If you don't like it your a fooken prawn!

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2010)

District 9
I had an evening to kill in Kuala Lumpur before my flight home. I was hot, the air was humid, full of food I retreated to the haven of the air conditioned cinema where a purchased a ticket to the next film.... District 9.
Having avoided the trailers & hype for this film i was a blank canvas & was surprised as a spoof documentary followed the promotion of an unlikely character (Wikus Van De Merwe) in a munitions corporation in South Africa. The humour & originality prove excellent from the very start.
Set in the third decade following alien (aka The Prawns) contact with earth, interspecies relations are tense - stranded aliens are seen to be a burden on humans their unusual habits force segregation.
'District 9' a Prawn containment shanty town in Johannesburg, is set to be evicted by a militarised team headed by the newly appointed lead Wikus. All is going well until Wikus comes into contact with a secret alien chemical... From here on in the story spirals through a whirlwind of love, comradeship, torture & self sacrifice set in an alien apartheid.
An excellent film, wonderfully put together it lifts you with comic highs & then drags you down with moments of terror. Entertaining & thought provoking I really do recommend a viewing.
Great film. If you don't like it your a fooken prawn!
(Apartheid echos of the alien plight can be seen during film production. District 9 was not a constructed set, it was a previously residential governmental eviction zone - the people moved on to better government housing.)