Review: District 9

I realized yesterday that I hadn’t written this up yet, which is rather uncharacteristic of me… I saw “District 9” on Sunday right before going to Whitney’s going-off-to-college party, and seeing Brett up at Westport…and then I had a committee meeting to work on…

This is one of those movies that kinda snuck up on people, and was released at the perfect time: the end of summer when there’s, mostly, nothing else out…and won’t be for awhile yet… It reportedly cost $30 million to make and grossed $37 million on its opening weekend, so it was a gambled that apparently paid off admirably.

The movie is actually based on a short film, “Alive in Joburg,” that was released in 2005 and made by the same director, Niell Blomkamp. “Alive” made quite an impression on Peter Jackson, as he saw it, loved it, and decided to produce a feature length movie based on the same material.

The plot centers around what happens after an alien spacecraft “runs out of gas” and gets stuck, hovering above Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1982. The beginning of the movie is set up as a documentary, where they do interviews with sociologists and politicians talking about how the “integration” of these aliens went into Johannesburg in the first few years. Set 20 years later, we find that the aliens are now relegated to District 9, slums that are maintained in the Johannesburg area, where the aliens are forced to stay and live. A conglomerate, Multi-National United (MNU), oversees much of their well-fare, providing them with food and security (but really just keeping them in these slums, in terrible living conditions). We later find out that MNU is also the world’s second-largest weapons manufacturer, and researching alien weapons is proving lucrative for them. The movie begins with MNU starting to relocate the aliens to a site further from the city, a place dubbed “District 10” (sequel, anyone?), which really just consists of white tents that remind you of what FEMA did after Katrina hit.

So yeah, while the movie is definitely “sci-fi” in scope, there are so many other issues being dealt with throughout, not the least of which is racism and genocide, set ironically in the backdrop of a place once ruled under Apartheid.

Suffice to say, it’s an excellent movie and one I’m probably going to want to pick up. Definitely the second-best movie I’ve seen this summer (behind…well…you know…). The effects, while containing noticeably-CGI-created aliens, were very good considering the budget…and leagues above that seen in “G.I. Joe.” The acting was quite good, especially considering that the cast consisted entirely of no-name actors.

But most importantly, the movie provoked a reaction. Whether it made you sick to your stomach to see an alien being beaten down by military officers for no reason, or you saw them being experimented on, or you saw their living conditions, you begin to imagine how, sadly, this kind of thing is happening right now…to human beings. It really does make you think, which isn’t necessarily something you expect out of the summer blockbuster scene.

Really, it just makes me fear what humans would do if aliens actually did get stuck here. I bet it would look a lot like “District 9.”