This was a different kind of summer movie. While aliens have been done before they usually aren’t portrayed as exploited refugees in South Africa. But the extra-terrestrial presence isn’t really the focus of District 9. The film poses great similarities to the true events of southern U.S segregation, and the lynching of African-Americans. Racism at its core is put on display and before long I was left feeling sympathy towards the slimy insect people. But even more than them the Wikus character, played by virtually unknown actor Sharlto Copley, worked as a powerful protagonist. Copley was so convincing in fact that his conversations with the CG aliens were authentic enough to trigger emotion from the audience and his constant discomfort left me with a lump in the pit of my stomach throughout most of the film.
As is the case with many of this style sci-fi movie it’s the abundance of unnecessarily gory deaths that proved to be District 9’s biggest weakness. Now I have no idea if an alien laser gun would cause a human to explode into a pile of red goo but I thought it was an unintelligent touch to an otherwise clever script. Surprisingly, the goo bothered me more than the bug looking aliens (or prawns as their called) who I thought would be distracting before I screened the film. They did seem like they belonged in a Star Wars pod-racer though.
The combination of documentary style storytelling and traditional 3rd person scenes makes the movie easier to follow than the entirely first person Cloverfield that many critics have compared it to. Though I think District 9 in many ways builds on the foundations Cloverfield laid down. If these films prove to be the future of science fiction then I think there will be many great films coming our way. (8.5 out of 10)
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