District 9

District 9 (2009): South Africa/New Zealand – Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Rated R by the MPAA – contains graphic bloody violence and gore, profanity

I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, so yesterday I asked Aimee if she was interested in watching it with me.  She asked how violent it was and I replied that the MPAA only said it contained bloody violence and pervasive language.  I figured bloody violence would be something like people and aliens getting shot and bloody spurting out.  She watched the trailer and agreed to see it with me.

Well, the MPAA wasn’t exactly right.  Instead of gunshots and some bloody spurting we are treated to both bloody and gooey wounds, limbs getting blown off, heads ripped away from their bodies, entire people exploding, and a pig getting shot at someone!

Going in I had been intrigued by the prospect of a fairly original science fiction movie, judging by the early buzz.  I was not disappointed.  I had stayed away from most of the early reviews so didn’t actually know that much about the plot.  I knew there was a giant alien mothership over Johannesburg and that all the aliens were encamped in a slum called District 9.  After that I figured some stuff happened and things got crazy.  Knowing that much was good, as it enabled the movie to unfold in unexpected ways.

To begin with, it’s shot partially in a documentary format, with numerous scenes containing news footage complete with announcers and tickers along the bottom.  There is also a lone cameraman who follows the main character around; his footage is interspersed with security camera film and regular movie making to lend a different atmosphere to the proceedings.

The aforementioned main character is Wikus Van Der Merwe, played by first timer Sharlto Copley.  He’s a boob working with Multi-National United, the company tasked with maintaining security in District 9.  His father-in-law is in charge of the place and gives him a big promotion: coordinating the mass eviction and relocation of the entire alien population.  There are some problems, though.  To begin with, the aliens are 7-foot tall insects, rather strong but also easily killed.  To cap it off, there’s a group of Nigerian gangsters preying on the refugees, selling them cat food (the catnip-like food that the aliens adore) at exorbitant prices.  As the plot progresses the aliens, gangsters, MNU, and Wikus move closer toward direct conflict.

I really don’t want to spoil any more than that.  It doesn’t disappoint.  The entire time it looks amazing.  We saw it in a digital theater, which made it that much more impressive.  It looks like a major Hollywood studio spent $200 million on it, but instead we have this small South African group of relatively unknown actors and craftsmen working with a New Zealand effects company and a mere $30 million.  The sound is amazing, the directing is fine.  There’s a wonderful mixture of nice, steady long shots and some of the kinetic action quick cuts.  It never gets too disorienting, and that alone is rare in action films these days.

There’s not much bad to say about it.  If you love science fiction or action films, you will have fun.  It’s a fair bit different from most other science fiction films out now, with some fairly obvious social commentary thrown in.  It’s intelligent, violent, and occasionally thoughtful.  Through it all we can tell the filmmakers are having fun too.  There are some laughs and cheeky asides, much like what Jackson and Sam Raimi have done in the past.  It is very violent, so don’t let the MPAA’s inaccurate rating description confuse you.  I hope it does very well this weekend and I sincerely hope Blomkamp finds plenty more work and has several more great ideas up his sleeves.