I’d meant to see District 9 for quite a while (since before it was up for Best Picture in last year’s Oscars), but only got around to it recently. Sci-fi with a political bent sounded up my alley, but it was just never the right time to see it.
Thus, I expected the political underpinnings. I went in knowing a fair bit about what critics had said, just by osmosis. But what shocked me most was the horror aspect of the film.
There’s something intrinsically terrible about the idea of your own body betraying you. This doesn’t only come up in science fiction, of course, but it’s a good arena to explore it on a more extended scale. (See Alien, for example, or even any good werewolf movie.) The loss of control and familiarity is bad enough, but it also raises questions of the very nature of one’s selfhood. As such, it suits this film quite well.
But before it gets there, the film wrenches you through a much more visceral sequence of events. The transformation is much worse than, say, a werewolf’s, for a few reasons. First, it’s slow. It presents more like a disease that we’re familiar with than anything magical, and that’s unsettling. Second, it’s repugnant because of the insect-like elements, which are as far from what we think of as “human” as you can get within the animal kingdom. (Insert Kafka joke here.)
Third, there’s the governmental aspect. It’s not so much a conspiracy theory as a reflection of a very believable way that the government might react (especially in the portion of the film before it becomes an extended action sequence). There’s a sort of cold logic to the government’s actions that is unsettling because it is so plausible.
I do have to give credit to Sharlto Copely , for a nuanced performance as Wikus, the film’s anti-hero. He’s not afraid to be cowardly, selfish and unattractive in a variety of ways, and I liked that fear didn’t immediately turn him into a noble champion of the alien cause. He wants his life back, and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that outcome. This isn’t Enemy Mine, and though Wikus and the alien Christopher do develop a rapport, there isn’t time to develop it as far as it might go.
As a film, the gritty style served the tone very well, but my personal preference wouldn’t be for a full mock documentary style. It helps with exposition, but on the other hand, it introduces the question of who and where the cameraman is to the audience’s mind. There are certain sequences that lapse out of documentary and more into traditional narrative film, which was necessary for the plot, but I still found it a bit jarring.
The effects were quite good (the transition for Wikus especially), and the plot moved at a nice clip. For his first feature film, Neill Blomkamp shows solid directing instincts, though when I found out that District 9 was expanded from a short film, I wasn’t entirely surprised. There’s a sense that the premise is the movie, in many ways, and it struggles now and then with the tension between the plot and the concept.
That said, District 9 was a solid effort, and worth seeing if you’re interested in science fiction, though it’s not a film I’d recommend to everyone. The moral gets a bit heavy-handed toward the end, and the narrative unfolds without a great deal of nuance, but it’s a solid story with good acting and effects.
Grade: B- A rather average plot with solid production values, decent directing, and good acting. Worth a watch.
The Exploding Macguffin 