District 9

I had high hopes for District 9, the Peter Jackson-produced, Neill Blomkamp-directed sci-fi film, and I came away impressed…mostly.

I came into the film knowing very little about it, and I actually thought at first that it would primarily be a horror thriller (which it most decidedly is not; primarily, anyway). But when the ginormous alien mothership settles right above Johannesburg, SA, everything snaps into place and you realize—this is going to be an allegory about apartheid and the infamous District 6. And it is, with mixed success.

The film is presented through a faux-documentary program and opens with an explanation of the aliens’ mysterious appearance, their confinement to District 9, and the plan to forcibly relocate them to another area outside of the city. The plan is overseen by the movie’s main protagonist, Wikus van der Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley, who does an admirable job guiding van der Merwe’s evolution from bureaucratic chickenshit to moral hero of the universe), and from the way the “documentary” subjects talk of him, you know an unfortunate fate will befall him in the end. But in between, the film struggles to decide if it wants to be Schindler’s List, Dances With Wolves, or Transformers, and ultimately settles on being all three, in jarringly distinct parts.

As an allegory, District 9 is…thinly veiled. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree that building awareness of such atrocities is a laudable goal, but as a filmmaker, I think that the art of your craft is making me appreciate humanity’s historical potential for evil, but without shoving it down my throat. But even worse, the film doesn’t really resolve anything—you’ll understand what I mean if you watch it.

With that said, the special effects are PHENOMENAL (you’ll think the aliens are humans in suits until you realize it’s not possible) and it’s surprisingly poignant and has some funny moments. Not perfect, but definitely worth the 10 bucks.