These Illegal Aliens Can Stay

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2009)

For most of the year there have been trailers and promos for a unique looking film called District 9 that is produced by Peter Jackson. A buzz was rightfully generated as the trailers show a colony of shrimp looking aliens that happen to appear over Johannesburg, South Africa and end up in a slum designated as District 9 and the problems that ensue because of the visitors. But would the film deliver? Boy, does it ever. Forget Transformers, Harry Potter, (I wouldn't go near GI Joe). District 9 is the original sci- fi hit of the summer. It's the best film next to Hurt Locker, Julie and Julia for an otherwise average selection of summer movies. Feels like the summer of 2008 was a long time ago.
District 9 takes place 20 years after the aliens (which are derogatorily called Prawns) appear. They do not live in harmony with humans as a nice montage of the past 20 years shows us. It's actually a great metaphor for the immigration problem and more directly for South Africa itself...Apartheid. But, a government agency called MNU (Multi-National United), has decided to uproot the aliens and put them in a more confined area, more akin to a concentration camp. Leading the efforts for evicting the aliens is a dorky kind of bureaucrat named Wikus van der Merwe. While going from shack to shack Wikus gets exposed to a strange alien chemical substance that is concocted by the alien protagonist Christopher Johnson. Here the film turns into a Kafkaesque adventure where Wikus with the help of his only two "Prawn" friends, Christopher and his son are in a race against time to put things right...for both species.
District 9 comes to us from unknown Director, Neil Blomkamp, who also hails from Johannesburg, South Africa. He certainly has a great love for sci-fi films as all through District 9, you can spot homages to such films as Aliens, RoboCop, Star Wars, Independence Day, etc. He keeps the action steadily flowing in the all too prevalent documentary style of shooting, which is a lot kinder to the senses than Cloverfield. A pleasant surprise was the acting of also unknown actor Sharlto Copley, as Wikus. He truthfully brings out the imaginary circumstances that he is under without forcing or doing much indicating. He displays a nice range of varying emotions throughout the film as his character has a very interesting arc. For the most part, the rest of the acting is well done. The film is not without it's flaws and one certainly has to suspend much disbelief but despite the films' flaws, the story remains solid and the end result is science fiction fun that I highly recommend.