The Proud Mary of SciFi

Rating: 10/10 (8 November 2010)

"District 9" is the 'Proud Mary' of Science Fiction. It starts out slow and measured, giving us a sensatory visual of the guy who is going to help us experience his worst nightmare. Wikus begins as a nerdy, inept guy chosen by a large corporation to evict aliens from their razor-wired stockade to relocate them to a location out of sight and out of mind. He is determined to get the job done and indifferent to the predicaments this will heap upon them. It appears that the government of Johannesburg, AF initially takes at least a small amount pity on the plight of the aliens, but soon simply ignores them for as long as possible. And, this is where we go from slow and deliberate to a steady surge in story and action. Copley basically does a one-man show and he does it brilliantly. He goes from being a geeky civilian, simply a part of 'the system' who is safe and secure existing within life's routine who then, through a gamut of mind-blowing, out-of-this-world, life and body altering events, suffers a forced conversion of mind, body and soul of which he must decide a direction.
The manner in which this film seems to, more accurately than most, reflect the human reaction to situations of so-called 'good vs. evil' is impressive. Wikus, like most of us, operates comfortably within the policies and procedures and rules and regulations of job and society, moving myopically within the herd, until he is virtually compelled to do otherwise. In fact, at that point, I felt abandoned right alongside him. Still, it takes in-the-face trauma and violence for Wikus to perceive both his world and that of the aliens in a more representative light. Ironically, he still maintains his agenda, attempting to recoup his own losses, until, well... Anyway, are we not most like him?
Finally, the alien child is a character study in itself. The child is the only creature in the entire movie who thinks as an individual, deciding who to like and who to distrust, and so the scripture, I would think, "But Jesus said to them: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such." Matt 19:14
Well, I hope I am still around in 2012 to experience the sequel.