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Movie Review: 'District 9'
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Photo: Tri-Star Pictures
'District 9', a sci-fi adventure from director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson, takes the genre to a new level.
As the film begins we are told that for the past twenty years, an alien race called 'Prawns' have been inhabiting earth, living in filth and surviving on canned cat food in a camp, of sorts, referred to as District 9.
Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley in a very impressive debut) works for a company called MNU (Multi National United) and is ordered to assist in relocating all Prawns to a District 10 camp. As one could imagine, things go horribly wrong in the process. The MNU is met with resistance by the Prawns and Wikus stumbles upon a liquid, a supposed top secret formula the Prawns were working on, and becomes exposed to it after releasing it from the cannister.
Slowly, and throughout the remainder of the movie, we see Wikus being transformed into one of the Prawns, thanks to his exposure to their chemicals. After he sprouts an alien-like arm, he realizes he now possesses the power to operate all machinery and weaponry the Prawns use. Unfortunately, scientists learn of this and want to use Wikus to their liking by harvesting his body in an attempt to replicate his powers in other humans.
From here, the film is a chase as Wikus is on the run and hopes to find a cure for his ailment. A Prawn by the name of Christopher Johnson befriends Wikus and tells him of a cure they have produced that can reverse the transformation.
This is a sci-fi movie for sure, but it's so much more. The first half hour gives a documentary feel as we watch footage of crews stumbling upon the Prawns' living conditions, we see interviews with people giving their accounts of the events, as well as we see random footage of the Prawns in their daily 'routines' and read their language through subtitles. The viewer watches Wikus go from office worker, to somewhat of a bully when pushing the Prawns out of their habitat, to a desperate man in need of a cure, and finally to a 'super hero' operating destructive machinery to fight off his pursuers. It's a great performance. Throw in a lot of blood soaked action, and you've got a great mix of Sci-fi, drama, and documentary.
