District 9 begins when a very large star ship lands in South Africa during 1982. These are aliens called "the prawns" and are initially welcomed by the human race. Now, twenty-eight years after this, the aliens are stuck and mistreated in a beat up, worthless camp called District 9. The Multi-National United, otherwise known as MNU, cares very little for the alien race, but has strong interest in their advanced weapons. An MNU field operative, Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) has the job of moving of one million of the aliens to a new camp that will be named District 10. Wikus meets an alien named Christopher, where a black fluid is accidentaly squirted into Wikus' face. His DNA begins to change to that of a prawn's, and Wikus can use the advanced weapons that before only aliens could use. This makes the MNU want to do testing on Wikus, to help more humans be able to use the weapons, but Wikus flees and heads to District 9 where a war between humans and the prawns is about to begin.
Neill Blomkamp makes his directorial debut here, and what a mighty impressive one it was. Nowadays it seems that the genre of science fiction has, or at least was dying down to nothing but old memories. But recently, in the past few years, it looks as if it might be making a come back. With Nolan making the excellent Inception, and Duncan Jones with Moon, and the most recent of them all Source Code. It is quite a relief to see new directors like Jones and Blomkamp working on these projects, because the film indstry needs these types of directors to keep the genre going as it used to be. All of the most recent science fiction films I have seen get a thumbs up from me, and hopefully I will enjoy Source Code as well.
I honestly wish I could have given this film a higher rating, as brilliant as it was in some aspects. The story was more creative than most involving aliens, but that was a problem for me. I have a very hard time getting into a film that has aliens, mainly speaking for only today's time in film. District 9 did pull of its story quite nicely, but I would rate that part of the film no higher than a B-. However, I cannot deny how well this was written. I may not be in love with the actual plot, which was surprisingly complicated, but Blomkamp Terri Tatchell sure know how to make a purely entertaining film worth watching more than once. Blomkamp's direction was great, especially for his first time. Not to mention the guy is only 31 years old. And he did a good job of answering the questions that needed to be answered, and leaving the rest up to the imagination. A job well done but Tatchell and Blomkamp.
We also have another big screen debut, but this time with an actor. Sharlto Copley, a name most everyone who loves films is probably already familiar with. Just after this, he played in The A-Team, which i'm sure everyone knows. But he actually gave a pretty special performance here. I very intense one actually. He plays the part with passion, and it truly turned out to be a great piece of work. Obviously, the fame of acting for this particular year all goes to Jeff Bridges for his work in Crazy Heart, and that could make Copley's performance overlooked maybe. But that does not change that he was brilliant, and most anyone should be able to see that. The script was unusally well written here as well. The film was close to perfect, minus the story, that is about all there is to it.
The visual effects, were no doubt technically incredible. Even though what I have seen of Avatar was quite amazing, it would be hard for me to give the Oscar to any film but this. The sound was great, the editing was perfect, the action sequences were so well done my jaw dropped, and just everything visually about District 9 was perfection. For today's time, District 9 has about as fine special effects as you will ever see.
Overall, District 9 is a pleasant surprise of a film. Even with the critical acclaim I did not believe I would like this film so much. As much as I hate to admit it, Blomkamp and Tatchell prove that aliens can be a major part of the plot, and the film still be good. It has been a long time since a movie involving aliens was this good. Maybe even since Close Encounters of the Third Kind. District 9 is well acted, brilliantly directed, and all in all a great film.
4/5
