With so many unexpected things happening in the movie District 9, it takes some time before you realize this: you are rooting for a bureaucrat. Not just any bureaucrat but one that, on a not so subtle level, is meant as a stand-in for the untoward Apartheid regime of South Africa. But then again, your mind continues, our hero Wikus Van De Merwe isn't really to be blamed for looking for advancement within MNU ("Multi-National United"), and the situation with the stranded "Prawns" isn't a direct parallel to - HOLY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT THAT GUN JUST DID!
That's the experience of District 9. You enter with a thought-provoking quasi-doc-feeling essay on the not so black and white issue of emergent social groups, you exit with your mind splattered against the back row of the theater.
A modern African city – without, say, Jason Bourne racing through it - is something of an alien landscape for American filmgoers to begin with. District 9 opens with a representation of today’s Johannesburg with the one key difference of a giant hovering spaceship.
In quick fashion we learn that the alien ship appeared one day and, instead of unleashing a fiery hell from its weapons array, just sat there. In time, it is discovered that the ship’s hold contained a huge compliment of half-dead gross lookin’ interstellar shrimp. Later they are brought down to what used to be called a Displaced Persons camp, until, eventually, all hell breaks loose. But not in a way you expect.
With his District 9 calling card, Neill Blomkamp, under the tutelage of producer Peter Jackson, has announced himself as a major new voice in action-adventure cinema. District 9 has thrills, gross-outs, and scenes of unchecked mayhem. There are moments of genuine sadness and (perhaps least expected) scenes of mannered comedy. Blomkamp makes use of the mock-doc and found footage aesthetic when it best suits his storytelling needs, but refuses to be bound by it. As could be expected from the man who nearly brought Halo to the big screen, there are weapon POVs, reverse steady-cam shots and completely frantic white-knuckle battle sequences.
I feel as if Blomkamp is, to a certain extent, summarizing the resume of his mentor Peter Jackson with District 9. It has the zest for havoc you’ll find in Dead Alive and Bad Taste as well as the bold story sweep of King Kong or a pared-down Lord of the Rings.
District 9 also remembers the first rule of show business: always leave them wanting more. Blomkamp creates his own mythos, but as with Ridley Scott’s Alien, he gives you just a taste of the specifics. Present too little and you run the risk of seeming slight, but District 9 reaches that sweet spot where, after the film, you can find yourself saying to a friend “did you notice that. . . ?” Add to this the truly stunning shots of vaporized bodies, giant mech suits and fantastical weaponry and there’s enough to keep nerd BBS pages busy for months.
