District 9 is the capital of every ghetto town

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2011)

Saw this one for the very first time back in Christmas Eve 2009, on DVD. Loved it. I finally saw it for the second time today, this time on Blu-Ray. Had the same feeling, certainly. In what is my second favourite 2009 movie (just behind Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds") we have an early sort of warning: "to everyone's surprise, the ship didn't come to a stop over Manhattan or Washington or Chicago but instead coasted to a halt directly over the city of Johannesburg". It's like an announcement that basically warn us that this is not going to be our typical alien movie, not the "aliens coming to kill us all" kind of thing. Just like its filming style (at first presented as a documentary, as we see footage and post-events interviews, and later as a regular movie), it's a hybrid that successfully adapts classic sci-fi elements to the human condition. We are told that the aliens (the prawns) "were extremely malnourished, they were very unhealthy they seemed to be aimless". Like I said, this isn't a very typical setting. So think in every little thing that happens in a slum, or just in society in general and add the sci-fi element of having aliens. It's just great. It's like a new world but really is just everything that happens in our world: the prawns have a strange addiction to cat food, then there you have the humans (the "Nigerians", the only human group who lives with the prawns in the District 9) selling or changing for weapons the precious cat food to the prawns. The prawns are stuck in Johannesburg, they get to know the human condition, and they become in the "people" from the ghetto.
My uncle said to me, when I told him I had just seen again "District 9", "isn't Wikus -the protagonist of the movie- sort of like the protagonist of "Brazil"?". And I was like "yes, both are like a innocent protagonist, kind of soft, but only at first sight or in real life". Plus, both characters work for the *system*. So, I didn't really think in a movie like "Brazil" after seeing this one, but after my uncle said that to me I immediately recall the words of both Edgar Wright and Richard Kelly when they presented it at the New Beverly Cinema back in January. Their sort of love letter to Terry Gilliam's masterpiece (my personal favourite of him so far) basically focused on how ambitious, how big the project was for its time and how great is visually and how many great visual gags offer to that kind of stuff. And they only mentioned the classic "not to mention" to reference to all the sociopolitical commentary of the movie. You can say pretty much the same for "District 9". Visually is a spectacular achievement. From character design to special effects, I have only love for it. And it ain't really a huge production ala Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay, as it only cost $30 million (great filmmaking style too). And so, there are lots of things to say when it comes to the "sociopolitical" thing of "District 9" (*everything is for the guns*). But it may be like "South Park" as its creators always say that their one and only job is to make people laugh and if their thing says something more, well good. It may be like "South Park" since its said that its director Neill Blomkamp set the movie in Johannesburg simply because he is from there! So all the Apartheid and the rest of "sociopolitical" commentary may be incidental or just something Blomkamp sees as secondary, but is nevertheless great.
But in the end, "District 9" is a masterpiece because, with its great and really attractive context, it makes you really care for the characters, it's really something emotive and exciting, hell it's just one of the last decade's best!