District 9

Title: District 9
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Drama, (Comedy)
Starring: Sharlto Copley
Director: Neill Blomkamp

Having not been living under a rock for the past few months, inevitably my attention had caught upon this film promising the latest and greatest in sci-fi thrillers, and whilst my enthusiasm had waned after the abysmal effort of ‘Pandorum,’ it is seeing Peter Jackson’s name on the bill as producer that spurred me on, having the financial backing to make something monumental. Except it isn’t; neither an epic classic in the making or a complete failure, instead the only real aspect that feels grand is the fact that it seems $30 million can vanish into thin air and miraculously be replaced with an Oscar nomination. What we have on our hands is possibly the most overrated and over hyped film since ‘The Dark Knight.’

A mysterious large ship emerges over Johannesberg, silently hovering without explanation until progressive thinking politicians decide to break their way in and explore, discovering it filled with millions of starving aliens. Riots emerge, alien rights activists demand fair treatment of the other worldly creatures, until they realise they love to destroy and kill things for no reason and so promptly cordon them off into ‘District 9,’ a specially created city that soon deteriorates into a slum under military observation. Fast forward twenty years and it is the lead in Wukus that drives the story, his plight from his early days as a pen pushing moron, promoted due to his connections to the boss (married to the bosses daughter) he soon finds himself amidst District 9 handing out eviction notices. Through his own incompetence he becomes infected with an alien liquid, slowly mutating into one of the creatures (since dubbed ‘Prawns’); wanted by his own government for dissection, he seeks refuge within District 9 desperately looking for a cure.

The main reason for this film failing to make a real impression is that it appears to be trying to be everything to everyone; it opens with a mockumentary that derogatorily mocks the ‘prawns’ – even by calling them prawns you are degrading them automatically – filled with jokes such as showing them wearing bras and amusing ‘Humans Only’ posters, and perhaps even worse than that, sets the lead up for failure as well. A nerdy character, snivelling and selfish, promoted because he married the bosses daughter (adding incompetent to the list) that inspires no confidence in his abilities, garnering no sympathy as in the opening moments we see his joy and incompetence as he massacres the aliens.

By the end, its forgotten it was meant to be documenting his journey and switches jarringly to a more conventional point of view to play out like an all out action blockbuster without the budget. The violence often rearing its head in a manner often extends and pointlessly detracts from the scene – one with alien eggs in particular more confusing than anything as you try to work out what the image is detailing – making gratuitous use of ‘lets splatter fake blood on the camera lens’ a good two or three dozen times throughout the course of the film, which is not only annoying to those less accustomed to blood in their films, but frustrating to those who are now incapable of seeing past it and to the various weapons concocted by FPS gamers and re-imagined for the big screen.

The CGI felt dated, perhaps more in design and conception than in the money thrown into its development, and whilst I may have been spoiled by ‘Avatar’ I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of the creatures from the most recent Star Wars Trilogy – perhaps a bit like a combination of “Watto” and something from 'Transformers' – but the inevitable difficulty of coming to empathise with such an alien character is never made easier by the poor implementation and alien design. It took me half the film to realise I was probably intended to as beyond this oversight there is no bond between the characters, the most minimal of character development between the characters and absurd situations prevent any genuine sense of relationship occurring[1][2]. The plot can’t keep itself rooted to one genre, cutting elements from many but never the whole resulting in a half-baked concoction that raises more than a few questions[3].

The concept is original though, and that is its main saving grace; opening with a comedy, meandering aimlessly for a bit and then ending with an all out action romp, it simply tries to do everything and leaves everything unresolved and unexplained[4][5]. Whatever way you look at it, in some manner it has failed; a comedy that fails to produce more than a couple of chuckles; an action romp that takes an hour to get going; a sci-fi without any form of explanatory science; a drama where you don’t care for the characters; a mockumentary which whilst apparent, never bludgeons you with ‘apartheid is bad,’ messages though is perhaps even insulting in itself, comparing Africans to these savage and ignorant ‘Prawns.’

This is a film that has me a little confused; I don’t want to derogatorily refer to fans of the film as simple minded who are easily enticed by anything that isn’t either a re-make or Hollywood action, but I can’t see the attraction here. The fact it was filmed on location, as well as the unknown cast performing better than I would have expected are nice additions that fail to make up for the severe plot issues, not in the least the fact not a single character remains at all likeable. It all feels like a sort of cross between ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Starship Troopers,’ and I’m not sure what the director really wanted to accomplish. If it was a sci-fi thriller as billed, the sci-fi lacks plausibility and the thriller portion fails to provide a thrill. Whilst certainly not dreadful, there’s a lot left to be desired.

Below: I wasn't the only one who was disappointed by the ending.

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

1) There was at one point a defamation campaign against our unlovable lead Wikus with doctored images making it look like he frequently had sex with the aliens.

2) The Nigerians – the only ‘black’ characters in this satirical approach to apartheid – are the major black market dealers in District 9. Much of what they trade is cat food, which the aliens inexplicably love. Choosing something this absurd instantly alienates the viewer and makes it impossible to empathise.

3) Wait, two people with alien weapons can pretty much desecrate and demolish a good portion of their heavily guarded headquarters. Well, the aliens have a huge influx of them but are so primitive and savage that they simply use them for their own amusement, yet are smart enough to have mastered space flight and make bombs out of body parts in 10 seconds? So they’re smart enough to engineer highly advanced weaponry, but too stupid to actually shoot back? Convenient.

4) At no point were we explained anything about the aliens; why were they here? What did they want? Why did they sit in that ship so long? Why Johannesburg? Why Earth? Why did they not fight back? Why did they not ask for help when they first arrived rather than become hostile? What exactly was that fuel anyway? And why did it mutate the lead? Did the mothership simply ‘run out’ of fuel? If so, how is it still able to float for twenty years, and then be able to move later on in the film, before it had been refuelled? And if not, why sit there like ducks slowly starving? And this is just the questions presented on the surface, there is no mention of any depth to their societal, political or religious customs at all.

5) Too big a spoiler to give it all away, but the ending isn’t an ending. It may as well have had ‘to be continued’ at the end.