Excellent movie that works on a multitude of levels!

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2009)

I'm always delighted when I see Peter Jackson's name above the title of a movie and while he didn't direct DISTRICT 9, the film is as brilliant as if he did. It's technically fantastic and emotionally wrenching, with all the action, imagination and elements that you would expect from a Jackson sci-fi classic.
The story centres on Johannesburg, South Africa, where a huge alien ship stalled in the skies way back in 1982. The film begins in a mock documentary fashion with reports suggesting the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth. The command module, however, couldn't be found and when humans discover a large group of unhealthy and leaderless prawn-like aliens, they house them in a camp, called District 9.
The camp quickly turns into a slum with the aliens, who have a taste for cat food and a seemingly low IQ despite their hugely advanced weaponry, competing with one another and swapping alien technology and weapons for cans of cat food. As the years pass, the alien creatures, derogatorily referred to as prawns, are treated like vermin and, in the early years of the 21st Century, a private military contractor, Multinational United, or MNU for short, is placed in charge of relocating the 1.8 million aliens to a new camp outside the city bounds, District 10.
Wikus van de Merwe leads the relocation and during a routine search of an alien hut he sprays himself with an alien fluid, becoming infected with a 'virus'. He falls ill and is taken to hospital when his left arm mutates into an alien appendage. Because the advanced alien technology is bio-engineered only aliens can use it, which leads to MNU becoming interested in Wikus. If his mutated arm is capable of firing the weapons then the genetic code locked in his body is potentially worth hundreds of millions or even billions to the military contractor that unlocks it.
Wikus goes on the run, takes refuge in District 9 and returns to the hut where he was infected. He partners with an alien called Christopher Johnson, who despite being initially hostile towards Wikus, becomes his only ally.
What follows is a fascinating chase movie, part sci-fi but all high tension action as the unlikely new friends form an alliance to get Christopher home and to make Wikus fully human again.
DISTRICT 9 works on a multitude of levels. It's a satirical look at racism. It's a hugely enjoyable, blood splattering action flick. It's a fantastic chase film. It's fiendishly well plotted and looks absolutely gorgeous. The mock-umentary style used at the beginning gives an electric and immediate feel to the film. You feel like you're on the run with Wikus and your attitude to the alien 'vermin' changes as his does. And you finish the film with an empathy for the prawns that seemed impossible at the start. The ending leaves the door wide open for a sequel and I, for one, can't wait to see it or any other flick with Peter Jackson's name above the title!