the peacekeeping group assigned to handle the alien refugees, has decided to move the aliens out of District 9 and into a new camp far away from Johannesburg.
The MNU official in charge of the move, a none-too-bright bureaucrat named Wikus Van De Merwe (
Sharlto Copley, in a ballsy acting debut), tries to get the aliens to sign the paperwork that serves as the legal figleaf for this mass relocation. But when Wikus stumbles on a container of alien fluid that gets sprayed in his face, all hell breaks loose.
Blomkamp, who co-wrote the script with
Terri Tatchell, delivers the action hard and fast and with plenty of curveballs. I haven\'t mentioned the Nigerian warlords who have set up a thriving black market in weapons and cat food (the Prawns\' favorite food), or the military\'s secrets underlying the alien eviction, or the one friendly alien with whom Wikus forms an uneasy bond (think
Nick Nolte and
Eddie Murphy in \"48 Hrs.,\" except Nolte\'s more lifelike).
All of the above is delivered at a furiously kinetic pace, with violence so immediate and visceral that it splashes blood and guts (fake, of course) right on the camera lens. But unlike the empty-headed violence of some summer blockbusters (I\'m talking to you,
Michael Bay), Blomkamp employs his action to create a compelling drama that\'s also a striking parable of the troubles of immigrants, refugees and mankind\'s inhumanity to fellow bipeds.
Blomkamp also has a secret weapon: His executive producer, Oscar-winning director
Peter Jackson (\"The Lord of the Rings\"), whose New Zealand special-effects house Weta Workshop created the eye-grabbing special effects. Weta\'s wizards outdo themselves in creating surprisingly emotive and lifelike Prawns, contributing to the you-are-there authenticity that makes \"District 9\" work so effectively.
-- Sean P. Means
Classic sci-fi for the modern age
Submitted by: retrobot
Just an all around great allegorical sci-fi movie with more layers to the story than I thought it would have. Great acting and fantastic effects — it succeeds on many levels. It's amazing that they did it all on a $30 million dollar budget.
Just as thought provoking as classic sci-fi tales, this is definitely "The Day the Earth Stood Still" for this generation.
Unexpected and thought-provoking
Submitted by: tivogirl
This film was amazing and not at all what I thought it was going to be. It is part sci-fi, part drama, part action flick, part buddy film. The effects are incredibly realistic and Sharlto Copley's performance is astounding. It is impossible to believe he has never acted before! Even if you don't like sci-fi or think you won't like this movie, go see it. You won't be disappointed!
The rundown: Director
Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi drama about refugee aliens in a Johannesburg shanty is both riveting action and thoughtful allegory. 112 minutes. (SPM)
Synopsis: Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United, a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare – they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA. The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable – he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.
I agree. I don't see many movies in the theater anymore, but this one is definitely on my list. [ Report Abuse ]