District 9

The idea behind District 9 is based upon new-boy director Neill Blomkamp's short film, Alive in Joburg, an idea strung up by Lord of the Rings legend, Peter Jackson. What happens when a rookie and a veteran combine? Well, quite simply, brilliance caught on camera. Observe.

The story is simple enough. An alien ship mysteriously stops above Johannesburg, South Africa, and aliens land on planet Earth. The Joburg'ians don't take too kindly to these aliens and segregate them from the rest of Joburg. And while making a case to move all of the aliens out of Joburg and into a new area called District 10, something, inevitably, goes wrong. Our main character, Wikus van der Merwe, gets infected by some alien "fluid" as they called it in the film. And the result of the infection makes him move to District 9, the only area where he will feel moderately safe, even with aliens living around him.

Special effects are an integral part of this film, with all the aliens in the form of CGI, and look absolutely breathtaking. First sighting of these creatures is one of bewilderment, seeing how strange and not-like-any-other-alien-ever-seen-before the creatures are. The tentacle like arms and mouths are brilliant, and their own language is one of total uniqueness. Evidently, months of work has gone into designing the creatures down to every last detail, and you will not be disappointed. They move like humans and interact like humans, which makes really warm to them through the film, knowing that they're not ravenous beasts of fury. For me, these CGI creatures are a real step forward, cinema wise. They almost looked real, it's the best special effects I've seen in a long, long time.

District 9 was shot with a mix of documentry-style interviews and hardcore action shots. They blended really well, and it was easy to figure out which were documentry and which weren't. The whole film was shot with "shaky camera", so provide a more realistic, in the action affect. Without this, I don't think it would've been as good.

Sharlto Copey is the man to take on the role of van der Merwe, and considering this was his first big screen lead role adventure, he's nothing short of outstanding. His character is a bit of a misfit, doing his best at his job, but never impresses anyone. van der Merwe is a character that you have to like, he doesn't do anything wrong, he's been wronged, so you immediately feel for him when he suffers the consequences of his infection. As the infection spreads, Copey changes van der Merwe into a character that wants to be cured to get back to his wife, and will do anything to get himself cured. A man hell bent on destruction to get his way. But you never lose faith, per say, in Merwe. He stays funny throughout, making comedy out of his luckless situation. But what is most incredible out of this new-boy actor, is that he improvised his whole dialogue. His whole dialogue, through the whole 1 hour and 53 minutes, with Merwe being in nearly every scene. Unbelievable. Surely this spells big things for this guy.

The films undertone is one that is obvious to everyone - racism in South Africa. In the wake of Mugabe's ridiculous rise to power over the past few months, District 9 proves that no matter who you are or where you come from, no one likes any major changes. The xenophobes that make up most, Merwe included, of the cast, and it's these films that make us realise that we really are, to put it nicely, kind of fucked up. And we need that sorted. District 9 points out what we all know happens, but don't do anything about it, worrying about what could happen as a result.

My only very, very, very minor gripe is the amount of swearing. Almost every Merwe line after around the 30 minute mark has a swear word in it, be it "fuck" or "shit". But, considering situation, what would anyone else do but swear at everything? So, on that basis, it won't affect the overall score.

To conclude, District 9 is a different, complex, funny, exciting, gory, and one of the best films you'll see in a long, long time.

A new-boy director. A new-boy actor. A new-boy movie. A new-boy runaway hit.

9.4/10.