PRAISE THE LORD - 2009 is the year we're finally given some good sci-fi. Sam Rockwell vehicle Moon was brilliantly atmospheric, Star Trek was a highly entertaining introduction to J.J. Abrams's new timeline for that series, and now we come to District 9. Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neil Blomkamp (a first-time feature director who created that famous Citroën C4 ad - you know, the one with the dancing car), District 9 seems to be the most "serious" of 2009's current science fiction offerings - it's also the best.
The "District 9" of the title refers to a refugee camp in Johannesburg, South Africa, built to house aliens who landed on Earth in 1982, malnourished and ill. Taking place in 2010, the film's opening scenes are presented in documentary style, utilising talking head interviews with the unhappy human residents of the city (some of which will be familiar if you saw the initial trailer), and a cameraman following protagonist Wikus Van De Merwe, as he heads a team going into the camp. This team aims to serve eviction notices to the aliens there, in an effort to relocate them to the newly-built District 10, kilometres outside of Jo'burg. Needless to say, this doesn't exactly go to plan - some conflict ensues, and Wikus ends up with fluid from an alien device sprayed into his face ("it's not a weapon, but it's dangerous," he assures viewers). The rest of the film documents Wikus's struggle with the effects of this fluid.
Wow. That was a horrendous amount of paraphrasing. I won't talk any more about the story so as not to spoil it. Let's try to move away from that...
Due to Wikus's circumstances post-alien-fluid-in-his-face, the film is no longer a "real" documentary about him and his team - a more straight-forward narrative arises, following different characters. Despite this, director Blomkamp still opts to use some of the same visual techniques of a documentary, such as the fast-moving handheld cameras that are getting more and more popular these days. It's not quite as manic as something like Cloverfield, but it puts us on a much more personal level with Wikus. Clearly though, we wouldn't care about him if he wasn't a convincing character to begin with - but he is; brilliantly so. Actor Sharlto Copley, who portrays him, has only starred in two other productions, one of which being the short film that gave birth to District 9 (according to a combination of Wikipedia and IMDb). This becomes more and more surprising as you witness his performance as a friendly man in earlier scenes (much of which was improvised), and then later on, as an incredibly desperate man, in a strikingly genuine manner. It truly is a fantastic portrayal that gets you properly engaged with Wikus (even in his very fictional situations). He's an authentically likeable character, and while you might sometimes morally question his actions, they're always believable enough that, unlike many other films, you won't be sitting there thinking "He'd NEVER do that!" Hopefully Copley will be recognised for this, as it'd be a great shame if we didn't see more of him in the future.
Not only does the handheld camerawork aid our sympathy for the characters, but it also dumps us right in the middle of the action, in every battlefield. And there is a lot of action. The firefights that occur during the course of the film's near-2 hour running time are intense, and take place involving some heavy guns. OH, the guns. The alien weaponry used in the shootouts are the sort of things you thought were confined to Insomniac games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance). But they very much come to life here, and they really are the coolest guns I've ever seen in film. I'm not usually the sort of person who watches films to see explosions and bullets, but I would gladly have sat in the cinema for another two or three hours watching people be ripped apart with the alien technology. It's just more fun to watch when something original is being used to blow stuff up. This can't be said without mentioning the special effects - which are stunning. The close-up shots of the aliens are remarkably complex, and the practical effects on the guns and the gore are as realistic as you need. Instead of Star Trek, this sort of gritty realism is more reminiscent of near-future sci-fi like Children of Men, which isn't a bad thing at all.
While the story and its action clearly work on their own merits, the ideas therein present a message with regards to segregation and prejudice. The treatment of the aliens by the humans is nothing short of abysmal, from the residents of Jo'burg's derogatory reference to them as "prawns," to the military contractor's hastiness to open fire on them. Parallels can easily be drawn to racism and general human narrow-mindedness across the planet, and in this way, District 9 does succeed on another level. Like films before it though, people may well sympathise with the fictional "prawns," but whether or not this will change their attitudes in real life seems unlikely.
District 9 is an exciting, fast-paced film that makes you feel for its characters and think (a bit) about the real world. It moves so fast that you won't want to take your eyes off the screen, for fear of missing anything. Neil Blomkamp was previously set to direct a Halo movie, until both Universal and Fox pulled out of the project and halted it in its tracks. It seems hard to believe that, after seeing District 9, any major production company wouldn't want to put Blomkamp back in the seat for it. Banshees, Hunters, Warthogs, plasma grenades, etc. would look fantastic if done in the same lifelike manner (well, they do, in this 6-minute short Blomkamp directed to promote Halo 3). It was also recently mentioned that studios want "District 10" already. Whatever the man does next though, I can't wait to see it. A hearty recommendation from me.
9/10
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