Film Review - District 9

Approaching this film with trepidation is understandable after reading the ‘Produced by Peter Jackson’ marketing slogans about town. Using a big name as the producer to sell an otherwise underwhelming project is a clever technique that we see far too often in cinema marketing. In this case however, New Zealand’s finest motion picture exponent shows once again why he is one of the worlds best, and how the movie world will be a better place for his foray into producing. Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, this is unquestionably a film dripping with Jackson influence.

An alien space craft has landed with a numerous bunch of nasty looking critters aboard (‘prawns’ is the derogatory term used by humans for these creatures). They are provided refugee status and housed in a shanty town camp – District 9. When attempts are made to shift them to an alternative location, things get interesting.

Not another ‘aliens land on earth etc,etc’ movie I hear you say? Watch this and be prepared for a mesmerizing, sci-fi trip.

Incredibly, the aliens have not landed in Manhattan or LA. Instead, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa is the ungrateful host for these extra-terrestrials, and with the aliens increasingly becoming victims of human prejudice, a strong parallel with apartheid South Africa is obvious and wonderfully poignant.

These are seriously ugly and scary looking aliens. And there is no need to resort to corny, childlike, cutesy, alien charactertures, with beams of light to guide our way to feeling sympathy for the ‘prawn’ who just wants to go (phone) home. No, there is no such condescending to the audience, no hand holding, and spoon feeding to ensure that we all leave the theatre with the identical feelings to the test audience.

Superb action, with good enough special effects, this is top drawer sci-fi.

Outstanding.