Movie Review: District 9

Rating: 3 out of 4
There is much to be expected when your movie starts with the phrase Peter Jackson Presents, especially if you are an unknown like Neil Blomkamp of Johanesburg, South Africa. Jackson, known for his successful "Lord of the Rings" movie adaptations, is not one who just takes a movie because he likes the idea. He takes the movie because he can create it in his own unique vision, and most times guarantee an alternate universe so beautiful, it almost seems too real.

This already put pressure on Blomkamp's film, which was based off his short film, "Alive in Joburg". While I have never seen this short, if Jackson liked it enough to endorse it, then Blomkamp must be a visionary.
The result was a two hour film that manages to create so many more layers for your average science fiction action movie. It's not all about destroying aliens and looking pretty, instead exposing truth and gritty reality of how the fate may be played.
Sharlto Copley gives an award winning performance as Wikus Van De Merwe, head of MNU on a quest to relocate aliens who landed on earth from District 9 to District 10. Why were they there? The answer isn't entirely clear, but after 20 years, hostility has been built between the humans and the aliens, whose housing structures recall Hoovervilles more than an advanced race.
The movie starts off simply with back story and works into a documentary format where Wikus is seen going door to door, advising everyone to prepare for eviction. Accompanying him are soldiers who mistakenly shoot whenever the moment seems remotely hostile. That is a simple way of saying a lot.
As time goes on, Wikus changes his mindset and the story changes more into a suspenseful action movie that involved a lot of deaths. I would go on, but spoilers would ruin this masterpiece for moviegoers, ecstatic to see a science fiction movie that qualifies for every letter of the phrase. As a whole, the movie will keep you on the edge of your seat and curious to see the next move. And like all Peter Jackson movies, they may feel a little long, but in the end, it feels more deserving than gutting it out quickly.
What separates this film from most science fiction films is not so much the look of the aliens, but the emotions of the aliens, lower class prisoners misunderstood and killed either out of fear or desire for power. Even in the early stages when aliens fight back, there is a human emotion to it that somehow they are just like us internally and only desire to have their space respected until they could leave.
There are many subplots involving aliens, including a father-son duo that really create a dramatic sense to the movie as they struggle to get to their mother ship and have to separate every now and then to get there. Wikus also becomes infected and Copley's performance is utter brilliance of a man falling apart and changing his stance on the issue as he becomes an outcast to everyone who once admired him.
Overall, this movie's charm is not so much the action, but the emotion put into it. Everyone cares about something to the point of pulling guns on harm, and no one is spared a happy ending without facing tragedies. The movie doesn't cop out and resolve all of it's conflicts, instead leaving the movie as a fair example of what to expect in war.
While I am unsure if the visual effects should be on Blomkamp's part or Jackson's, the gritty look to everything gave it an earthy feel and nothing about it felt special. The appearance of the aliens were not gorgeous, instead going for an appearance involving external lungs and tentacle-covered mouths. There was brilliance in the design of even the buildings and occasional glances of a red sky.
This movie, at a $30 million budget, is a great example of what science fiction could be. It doesn't aim to please everyone and instead is gorey and focuses more on reaction as opposed to action. The hostility fuels this and makes Blomkamp's efforts one of the most original we have seen this summer, and even this year.

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