'District 9' Film Review

(Published with the Pitt News.)

Forget every bad demonstration of the science fiction genre that has ever crossed the big screen, because this science fiction film deserves a chance to be seen without prejudice.

“District 9” explores the idea of an alternate history, where alien spacecraft were unable to leave Earth after arriving for unknown reasons.

The aliens within the massive craft are eventually forced to move onto the ground in the South African community their ship hovers over.

On the ground, they are moved into ghetto like camps until they find themselves being forced to move due to the tensions they have caused in the town.

As this uncomfortably familiar idea plays on the screen through the portrayal of a documentary, one worker for the government accidently sprays himself with an alien liquid, beginning a horrific transformation.

The mutilation changes the tone of the film entirely from pseudo documentary to a thrilling and action packed flick as audiences follow this worker and trying to save himself.

“District 9” is directed by Neill Blomkamp and also backed up with producing from Peter Jackson, combining the minds of a man who has worked on science fiction projects before with a highly acclaimed force in the film industry.

The mixture is thrilling. The film effortlessly melds the action with the character, and the importance of image and detail with the strength of how it’s used.

The aliens look fairly believable and more importantly, “District 9” did not succumb to the challenge of making the flesh and blood characters less stunning than the animated.

Stylistically, the film begins with a very distant documentary feeling.

Its snapshots and switching between camera styles cut from person to person as each of the characters in their separate companies and fields speak about a certain topic.

It makes for a slow beginning, as the information needed to understand is provided through the mixture of a documentary and the crime fighting show “Cops”.

But soon enough, there is a character to love and pity, and the change from documentary to story is swift and clean.

By the end, it is a touching mixture of the two, with a tone that progressed and changed dramatically. The audience will have sat through heart wrenching actions, intriguing relationships and incredible action scenes.

But the most fascinating aspect to watch might not be the characters and instead might be the ability to create a clash between two societies and cultures, a clash perhaps not very different from a true event on Earth.

The vision of the interaction between people and alien is powerful and convincing, more so than most other movies that dared to take on the potentially cheesy aliens visiting Earth idea.

Through this interaction comes a glimpse of things we have and do deal with today.

Perhaps as audiences watch District 9 they too will see the parallels between our real history and this action packed alternative story.