Movie Review

District 9

“District 9” comes into theaters with a documentary style and a lot of advanced hype centered around it. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, previously a 3-D animator on “Smallville," and produced by Peter Jackson, the film has been buzzed about being the sleeper hit of the summer. That’s heavy praise and unfortunately “District 9” comes up a few inches short of meeting it.

Sharlto Copley plays the central character, an “aww shucks” sort of field operative named Wikus who no one takes very seriously at the home office of MNU, a company in charge of keeping the shipwrecked aliens (called Prawns) of Johannesburg’s District 9 at bay. The aliens have been evacuated from their mother ship and fenced into the area in South Africa, but US citizens are rioting and hate the rising cost of housing the aliens on Earth, so Wikus is promoted to go in and lead the charge to evict them. Diplomacy doesn’t work however and the aliens defend themselves with force, infecting Wikus with black fluid in the process. Soon alien DNA is mixing with his own. His left arm even turns into an alien claw, as will the rest of his body if he doesn’t receive help. On a positive note however, now that he has their DNA, he also holds the key to activating their weapons. The people at MNU, who only care about the alien technology, take Wikus and hope to harvest his DNA, but he escapes into District 9 where he agrees to help an alien father, named Christopher, and his young son raid MNU to get back the black fluid that will help power their downed mother-ship so that they can go home. In return, Christopher agrees to help Wikus rid himself of the alien DNA.

Through interviews and recorded footage inside District 9, Blomkamp wets our appetites with promises of secrets about the compound, talk about the public outcry against the aliens, the violation of their civil liberties, how the South Africans and the aliens are co-habitating together (scams, weaponry sales, and even inter-species prostitution among other things) and several other problems that have arisen from the aliens docking on Earth. “District 9” is strongest in the early going as it presents these themes but as soon as Wikus becomes a fugitive, the documentary style is abandoned for one long chase simplistically carried out where MNU is the one-dimensional cruel villain and the aliens are the one-dimensional innocents. Bullets fly, lots of things getting blasted, but nothing all that interesting is done with the plot.

The aliens are a fun and good-looking cross between crickets and preying mantis and Wikus’ transformation from human to alien, which includes losing fingernails and skin, is grossly entertaining. Copley turns in a performance of sheer desperation and fear that adds suspense and David James is viciously over-the-top as the hunter after Wikus. “District 9” has its pleasures. Those looking for action will enjoy the blast but those seeking a broader plot may feel a little bored.

Craig's Grade: B-

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%