Surprisingly good allegorical presentation

Rating: 7/10 (11 August 2009)

In the 1950s, alien-monster films were often not just outer space flicks, they presented a hidden message (or sometimes NOT so hidden). Movies like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" railed against conformity, while "The Day the Earth Stood Still" preached an anti-nuclear peace theme and "The Thing (From Another World)" was an attack on Communism.
They don't make many allegorical tales, anymore. Most films today are pretty much straight-to-the-point, not much equivocation there. That's why the Peter Jackson-produced, Neil Blomkamp-directed "District 9" is so wonderful. It's an alien action/adventure picture as well as a thinly-disguised poke at the longtime South African policy of apartheid.
In fact, the movie takes place in Johannesburg where a huge, malfunctioning extra-terrestrial mother-ship is suspended moon-like above the city. Told in documentary style, the back-story explains that the craft first arrived in 1982 and just stopped. Searchers discovered a crew of malnourished and frightened aliens about, brought them down and tried to assimilate them into society.
Bad idea. No one wanted the aliens around 'cause they were different (resembling a cross between a shrimp and a cockroach), plus they rioted and caused all sorts of trouble (including stealing, killing and rummaging through dumpsters for cat food).
Having little choice, the South African government began rounding up the crustaceans and herding them into the slum camp, District 9. Here, things only got worse with fights, crime, fires, more riots and a ruthless gang of Nigerian humans led by a crippled warlord. Finally, when it comes time to move the occupants to a new, clean concentration camp facility (Distric 10), crews from Multi-National United (MNU) go from house-to-house to deliver eviction notices. Yes, it quite absurd to see this, as most "prawns" have no idea about what's going on.
Taking all of this seriously is Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a middle-manager milquetoast promoted by his father-in-law to lead the operation. During the evictions, however, Wilkus is sprayed with a foreign substance and his DNA begins to radically change.
When his condition is discovered, he is soon in demand to test the extra-terrestrials' weaponry which was heretofore inoperable in human hands. He soon becomes a fugitive, and so the MNU plants the phony story that he was having sexual relations with aliens to sully his reputation.
Wilkus also discovers that the liquid substance was a very important ingredient that could possibly aid the aliens in returning home; and that the MNU is not the benevolent corporation it claims to be.
Joining an E.T. named Chris, the much-hunted Wilkus now has to return to MNU headquarters and capture the liquid, all the while evading fascist government forces as well as fanatically violent Nigerian rebels.
Populated by unknown South African and Australian actors, "District 9" is "Aliens" meets "Starship Troopers" meets "Cry Freedom." The similarities between the prawns' predicament and the blacks who suffered under South Africa's racial policies is drawn immediately by Blomkamp ("Crossing the Line"), a native of Johannesburg himself.
The story is taut, direction is appropriately low-key, pacing is terrific and the CGI is great. It's one of the best movies of a disappointedly bland blockbuster season (only "Star Trek" and "Up" managing to impress on a big budget), and will give people something to think about while watching aliens, soldiers and rebels go at it.
There will be blood (and body parts), but there's also a message to the madness behind this film, "watch how you treat people, because that person may just be from another planet."