District 9 by Neill Blomkamp (2009)
22 August 2009I had been excited that Peter Jackson was producing the HALO film, even if Blomkamp hadn’t done any features before, and was depressed when that fell through, and am glad they decided they still wanted to work together and turn Blomkamp’s earlier short film into a feature length film. I must say I did really enjoy it. In fact it is one of the best Science Fiction films I have had the pleasure to watch in some time, even if I think it has some major writing flaws that could have easily been worked out to make the film stronger. Still the film looks great (for all the complaining I have heard about the RED it was pretty damn impressive here), had great acting, and a very good setup, and most impressively in a 30 million dollar film, the effects look amazing. In fact there was no point where I was pulled out of the film by an effects shot, they all were perfectly integrated into the film, and look fantastic, This looks like a documentary that features newly arrived aliens to Earth. This is really a must see, and it is too bad my wife Kelly can’t see it, because it is mostly handheld and would probably make her pretty darn sick. And this film is not just your standard brainless science fiction film, being set in South Africa, about racism and slums, it is a thinly veiled look at Apartheid, which Blomkamp grew up in, but it is also more than that. The film also shows corporations and their taking over military actions, without oversight, much like Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, which has done so much bad in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the government turns a blind eye. And I must say the film looks even better when compared to the recently released Avatar trailer by James Cameron. After all that hype to see a film that looks like a high end video game cutscene, and not even that impressive of one at that and yet cost $230 million to make, and then see District 9 which only cost $30 million and so far looks much more impressive is really heartening to someone who would love to make lower budget films.
Twenty something years in the past a large circular alien ship came to earth, and stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa, with a piece, thought to be the command module falling off, and no where to be found. After months of waiting they flew up to the floating ship and cut into it’s hull, finding a ship full of starved insect like aliens. The aliens were quickly houses in a government camp inside Johannesburg, called District 9, which quickly became a slum, ruled by violence, and Nigerian gangsters who trade for Alien weaponry (even though only aliens can use it) and eat aliens hoping to become like them, so they can use the weapons. A private paramilitary organization named the MNU or Multinational United is put in charge of the slum, and the decision to move the camp 200KM outsie Johannesburg to a new “camp” so the citizens can have their city back free of Aliens. To make it appear legal, MNU is sending in teams to get signatures saying that the Aliens, derogatorily called Prawns have legally agreed to it, though they are being forced to do it at gunpoint. Wikus can de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) a bit of a moron working for MNU is assigned to lead the operation to evict the aliens by his boss, his father in law, and he happily takes the position, going in with the paramilitary to force signatures from the Aliens so they can be forcibly moved to the internment camp of District 10.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
While the operation continues, 2 adult and 1 child Alien, led by the father of the child Christopher Johnson search and find some alien technology, which Johnson then distills and puts into a canister, but when the MNU show up he runs with his on, leaving the other Alien to have a run in with Wikus. Wikus ends up finding the canister, and accidently spraying the black liquid into his own face. Wikus takes the canister in a bag in his pocket.
Wikus later finds Christopher and his son, and unlike other aliens, Christopher questions the legality of the action, and wants his rights upheld, so Wikus threatens taking away his son (who is legal), and this is the man that has been burning illegal alien egg stashes throughout the day, so it is a serious threat.
Wikus is not feeling so well, and has black gook coming out of his nose, but he runs home to his wife Tania (Vanessa Haywood) who is having a party for him because of his promotion, but he is really sick, and ends up throwing up black stuff over the cake, and has already lost some fingernails, and has his arm bandaged.
Wikus is taken to a hospital, and when his injured hand is unbandaged it is found to be an alien hand, which is fully integrated with his body, and seems to be spreading. His father in law has him taken to the underground parts of the MNU building, where they have been experimenting on the aliens, and many corpses lay around.
They test Wikus on Alien weaponry, and he can use it, unlike any other human, and not just with his alien hand, but also with his human hand. His father in law, right in front of him, declares that he is to be harvested as a biological weapon right now, before he can fully change into an alien.
They go to harvest him, but his alien parts are strong, and allow him to manage to escape, and run for District 9. He tries calling his wife, but she has been told he is a terrorist, and has been having sex with aliens, so she won’t listen to him, though he keeps his phone (pretty damn stupid to not realize he can be tracked, and it happens twice too).
Wikus ends up going to Christopher Johnson’s hut, and Christopher sees the arm and realizes it can only in fact be the fuel, and he wants it back as he has worked for 20 years to get enough to get the mothership repowered. He tells Wikus he can cure him, but he needs the fuel, and Wikus tells him it is in MNU headquarters, and it would be suicided to go get it. Still they decide to go get some weapons.
Wikus goes to the Nigerian gang leader Obesandjo (Eugene Khumbanyiwa) to get weapons. Obesandjo is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and eats Aliens so he can hope to become like them and use their weapons, and maybe walk again. When they see Wikus’s arm, he wants to eat it, to gain it’s power. Wikus manages to grab an alien gun, which works, and kill a bunch of the guards, though he lets Obesandjo live, even though he has vowed to murder him and eat him, and gets back to Christopher with a whole stash of weapons.
Wikus and Christopher manage to break into MNU and the secret subbasement and get the fuel canister, but a colonel in the MNU Paramilitary who never liked Wikus is after them with his men, and Christopher freezes when he sees that his people are being experimented on. Wikus finally awakens Christopher and they get back to Christopher’s hut and his son. Under the hut, is the mothership command module, and they now have fuel to power it up and fuel it, but not much power. Christopher tells WIkus he has decided to go back home to get help for his people before he can cure Wikus, and it will take 3 years. Wikus flips out, and just as the MNU forces approach he knocks out Christopher and locks himself and the child into the command module, and attempts to fly it out himself (WHAT?!?!??! ARE YOU KIDDING? This is the only guy who can possibly cure him as he turns more and more alien, and he leaves him to die by the sadistic colonel? You have to be kidding me, this is badly written, and could have been done so much better).
Wikus takes off, but the Colonel shoots an engine off with the command module, and he crashes, and he is taken prisoner just as Christopher already was.
The convoy is then attacked by Obesandjo’s gang, who take him, and get ready to eat his arm.
The child in the command module, powers it up, and activates a robotic suit that the nigerians have purchased for cat food (the aliens favorite earth food), and uses it to kill the Nigerians, and allows Wikus into it. Instead of helping Christopher escape though, Wikus starts to run away, but eventually turns back to save Christopher (if only to save his own skin).
The Suit is badly damaged, but he does allow Christopher back to the command module, and activate a tractor beam which lifts the command module back to the ship and powers it up.
The colonel is going to kill Wikus, who has crawled out of the suit, but and Alien gang comes up and rips him to shreds.
Christopher powers up the mother ship, and it’s engines start, and the ship takes off, blowing out all the windows in Johanesburg.
We see the film end in documentary style interviews, and Tania tells how she got a flower much like the stuff she used to get from Wikus on her doorstep, and she seems to think it is from him. We also see Wikus’s co-worker in jail, for exposing the alien experiments, and what had gone on with Wikus.
The film ends with an Alien making the flower out of scrap in a junkyard, and we know it must be Wikus.
•••
Really an enjoyable film with great effects, but with some writing shortcuts. I mean Wikus already killed gang members, so why not kill the gang leader who threatens him except as a plot point to bring him back (why not have his lieutenant come after him or something). And really he is so stupid as to be traced twice by his cell phone? I mean even if he wants to talk to his wife, he should steal another one. And finally knocking out Christopher and leaving him to die is plain stupid, because it would mean he never gets changed back! I mean, come on! What is up with that?
Still the rest of the film is really, really, really good, and I look forward to getting it on blu-ray and seeing more about it. And of course the inevitable sequel, taking place in district 10, and with Christopher returning to Earth to kick some human ass for mistreating the aliens so badly.
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