District 9 (2009)

 

Talk about coming in with a bang, because that is exactly what director Neill Blomkamp did with 'District 9': a gritty, hard-as-nails science fiction film with its heart in the right place and a brutal view on Apartheid and racism in South Africa. With aliens. And it is very, very good. 

One day, a giant spaceship appeared above Johannesburg. Turns out there were roughly a million alien creatures on board, that were placed in a refugee camp directly below. But fast forward 20 years and the camp has turned into a slum and people that originally were welcoming of these visitors have now become hostile. The aliens are being harangued, mistreated and left to their own devices, and the slum is rampant with disease, dirt and crime. The creatures are even nicknamed 'prawns' in derogatory fashion, because they somehow resemble that animal. 

A massive concern (and weapons manufacturer) MNU is now planning to clear the slums and relocate the prawns to a new camp outside of the city, so they can also build new housing on the old site. The creatures would be relocated forcefully to what is in essence a concentration camp. The operation is led by Wikus Van De Merwe, a bumbling bureaucrat who is a little too eager to do his job, because most people consider him a loser and a dork, even if he is married to the boss' daughter. 

Things take a bizarre turn when Wikus encounters an alien called Christopher Johnson and gets sprayed with a mysterious goo that Christopher really needs. Pretty soon, Wikus starts to mutate into a prawn himself and now he becomes a hunted party, doubly so because alien weaponry can only be used by the aliens and humans have no idea how to get it to work. Wikus would be the perfect guineapig. It doesn't get any easier as Christopher and his young child want to return to their homeplanet and he can reverse Wikus' transformation, but it will take about three years. 

And meanwhile, the hunt intensifies... 

What makes 'District 9' work incredibly well, is the raw and almost documentary feel of most of the footage used. Heck, they even filmed in real slums in Johannesburg, so you are really forced into this world of grime and crime and it hits home. The parallels with what governments have done with coloured people are very much on the nose, but Blomkamp never gets preachy. He just smacks people in the face with how brutal and inhumane people can be. 

But the message does not overshadow the rest of the story. Sharlto Copley is a great lead, as he is a very unassuming average Joe who gets thrown into something where he has absolutely no control and people he used to trust turn out to shortsell him on a dime. Copley is the perfect Everyman. 

The alien designs are great, too. Humanoid enough to feel empathy, yet bizarre enough to clearly be otherworldly. The aliens mostly look the same, but Blomkamp did give them differently coloured clothing or markings so one can tell them apart, most of the time. This especially is true for Christopher Johnson, who is by far the most sympathetic character of the film and you actively root for him. 

The action is also brutal and most of the time filmed and edited really well. Near the end, the stand Wikus makes against MNU troops is really in-your-face and even if there are some laughs to be had (the guy in the tower who unceremoniously gets disintegrated, for example), it is bloody and stripped of any Hollywoodian frills. You can almost feel the impact every time. 

Does it always transcend the science fiction tropes? No, yet despite being clearly made by someone with love for the genre, this can be enjoyed by people who don't necessarily care for the genre, as it brings a broader message as well, and the story is in essence about the way we sometimes treat others and it isn't pretty.