If this film was set in another country I still might not understand why it is so racist

Rating: 1/10 (1 July 2012)

I doubt whether Peter Jackson or his cohorts will ever read this, but this is aimed at them.
I am thinking that you wanted to make a socio/economic film that incorporated alien existence rather than the other way round. You make that fairly obvious in the introduction emphasising Johannesburg 1982 as the setting for the alien ship's berth, not Manhattan, Washington or Chicago. Good, no Hollywood "Escape from New York" shenanigans here, just a novel idea of placing a put upon minority within a put upon majority. Stand back and watch the results. Even better, the loathing of the long-term slum dwellers towards the new intruders is clearly brought out. What a brilliant premise with which to explore how a manipulative minority power over a course of time wields its authority via the divide and rule approach.
From there on you badly got it wrong. First, you ignored the 26 years of history between 1982 and 2008. South Africa has not changed, Nelson Mandela never existed. By 2008 don't you think that a task-force engaged to interact with the aliens would not be led by remnants of the old apartheid regime? Also, why not develop the context of hate between the 2 oppressed populations? Having to share the same limited resources, having to live together cheek by jowl could have been a perfect scenario for exploration of forging relationships by necessity despite mutual distrust. Instead you give us forced removals where the only indigenous resistance is undertaken by a migrant group of Nigerians whose only virtue for doing so is greed and perceived benefits from eating the aliens they do not profit from.
Do you wonder why the film was banned in Nigeria? So I give you no credits for inventiveness and for continuing the status quo of the oppressed having their problems frame worked, analysed and dealt with externally. If you really wanted to be innovative why not have the alien ship hover over the West Bank and mix the aliens with the indigenous communities there? Now that would be inventive, and brave.
Lastly, to those who consider this film to be so good, how can the last third of it, which is a direct amalgam of Total Recall meeting Robocop ED 209 with Sigourney Weaver inside, excite any self-respecting film buff? One vote for the writer who thought of the term "prawn", it is a fitting summation of the whole project.