Review of District 9 (2009) by Akshay H — 30 Sep 2014

Neill Blomkamp the new spark in science fiction.

Director/Writer Neill Blomkamp is just at the beginning of his career with 2 films. 'Elysium' of last year was his first film I saw and found it quite good. Now his first feature 'District 9' film is much better and probably a dream debut for any director. Science Fiction being one of my favorite genres I have a feeling Mr. Blomkamp may end up being added to the my list of greatest directors in future, he has already proved it in the sci-fi genre though. The standout point which I liked in his both films is how he highlights the social issues and the feeling of inequality set in our minds.

District 9 begins uniquely with a series of documentary type footage explaining the situation. A mysterious alien ship has halted over the city of Johannesburg,South Africa.After 3 month wait humans decide to break into the ship and the discover alien creatures looking like prawns(hence their name) in number more than million stranded in there.These creatures seemed malnourished and are given shelter in slum-like area called District 9 in Johannesburg. Years pass and unrest among people rise due to the presence of these aliens and lack of mutual understanding the two species. Over 20 years they get to know each others languages but co-existence seems difficult. Finally it is decided to move these aliens to another settlement District 10 well outside the city and Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) of MNC a company handling the alien affairs is the made head of operations. He and the team needs to issue the eviction notices and get signature of all the aliens for the relocation.

The thing that I like about the film is the way it portrays human behavior towards something they don't have much knowledge about. Well this is present in many sci-fi films but District 9 is quite different. We get easily sympathetic towards the situation the aliens are facing. Even if it feels a bit direction-less in its first half but gets really interesting later and filled enough action to entertain those who get bored by mundane sci-fiction.The story is focused on Wikus who has an incident during the relocation operation and his struggle later which later is going the fate of the aliens and his own. Shartlo Copley has done a fine job even if some may find his accent annoying.The CGI is very good, the aliens blend so effectively into the environment that it looks a like a intricately designed costume. I felt the first half had lot of info to chew on that made it less-likable to general audience. Also some elements in the film seem relatively unexplained like the possession of high-grade weapons by the aliens. But still the film looks quite realistic.

Music was good and I really liked the documentary style narration.The ending is again quite unique and many may be waiting for a sequel for detailed answers for some questions. Apart from that District 9 is grand debut for Neill Blomkamp. I am not going to miss any of his sci-fiction movies in the future.

Rating: [4/5].