Comment for Humans only

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2010)

Amazing how far we've come in the Sci-Fi genre, thinking back to the 1950's of all those alien movies that always somehow involved an improper joke about the Russians. Nevertheless, since then some incredible movies have come out and one after another each one has either been groundbreaking or just.. Battlefield Earth. District 9 brings in a new audience with many current issues we have today that include immigration, segregation, capitalism and hopes of a better future then the current. District 9 was showered with nothing but positive reviews and was even offered the Best Picture Oscar. I'm not so sure I see it as the best thing as sliced bread as some other critics praised the picture to be, but I really did love this film. Back in the 1980's, a film called Enemy Mine came out and seemed to be overlooked. The film has a similar plot and had to be carried by two great lead actors, only difference being the setting. So I don't look at District 9 as highly original or groundbreaking, however it's still a great movie that I was very impressed with. So used to the image where most Sci-Fi movies have a clean stainless steal look to the aliens and their home, this film is dirty. The aliens are ugly, but have personality and are friendly with humans, to those who don't fight their unfortunate situation having to stay on Earth. The humans however are mostly evil, almost to a fault where it will take just one human to be put in place of being as isolated as the aliens are.
In District 9 a gigantic alien mother ship comes to Earth, hovering above Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months, a team breaks into the ship, discovering a group of over a million malnourished aliens, who are then given refuge on Earth. The aliens, derogatorily referred to as "prawns", are confined to a government camp inside Johannesburg called District 9. The camp is secured with a massive police presence, and it soon turns into a slum. Wikus, a young MNU employee, is promoted to an MNU executive to lead the relocation with the serving of illegal eviction notices. Meanwhile, three aliens, one named Christopher search for alien technology from which they distill a mysterious fluid, storing it in a small canister. Later, while raiding the shack of Christopher's friend, Wikus discovers and seizes the container, which when tampered with sprays a substance onto his face. The mysterious fluid makes him ill and consequently begins to turn his DNA and body into a prawn. MNU finds out and they force Wikus to test various weapons which he succeeds. Wikus, overpowers his captors and escapes. Now a fugitive, Wikus finds refuge in District 9 and eventually seeks help from Christopher. Christopher reveals to Wikus that the canister he was sprayed with is causing the mutation. He also states that the canister would allow him to reactivate the dormant mother ship and, using its equipment, he could reverse Wikus's mutation. Only problem is that the fluid was taken from Wilkus when he was put into the lab and they must now go back to retrieve it otherwise the aliens may never go home and Wilkus may never go back to his human form.
Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9 is really a mile stone in this fine film, he was only 28 years old when he made it. He has a true talent and a great eye, making the film partly into a mockumentary which I absolutely loved. It helped us get to know our anti hero of the film, Wilkus. Sharlto Copley who played Wilkus did a great job carrying the film, making us root for him at times but also hate him for all he did to the aliens in the first place by trying to evict them from their homes. Speaking of which, that was one of the best movie sequences I had seen, the aliens fighting their eviction and seeing how they live and are trying to adapt to the human's way of living. The one flaw to the film as I mentioned before is the human behavior, it's too evil to a fault. It's unbelievable that almost all the humans treat the aliens as trash, that the government was more interested in their technology vs. knowing the culture and life of these creatures. But District 9 was a great film and I would say that this is the best Sci-Fi film of the decade that I have seen. Very well done and a new classic that I'm sure will be mentioned in the future.
9/10