"We have everything but a good script. And that's A-okey."

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2009)

The hype around District 9 (2009) was big a few months ago and I also in a way was taken by it: from the first released pics and teaser trailers I "already knew" that this would be a great one. I wanted it to be something original and different, maybe even a modern classic of some sort. Sadly, the finished film isn't any of those things.
The film's premise is an interesting one (minus the multiple plot-holes), presenting a very obvious reference to the apartheid and people's common intolerance towards anything "alien" (and that being real aliens in this case), but the story that follows is a downslope from a somewhat good first half of the film to an unimaginative action rampage that destroys everything the first half had managed to accomplish.
The film is presented mostly in a documentary -style but the feel of supposedly watching one is lost very early on in the film. It wasn't solely the plot-holes, the far-fetched story elements or such but the way the film was shot and edited – it's not a documentary I'm watching. Also, the beginning feels a lot like an extravagant episode of the Office (with all the goofiness and quirky characters presented) or something like that, rather than a seriously taken story of man who loses everything.
The star of the show, Wikus Van De Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley) feels more like an unused "white collar office worker" -caricature from some sketch -show, than a successful government agent leading the relations between the human race and the extra-terrestial refugees. Sharlto does decent job with the character even though the character's arc from a quirky pencil pusher to Rambo 2010 is everything but believable – or interesting.
The film looks good; the CGI is decent, the hand-held camera style fits the events and the South African slum setting is well put together (though in parts unbelievably racist: the way the Nigerians are presented in the film is a very odd and miscalculated step in my opinion). Technically the film is OK but the story and the script possess all the elements that keep District 9 from rising above the sea of mediocriticy; heavy thematical underlining, lousy story elements, poor character development, unimaginative dialog and so forth. The premise offered an endless array of great stories to tell, it's kind of sad that the most boring, the most easiest and the most obvious one was selected. 3/4