REVIEW: District 9

Have you ever thought that you were well informed about something but then found out that you weren't? I always thought I was pretty knowledgeable about major world events of the last couple decades, but after seeing Distric 9, from first-time writer/director Neill Blomkamp, I found myself doing a little online research about apartheid, and I definitely did not know the entirety of the events.

District 9 is an allegory for apartheid in South Africa, swapping out Africans for aliens. These aliens, degradingly known as prawns, have stalled out over Johannesburg and are being forced to live in squalor. The main focus of the film is an attempt to move the aliens far away from the city.



I think Kinsey summed it up best when she said this film was unlike anything we've seen in quite a while. Most summer movies can be easily locked into a specific category. Let's take a look at the movies we've seen so far this summer:

Julie & Julia - biopic
The Hurt Locker - war movie
Public Enemies - biopic
Rudo y Cursi - buddy/sports movie
(500) Days of Summer - romantic comedy
Up - animated movie, but I guess it would fall into the original category


(Wow, we really haven't seen that many movies this summer)


So we've got one fairly original concept and five movie types that we've seen before. And we don't even go see your typical summer fare. Now, on the surface, District 9 seems to be just a sci-fi film. But once you see it, you realize its a sci-fi/deep character study/action/mockumentary/political statement/social parable/father-son film all rolled into one. And what's even more impressive is that it did all that on a $30 million dollar budget, miniscule compared to most big summer movies.


Originality is a tough cookie. Anymore, its seems like originality is more about the parts then the whole. No one is going to say that Neill Blomkamp came up with the idea of aliens landing on Earth. That would be ridiculous. But he is one of the first to take those earthbound aliens and make them the meek instead of the mighty. It reminds me a bit of architecture school. We (the students) would pour over the works of famous architects, Louis Kahn, Herzog and de Meuron, MVRDV, Frank Gehry,Peter Zumthor, looking for bits of inspiration, looking for precedent. And in the end, if you were lucky, you had a mostly original work. It wouldn't be Peter Zumthor; it would be Peter Zumthor-esque. I would love to hear Blomkamp talk about his inspiration or precedent for District 9.

There are other fields of science fiction (which I have limited knowledge of) besides film, so maybe the concept of refugee aliens isn't as original as it may seem. But when it comes to the world of movies, District 9 is a novel and very thought provoking film.


Wade: 4/5 stars
Kinsey: 4/5 stars