Aliens dubbed as Prawns have arrived in
a big spaceship (over Johannesburg,
South Africa) twenty years ago.
The two million insectiod aliens have been segregated into crowded and dangerous slums.
Nigerian criminals have been exploiting the Prawns by charging high prices for cat food and even trading cat food for
alien weapons they can’t even work (it’s a DNA thing) The prawns
eat cat food like it’s a drug or catnip to them. Meanwhile, the South African
government has called in MNU (MultiNational United- a private military contractor/ weapons company) to evict the Prawns from
District 9 and move them to a new location 250 km away to a
place known as District 10. Wikis Van De Merwe (newcomer Sharlto Copley who comes
off like a smart nerdy version of Borat at first) is heading the team to evict the prawns from District 9 in less than honest ways. Meanwhile,
two of the prawns plan to find a way home. Wikis accidentally gets exposed
to the fluid that the aliens have been collecting for 20 years. Wikis starts
transforming and escapes from MNU custody after they want to dissect him for his mutating DNA.
He forms an unlikely partnership with one of the Prawns, Christopher Brown, as he tries to find a way to fix what is
happening to him.
DISTRICT 9 is in many ways an awesomely
insane and intelligent sci-fi action film. It explores what could
happen to aliens (that don’t look like us) if they got stranded here. Then
you have a man who doesn’t want to be a hero as he wants to get back to his wife he was forced to leave behind due to
being exposed to alien DNA. The movie combines documentary footage
and video camera footage with what looks like a regular movie to get a dazzling hybrid unlike anything anyone has seen for
a while. DISTRICT 9 is thought provoking along with a little humor. The film you can compare it to would be ROBOCOP.
DISTRICT 9 is this year’s ROBOCOP. It manages to mix commentary
on today’s issues with humor and action just like what the first ROBOCOP did.
First time feature film director Neill
Blomkamp comes up with an exciting and imaginative $30 million dollar sci-fi film in what amounts to what you can do with
a small budget if you plan it out. It is an expansion of a short film
Neill did called Alive in Joburg. DISTRICT 9 was filmed in South Africa
with Peter Jackson as producer. Jackson and Blomkamp put together DISTRICT 9
after Blmokamp’s first chance at directing fell through after 20th Century Fox and universal bulked at a
first time director handling a $145 million adaptation of the HALO video game. I
wonder if the same guys who decided Blokmkamp couldn’t handle will be banging their heads against the wall after seeing
how well DISTRICT 9 will do at the box office. The film does leave open
enough threads open for a sequel (DISTRICT 10, anyone?). The buzz
surrounding DISTRICT 9 is dead on target and it is even better than other buzzed about films like CLOVERFIELD. Go see DISTRICT 9 now and see what people are raving about.
This movie review is (c)8-14-2009 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
