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Review: District 9
Aug. 17th, 2009 09:52 amOn Saturday, I trucked on down to my local multiplex and caught the 4:30 showing of District 9, the hot new SF movie all the cool kids were talking about. It's filmed in pseudo-documentary style, which is a neat device to provide exposition, and all that I'm about to tell you is covered in the first few minutes of the movie. It's a very good movie, and I enjoyed it.
As you've probably heard, the movie is set in present-day South Africa, except it's an alternate reality - 20 years prior, an alien spaceship appeared over the skies, and, after humans eventually cut their way in, a million sick aliens were discovered. Human - alien relations went downhill from there, and now, the aliens live in your basic black township / slum right outside Johannesburg. A decision has been made to move the aliens to District 10, a couple of hundred kilometers away, and a rather dim bulb of a man, Wikus van der Merwe, is nominally put in charge of the operation. He's clearly a puppet / fall guy. Since the movie takes a huge left turn about there, I really can't discuss it without spoilers, which I'll tuck behind the cut.
I can say that District 9 is a very good action / SF movie, and well worth your time. It also leaves open the chance for a sequel, but while telling a complete story, and I recommend seeing it. However, I do have some issues with the movie, one of which I can discus in the open and one I'll bury behind the cut.
The "open" issue I can discuss is the overall meta-premise. I like the idea of aliens as neither gods nor evil, and these aliens are clearly not humans in rubber suits. Unfortunately, Neill Blomkamp, the director / writer, falls into the "get a soap box" trap. He wants to do Serious Science Fiction, so therefore we get a very heavy-handed critique of apartheid. However, Blomkamp's ending does put a bit of a new spin on the issue.
( here there be spoilers )
As you've probably heard, the movie is set in present-day South Africa, except it's an alternate reality - 20 years prior, an alien spaceship appeared over the skies, and, after humans eventually cut their way in, a million sick aliens were discovered. Human - alien relations went downhill from there, and now, the aliens live in your basic black township / slum right outside Johannesburg. A decision has been made to move the aliens to District 10, a couple of hundred kilometers away, and a rather dim bulb of a man, Wikus van der Merwe, is nominally put in charge of the operation. He's clearly a puppet / fall guy. Since the movie takes a huge left turn about there, I really can't discuss it without spoilers, which I'll tuck behind the cut.
I can say that District 9 is a very good action / SF movie, and well worth your time. It also leaves open the chance for a sequel, but while telling a complete story, and I recommend seeing it. However, I do have some issues with the movie, one of which I can discus in the open and one I'll bury behind the cut.
The "open" issue I can discuss is the overall meta-premise. I like the idea of aliens as neither gods nor evil, and these aliens are clearly not humans in rubber suits. Unfortunately, Neill Blomkamp, the director / writer, falls into the "get a soap box" trap. He wants to do Serious Science Fiction, so therefore we get a very heavy-handed critique of apartheid. However, Blomkamp's ending does put a bit of a new spin on the issue.
( here there be spoilers )
