Strange things are afoot in DISTRICT 9

From the opening moments of District 9 it seemed that the hype just might be true. The docu-style footage is well crafted and set up the story extremely well. Like the energizer bunny though, it keeps going and going and…. Finally, after what seemed like at least 20 minutes the story takes off in a pretty big way. The configuring of the plot aside, District 9 has a strong and interesting premise that will suck you in.

District 9 is the ghetto the South African government has provided for the aliens of a broken down space ship resting above Johannesburg. D-9 is a horrible place to make your home, even to creatures from another planet. The government has constructed a newer, better (smaller) concentration type camp 200 miles out-side of the city and plan to relocate the 1.8 million aliens to District 10 in an effort to calm the tensions between humans and non-humans. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is in charge if the relocation process and is assigned to evict the aliens from their current home. Once inside D-9 amongst the life sized lobsters the tensions build between both sides as Wikus laughs as he aborts alien babies and torments the inferior race of aliens. Bad mistake.

Again, it seemed like all the hoopla surrounded this Peter Jackson produced Sci-Fi thriller was deserved. Then it dawned on me…the allegory that this film has been so obviously geared towards loses its direction and becomes what I had hopped it wouldn’t; a straight up action flick. Die Hard meets The Fly. I love me some action, don’t get it twisted, but this was an opportunity to say something about our society as a whole and they set us up for it. Unfortunately they forgot about what was really going on as soon as the shit hit the fan between the humans and the non-human. The story gets weaker and weaker and even manages to deliver some extremely cliché action-movie lines.

In the end, despite it’s meandering plot this is a movie worthy of the big screen. If you are into action flicks and the familiar story lines that they deliver this movie is for you. Don’t anticipate any huge emotional moments or revelations even though at times they try. 

My Vote: Buckle up and settle in for a lot of exploding body parts. Go see it on the big screen.

District 9....The Backstory

District 9 has an interesting story that is worth being explored. Niell Blomkamp, the writer/director of one of this summers most anticipated films is 29 years old. The fact that he has been tinkering with computer generated graphics for 15 years should strike you as surprising. With several commercials and advertisements under his belt, Blomkamp directed Alive in Joburg, a six-minute short film that would later become the feature District 9. 

Based mainly on the ideas and execution of Alive in Joburg, and with a little help and guidance from Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson, Blomkamp found himself at the helm of the motion picture adaptation of the widely popular video game HALO. With months of work already completed and over 200 workers already employed HALO, sputtered, stalled, and went back up on the self over copyright disputes.

With out skipping a beat, Jackson proposed that the budding filmmaker take his short film to the next level. District 9 was born. Blomkamp spent his first 18 years in Johanisberg South Africa and witnessed first hand the effects of Apartheid. It is no secret that District 9 was made as an allegory of sorts and has many paralleling story lines to the sad tales that have come out of South Africa in years past. 

Check out Alive in Joburg below