Allegory potentials not fully developed, which is not necessarily a bad thing

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2009)

This currently box office hit from a South Africa/New Zealand collaboration opens with some tantalizing suggestions of moving towards a allegorical dissertation of the world's racial problems, maybe even as specific as apartheid. This does not happen, which is not such a bad thing. Preachy action movies, whatever the subject matter is, are not easy to make and often end up being pretentious like some of the moments in the "Matrix" trilogy. After an initial brief nod at social/political commentary, "District 9" wisely steers towards the safe course of being a first-class sci-fi action.
The first twist comes at the very beginning, a complete departure from the almost mandatory plot of visiting aliens dominating our planet (think "Independence Day" and a thousand others). Instead, aliens in a colossus space station that stays completely motionless over Johannesburg are herded into a "District 9", sort of a refugee ghetto, where their numbers grow to over a million in 30 years. The story begins when the city, in collaboration with a global entity called Multi-National United (or M.N.U.) undertakes to relocate these aliens to a remote location, out of being an eye-sore to the citizens.
These aliens ("prawns") have a face that might have been borrowed directly from "Predators", and a body that remotely resemble a prawn (although they are complete with 4 limbs), and hence their nickname. Their speech, which may sound like something transported from the bar in "Star Wars", are intelligible to only a few who have studies them, among which is Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), our anti-hero type of protagonist with an accent that matches his name. The plot is lunched at full steam ahead when it turns into a combo of "the fugitive", "E.T." and "The fly".
Through an accident, Wikus is exposed to certain substance that slowly turns him into an alien, starting with the left arm. His alien friend Christopher (together with a young son) in the meantime is trying to re-activate the space station and go home. They team up as buddies. While M.N.U. military authorities try to capture Wikus and turn him into a biological experiment, he tries to help Christopher to recover certain "fluid" that will re-activate the space station, in return of a promise to restore him to normal human form. Another player is a Nigerian gang that controls the underworld of District 9. Between these various players, all hell breaks loose, producing some absolutely first-class action, real and CGI both, that promises to keep you at the edge of your seat.