Discriminating in too many ways.

Rating: 1/10 (3 September 2009)

OK so there I was. Ready to be blown away. Having heard the whispers from everywhere; "The Movie of the year". I had already started to wonder why there weren't really any black people in the trailer, except for one or two strolling around in the background.
Now after having watched District 9 I am mostly upset and wondering if maybe I am from another planet too, or maybe I saw another movie than the rest of the critics did? So this is what I have been told now.
Nigerians are scum. They can't speak English in an understandable way!?! Their English conversations were subtitled in the US. They roll their eyes frequently and they are all bandits with no real emotions. Also it seems like they speak a few languages that are perhaps not too common amongst Nigerians!!!! (Swahili?) The whites are people who are performing cruel and hateful deeds but they are, never the less, just so much more developed and intelligent than any black person can ever hope to be. Only white people are cast for the high rank roles, oh yes except for the guy who is Wikus Van De Merwe's 2nd in command, but not even he hardly gets to talk at all. He is though, the only guy who's not getting a bulletproof vest in the helicopter and he just happens to be black. Well this might just be a sad coincidence but since the movie has been marketed as an anti xenophobic movie it just doesn't feel right.
The "Prawns", whom are supposed to be a metaphor for some of the black people (who are now still living in places like Soweto where this movie was filmed) during the apartheid, are described as workers, not very intelligent creatures, who have lost their leader and thus their direction in life. Oh my!!!
Also there are two women! That's it. Two women who have about four lines each throughout the whole movie. There is Wikus Van De Merwe's wife, this bleak personality described as an angle is white of course and then the witch doctor, this caricature like character who is of course black. The other women existing in the movie are either running by the camera in the turmoil of MNU lab explosions or screaming in the background because they are being raped. By whom? Can you guess? Yes of course, by the Nigerians with their rolling eyes! Oh yes forgive me I forgot, there are is one woman shown as a prostitute for a split second too. 112 min and that's it? What has happened to all the women in South Africa? The Marabou Stork must be burned out by now.
While watching I was trying to defend the movie with that it was not long ago since the apartheid system thankfully ceased to exist. Thinking maybe they really can't see how discriminating they still are. But what really bugs me is the rest of the worlds reactions. How come the critics seem so completely unaware of the obvious problems with the movie? As a story it was kind of thin, over-emotional and with a lot of gratuitous violence.
Rent it if you are curious or just spend your money on something more interesting instead.