Mockumentary surprisingly results in legitimate "traditional SF first contact" tale.

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2010)

Mockumentaries are tricky. They dally with logic stretches beyond the "norm" in their given topic, so they must appeal to the partial ignorance and vanity about that ignorance in their audience. Our question is whether the whole of D9's output is worthier than its tricks. -Happily, YES; D9 extracts black humour from the racism/Apartheid being satirized, yet tries hard to stretch its "norms" only a little.
In fact D9's mock is a high-wire act, partly for having such a serious subject-matter co-written for laughs by an expatriate South African(Neill Blomkamp's accent is now Canadian), but also for using digital exobiologic realism that surpasses previous alien character-designs, last seen within such a banal human environment 20yrs ago in Alien Nation(1988).
Therefore D9's primary originality comes in intercutting its plotted action with mock "found footage". Blomkamp's storytelling, because it's well done, amounts to Oscar-worthy editing. Such proficient deployment, for example, of "tv vision" successfully embeds us in a sense of history passing, giving the film considerable (mock) gravitas.
Blomkamp's and producer Peter Jackson(Bad Taste(1988))'s tastes do run to "blokey" schlock--cf the grisly objects, characters and "exploding meat-bags" in D9--but this grisliness is integral to its far more sophisticated story punctuating the value of life in a caustic slum.
The authentic Chiawelo location was a coup, but my hackles were raised when I found D9 to be missing worldwide perspective. Despite repeatedly referencing "the whole world watching" Joburg's "first contact", there is nil political influence on the locals and no worldwide commentary or footage--a glaring plot-point to have overlooked for Blomkamp's budgetary concerns.
Although it suffers from plot-rushing and a pile-up of "Hail-Mary-passes" during the last act, D9 manages to organically combine several Hollywood blockbusters with its own rare originality to result in a (surprisingly) legitimate "traditional SF first-contact" tale.
The film's success rests on (male) audience sophistication.
Realising that racism has an economic purpose pivots us toward the aliens to begin "rooting for" the film's rousing ending. The audience also traverses a huge emotional arc in tandem with the story's lead. Wikus(Sharlto Copley) is our hapless bureaucrat toiling for a multinational, until he's accidentally contaminated by intelligent alien nanofluid, becoming MNU's "most hunted".
Unfortunately, Blomkamp--a feature-novice director--neglects to verify his "MNU" (Multi_National_United) as NOT the UN; confused readers should consult the DVD 2nd-disc short "Conception and Design"(at 8:53m).
Blomkamp/Tatchell's collaborated screenplay paints Wikus a lame, "not very smart"(his mother) "good son" who's opportunistically racist toward anyone over whom he can exert control; but he still doesn't deserve what happens to him. Because Wikus' character was seeded as wary of the downside of "cowboy"/mercenary ethics, we trust he'll rise above his pathetic cowardice. He even instructs his hand-picked field replacement--a black man smarter than himself, Fundiswa(Mandla Gaduka)--how to butt heads with the military subcontractors lead by Koobus Venter(David James). During this funny beat on military/civilian enmity, Koobus' team refer to Wikus as "the FNG"(F'cking New Guy), while Wikus quips about them with an inverted adage:"They shoot first, then they ANSWER questions"!
D9's black comedy is sustained by Wikus' racism ("No, don't shoot it NOW, it's illegal to do that"), and by the Mengele-like surgeon so interested in Wikus' "strong pain reaction" to being skewered with a "DBX7" during human/alien experiments! Observant viewers will note Blomkamp's unwillingness to "fix" this scene (for a conclusion that the patient's "nerves have fused", Wikus needed to skewer himself)--simply because then it wouldn't be funny.
Audience relatability to our hero "prawn" Christopher Johnson (rotomated replacement of actor Jason Cope)--note the moniker-similarity to Blackhawk Down(2001)'s "skinnies"--was contingent on our empathy for the facial/physical features of Christopher's design; we're left to gather that such human names were assigned to 1.8million aliens by overtired Alien Affairs officers, just as in Alien Nation(1988).
The bipedal insect concept allows these aliens to be human-like even in size, but their facial expressions needed to be hauntingly mammalian, not arachnoid. That was delivered by movable facial scaling and the obviously MAMMALIAN over-sized eyes of.....chimpanzees, apparently.
And indeed, the most audience-grabbing achievement of D9 for me was its inclusion of "photo-real" aliens, bettering Avatar(2009) in 2D. (Cameron's WetaDigital artists either didn't start with situated-lighting cinematography, or relied on automated (less-accurate)animation for Avatar(2009)...!)
Thanks to Canadian SFX outfit Image Engine("Stargate"(2005-2007)), D9's ~35m of alien visuals really outstrip audience expectations. Their CGI was perfected with 1) WetaWorkshop's clever alien-character design, 2) panoramic/multi-angle light-source cinematography, and 3) Image Engine's hand-rotomated animation based on 2).
The cat-food-as-catnip-to-aliens idea was "homaged" again from Alien Nation(1988), the main "elephant-in-the-room" inspiration for Alive(2005)/D9. The creators leave it unacknowledged so their originality isn't dismissed by careless comparisons to a beloved earlier franchise (the TV series ended with AN:Dark Horizon(1994)).
During the home stretch, the graphic war violence deliberately resembles Blackhawk Down(2001), adding similar "yayli tanbur"(Turkish bowed lute) wailing music; the exo-suit's awesome anti-gravity weapon successfully distracts viewers from counting the "Hail-Mary-passes"; and seeing the Nigerians get their comeuppance minus bullets was deliciously reminiscent of Rabbit Fire(1951):us.imdb.com/Find?select=Quotes&for=buwwets!
Sadly that entire section of the film feels truncated, due to plot-rushing. There's insufficient vision of the exo-suit, plus it's too easily--not to mention farcically--crippled by human bullets. It stumbles around wounded, anthropomorphically "bleeding" nanofluid and being altogether too derivative of Robocop(1987)'s Ed-209.
So D9 sometimes tries too hard to be "Hollywood popcorn SF", but it accommodates a rather surprising un-Hollywood ending. One last poignant "documentary" flourish of Wikus waxing lovingly about his wife proves painful when intercut with the last scene on the heels of the bookending interviews. Such a romantic close was a worthy end to this almost-plausible, rich, fast-paced story.
With its blatant pillorying of xenophobia coupled with Enemy Mine(1985)-type buddy action and even spousal romance, D9 is sure to prick naysayer consciences worldwide. It has entered the venerable SF pantheon of "Stargate", "Star Trek", "Alien Nation"...Welcome, D9.(9/10)