Next Gen Journal

By Luke Nelson

    When Peter Jackson announced his new production, a science fiction movie entitled District 9, the only two dams against the tide of disappointed groans were the credibility of Jackson and the promise of its young director, Neill Blomkamp, 29. Blomkamp, a South African-born Canadian, was originally tapped to direct the film adaptation of the popular video game series Halo, which was cancelled due to internal disagreements and general office politics.

District 9 Theatrical Poster

      Jackson felt obligated to give Blomkamp a new project, and decided to expand the young director’s short “Alive in Joburg” into a feature length film. Joburg, a six minute short written and directed by Blomkamp, explored themes of apartheid and racism in a Johannesburg struggling with an infusion of alien refugees. District 9 greatly expands upon Joburg, adding in character development and plot not possible in a six minute clip. It is a fantastic movie full of memorable, well written characters, an above-average plot with both intrigue and action, themes handled with maturity in an interesting manner, and utterly believable special effects that belie the movie’s miniscule $30 million budget.

    The movie opens in mockumentary-esque fashion, introducing the audience to a South Africa that plays host to millions of insect-like alien refugees who arrived twenty years ago in an enormous ship that now hovers over Johannesburg, nearly empty of fuel. Scientists cut into the hull and discovered millions of aliens, dubbed “prawns” by the general populace, huddled and starving in its depths. The aliens were quickly shuttled to the ground and confined to a ghetto labeled “District 9,” with the private interest company Multinational United (MNU) tasked with their care. The humans of Johannesburg quickly lost any sort of romantic ideals associated with extraterrestrial contact, as the aliens quickly turned to crime in pursuit of food. The main character of the film, Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley), is put in charge of evicting the prawns from their current shacks in District 9 and ferrying them to the concentration camp of District 10, miles from human civilization. After a dubious plot twist, Wikus is ostracized from humanity and chased ruthlessly by the sinister MNU. Over the course of the movie, Wikus, an incompetent, spineless, self-serving bureaucrat is forced to reconcile himself with the fact that the prawns, a horribly mistreated race, are at least as intelligent as the humans themselves.

    Copley is an astounding actor, fully realizing the nervous, haunted Wikus down to tremor in his voice and the moral conflict in his face. The only actor with real screen time, Copley is faced with the daunting task of interacting with computer generated aliens that aren’t really there, but he pulls it off easily, making for a startlingly believable character that, if you can’t like, you can at least sympathize with. The plot itself is well above average for a sci-fi movie, serving as a loose allegory for apartheid.

    District 9 also expertly portrays the massive communication divides between the prawns, a group of starving refugees thrust into a foreign environment, and the humans, especially MNU, which hires brutal mercenaries that routinely torture and execute prawns for entertainment. Blomkamp expertly displays the mercenaries’ overt racism and arrogance and elicits feelings of outrage and contempt from the audience without being preachy. That in itself may be the plot’s greatest accomplishment; it simply shows events transpiring as they probably would in real life, but refrains from preaching to the audience. The movie is a smart, intelligent film that treats it’s audiences with respect and refuses to spoon-feed them.

     The characters are dynamic and well-written, with Wikus being the chief example. Throughout half of the movie, he practically oozes slime, but as the plot progresses, he begins to change. It’s difficult to comment on his struggles without spoiling the plot, but suffice it to say that he deals with his own sense of humanity in a very realistic and believable fashion. The main prawn character, Christopher Johnson, is more human than most of the human characters, though it takes Wikus most of the movie to realize it. His interactions with his son are no doubt meant to tug heartstrings, and they do their job well. The only problem I had with the character writing was the head of MNU. At a certain part of the movie, you could practically see him twirling his handlebar mustache. He exhibited no moral qualms about doing something utterly horrifying.

    The cinematography is unique and, if anything, polarizing. I for one loved the use of security cameras and shots from cameras mounted on soldiers’ weapons or helmets to heighten the tension and the sense of realism, and the documentary interviews and news clips to provide backstory and exposition. The knowledge that the cameras providing the shots are a part of the action right on the scene, and not from some omnipotent, invisible third party combined with the realism of the computer generated images leads to very believable scenes. During the action, though, the use of moving and shaking cameras probably won’t sit well with anyone that gets motion sickness.

    The special effects are magnificent. The companies in charge of it worked miracles for such a small budget. The aliens are fluid and believable, as are the weapons. Combined with the unique cinematography, they make the suspension of disbelief an easier process than you would believe of a science fiction movie, much more so than the crapfest called Transformers 2. Be warned though, this movie is not for the squeamish. People are regularly blown up in a very graphic fashion, and the violence is generally very sudden.

    District 9 is the best movie this summer and a strong contender for the best movie this year. There are a few extremely minor plot holes and a poor character or two; also, the movie focuses less on the excellent analysis of prawn-human interaction and more on action sequences in the second half of the movie, but every scene is nothing short of excellence. Neill Blomkamp has directed a movie that most directors would be proud to produce at the peak of their careers, and he did it on his first try and with a laughable budget. If you like movies that both entertain and make you think, then Blomkamp is your new hero. Go forth and worship at his feet. If not, you’re probably better off seeing G.I. Joe anyway.

Luke Nelson is a NGJ Contributor and a San Diego high school student.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.