District 9

The first thing that comes to mind is that I'm surprised, when I started watching District 9 I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew it was a sci-fi movie with aliens on earth but I was expecting the Hollywood cliché routine with humans owning some evil aliens. Instead I got an exciting ride with superb effects and production values, solid acting and a very fresh take on a sci-fi genre that seems to be losing more and more of it's soul as the production costs have gone up.

The movie starts off with the new and trendy documentary-style of telling the story through interviews and I wasn't really impressed and became worried that the whole movie was going to be done in this now overused style of film-making, but thankfully the interviews end and the movie focuses on Wikus. During the film we get to follow Wikus' transformation from a selfish yuppie to an anti-hero that you can really relate to, largely due to him being such an unlikely action hero.

With Wikus in focus the movie makes one quality leap after another, minute for minute. It's exciting and uncomfortable with obvious references to apartheid. The brilliant decision to set it in Johannesburg South Africa only reinforces these references to racism. It also does wonders to set the movie apart from your usual New York, Washington and L.A. being under alien attack storyline found in many sci-fi movies from Hollywood. The movies is not that subtle with it's themes but they are well thought out and executed.



The greatness of the film comes from the fact that it really plays with your emotions and perceptions on right and wrong, at first felt uneasy how I - like the other humans in the movie - despised the aliens, that they scavenged through garbage and their generally ungrateful animal behavior. Simply put they appeared as oversizes barbaric insects that would be in everyone's interest to put down. I feel righteous anger and instantly side with humanity, I want war to break out and see humanity conquer.

But I hold back because in my head I can see where that path would lead and I see human history repeating itself once again with the only difference being that this time the sacrificed abused minority would not be from our planet. None the less the result would be the same and wrong, so I stop myself and let the film continue. Still I am unable to be sympathetic towards the alien creatures but the sympathy comes with the introduction of the alien Christopher Johnson and his little boy.

The high production values really come to play here and how the filmmakers have managed to make these aliens look intimidating and expressive at the same time, their eyes in particular really show off emotions. You can really see the intelligence behind the eyes and you wonder how the humans could consider them barbaric when they were the ones acting like bullies and animals. The aliens were after all the ones who came here in a hi-tech spaceship and clearly have some advanced technology.



District 9 is one of those films that just keeps on giving and getting better as the story unfolds. The special effects are amazingly believable and there is no toning down with the gore and action here. Wikus is an extremely likable hero who is kind of goofy and stupid but in the end goodhearted. The action and the heart-pounding pace are near perfect except for the uneventful intro. Yeah, there are a few plot-holes but I overlook and forgive them because the rest of the package is so complete and refreshing. It's really been too long since I saw a great sci-fi movie so this film has been long overdue. Check it out!