I think District 9 is an incredibly well-made, engrossing film. But I don't think it's the blockbuster film of the summer, nor does it quite exactly live up to all the hyperbole it's generated. The sci-fi action flick (and to me at least, it was much more of an action flick than anything else) does certainly touch on race relations and wows you with its special effects bang for its buck. Peter Jackson made a wise decision producing it and lending his name to the promotion of it, because without him I feel the film would have ended up in Landmark cinemas across the country (definitely not a bad thing) and would have been lucky to eke out $15 million.
The story of a giant spaceship that stalls out over Johannesburg, South Africa twenty years ago and ends up spawning an alien ghetto, the film begins with a documentary style exploration of a private company charged with moving the aliens outside of J-burg to more of a concentration camp type of setting. The aliens--big, ugly, bug-like creatures nicknamed "Prawns," due to their similarity to shrimp--have been forced into a ghetto-like society, filled with violence, drugs, and even interspecies prostitution. Into that volatile mix comes Wikus Van De Mewre (newcomer Sharito Copley) who has to evict the prawns from their current shanty homes and convince them to sign (or scrawl) a paper that acknowledges the move. In District 9, Wikus and his paramilitary escorts find various illegal activities, including a mysterious canister that infects Wikus and starts to dramatically transform him into something entirely different.
District 9 certainly is a story about discrimination, but it quickly puts that on the back burner--along with its documentary format--and becomes an almost-routine action flick, albeit one with a good story and great special effects. It's never anything less than engrossing, but I guess I was slightly disappointed by the amount of hype that preceded my viewing of it. Copley is a marvelous actor and a definite find, going from a bit of a good-natured tool (both as part of the establishment--an evil corporation trying to strip mine alien technology--and as just a goofy guy in general) to a tragic hero. There's certainly room for a sequel, with the escaping alien ("Christian") and his son (both of whom added a really touching presence to the film) returning as promised to "save" Wikus. I'm sure District 10 isn't far off in our future...but who knows if Christian will return to save his friend or destroy the world that reduced his species to medical experiments?
