District 9

The last time I saw a film in theatres was several months ago, when I viewed Star Trek. Since then, I have watched about 40-50 films, which have allowed me to appreciate the movie viewing experience a lot more than I previously had (I joined Netflix). Because of this new perspective, at this point in time I consider myself well able to write a comprehensive and informative motion picture review, which I will now do for the film District 9. I will start by saying that I really wanted to see this movie because of the extremely interesting plot, and I wasn't at all disappointing. In short, Alien refugees come to earth and hover over the city of Johannesburg sometime in the 1980s. After about two months, the government decides to cut their way into the ship, and what they find are the 2 million inhabitants of the spacecraft starving and in dire conditions. They ferry the aliens to the ground and provide aide. What was supposed to be a temporary aide camp soon turns into a permanent slum: District 9. Over the span of twenty years, the various problems associated with inter-species coexistence in South Africa are highlighted, and this eventually leads to a military contractor being hired to move the aliens to another refugee camp farther away. The story centers around the man in charge of this operation, a clueless bureaucrat, and his mistreatment of the prawns (as they are called in a derogatory manner), that is until he becomes ill, and starts to turn into one himself. I have a lot of praise for this movie, so I will start with the plot. It was fantastic. I wanted to go and see this film after the first preview I saw, and the plot was even more engaging than the previews could have indicated. We have seen the "aliens come to destroy humans and harvest natural resources" plot one hundred times before. We have even seen the "aliens come and want to be friends" plot a couple of times, but never before have aliens, in such a realistic manner, come to this planet as refugees, fleeing they're own planet for reasons not revealed. That touches upon my second point, which is the reality that this film creates for viewers. This pretty much shows what could really happen if a situation like this were to occur. It also presents it in a way completely devoid of over-stylization, which tends to happen in these types of films. Not in this one though, everything is real: life in district 9, social problems, crime, inter-species racism, prostitution, even the dialogue is completely realistic and spot on (if at some points ridiculously profane). For me, it was all there. It was a sci-fi action thriller, but not stupid action like Transformers or Triple X, or all those other over-advertised works of no taste, with unrealistically dramatic action sequences and unbelievable characters. For me, District 9 had all that a movie of its genre should, and more. My final take: This movie doesn't make it onto my top twenty, or even my top thirty, but that doesn't mean I wasn't very impressed (I'm not one of those people who puts the most recent movie they've seen among the greatest of all time, as many teenagers seem to do). I would give this film an 8.8 out of 10, which would probably place it within my top fifty favourite films. With such a compelling plot, it’s hard to screw the movie up, and they didn't. I would recommend this film to anyone who can stomach the extreme violence and frequent profanity, and I would also recommend that you see this in theatres, for the full effect.