district 9 movie reviews

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, throw another prawn on the barbie.

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I suppose there’s no reason the first alien race to reach the Earth shouldn’t look like what the cat threw up. After all, they love to eat cat food. The alien beings in “District 9,” nicknamed “prawns” because they look like a cross between lobsters and grasshoppers, arrive in a space ship that hovers over Johannesburg. Found inside, huddled together and starving to death, are the aliens, who benefit from a humanitarian impulse to relocate them to a location on the ground.

Here they become not welcomed but feared, and their camp turns into a prison. Fearing alien attacks, humans demand they be resettled far from town, and a clueless bureaucrat named Wikus van der Merwe ( Sharlto Copley ) is placed in charge of this task. The creatures are not eager to move. A private security force, headed by van der Merwe, moves in with armored vehicles and flame-throwers to encourage them, and van der Merwe cheerfully destroys houses full of their young.

Who are these aliens? Where did they come from? How did their ship apparently run out of power (except what’s necessary to levitate its massive tonnage?). No one asks: They’re here, we don’t like them, get them out of town. There doesn’t seem to be a lot to like. In appearance, they’re loathsome, in behavior disgusting and evoke so little sympathy that killing one is like — why, like dropping a 7-foot lobster into boiling water.

This science-fiction fable, directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter (“ The Lord of the Rings ”) Jackson, takes the form of a mockumentary about van der Merwe’s relocation campaign, his infection by an alien virus, his own refuge in District 9 and his partnership with the only alien who behaves intelligently and reveals, dare we say, human emotions. This alien, named Christopher Johnson — yes, Christopher Johnson — has a secret workspace where he prepares to return to the mothership and help his people.

Much of the plot involves the obsession of the private security firm in learning the secret of the alien weapons, which humans cannot operate. Curiously, none of these weapons seem superior to those of the humans and aren’t used to much effect by the aliens in their own defense. Never mind. After van der Merwe grows a lobster claw in place of a hand, he can operate the weapons, and thus becomes the quarry of both the security company and the Nigerian gangsters, who exploit the aliens by selling them cat food. All of this is presented very seriously.

The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation. Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location. Others will be more pointed in South Africa. The title “District 9” evokes Cape Town’s historic District 6, where Cape Coloureds (as they were called then) owned homes and businesses for many years before being bulldozed out and relocated. The hero’s name, van der Merwe, is not only a common name for Afrikaners, the white South Africans of Dutch descent, but also the name of the protagonist of van der Merwe jokes, of which the point is that the hero is stupid. Nor would it escape a South African ear that the alien language incorporates clicking sounds, just as Bantu, the language of a large group of African apartheid targets.

Certainly this van der Merwe isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree. Wearing a sweater vest over a short-sleeve shirt, he walks up to alien shanties and asks them to sign a relocation consent form. He has little sense of caution, which is why he finds himself in his eventual predicament. What Neill Blomkamp somehow does is make Christopher Johnson and his son, Little CJ, sympathetic despite appearances. This is achieved by giving them, but no other aliens, human body language, and little CJ even gets big wet eyes, like E.T.

“District 9” does a lot of things right, including giving us aliens to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship need be angelic, octopod or stainless steel. They are certainly alien, all right. It is also a seamless merger of the mockumentary and special effects (the aliens are CGI). And there’s a harsh parable here about the alienation and treatment of refugees.

But the third act is disappointing, involving standard shoot-out action. No attempt is made to resolve the situation, and if that’s a happy ending, I’ve seen happier. Despite its creativity, the movie remains space opera and avoids the higher realms of science-fiction.

I’ll be interested to see if general audiences go for these aliens. I said they’re loathsome and disgusting, and I don’t think that’s just me. The movie mentions Nigerian prostitutes servicing the aliens, but wisely refrains from entertaining us with this spectacle.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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District 9 (2009)

Rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language

112 minutes

Sharlto Copley as Wikus

David James as Koobus Venter

Vanessa Haywood as Tania

Mandla Gaduka as Fundiswa Mhlanga

Kenneth Nkosi as Thomas

Directed by

• Neill Blomkamp
• Terri Tatchell

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Common sense media reviewers.

Sci-fi stunner is smart but gory; way too violent for kids.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Although it takes place in a sci-fi context, the m

The movie ultimately culminates with two beings --

Constant, bloody, and brutal violence, some of it

Some discussion of prostitution and exotic venerea

Lots of harsh/strong language, including "f--

Some smoking and drinking.

Parents need to know that this gritty, buzzworthy sci-fi epic filmed in South Africa (and produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson) is full of extremely realistic, bloody violence, including severed limbs, lots of bodies, piles of high-tech weapons, and even torture. The movie's aliens aren'…

Positive Messages

Although it takes place in a sci-fi context, the movie offers a fascinating perspective on South Africa's struggle with apartheid -- and on any nation's struggle with immigration and fear of "the other." The realization that the filmmakers didn't have to build the slums that their disenfranchised alien immigrants live in should also offer pause for thought.

Positive Role Models

The movie ultimately culminates with two beings -- one human, one alien -- working together in the service of the common good and struggling to do the right thing at great personal cost and danger. A lot of painful, upsetting stuff happens to them and others along the way, of course.

Violence & Scariness

Constant, bloody, and brutal violence, some of it involving humans and some involving humanoid, insect-like aliens. Kicking, fighting, severed limbs. Torture, including a man being jabbed with cattle prod so that his hand will pull the trigger of a gun. Characters use high-tech sci-fi firearms, some of which strike with such force that they liquefy their victims. Alien weapons are tested on living beings. Scary medical experimentation imagery, including bloody, explicit body modifications as a man has his DNA rewritten by an alien virus.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some discussion of prostitution and exotic venereal diseases in connection with talk about human/alien interspecies sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Lots of harsh/strong language, including "f--k" used near constantly, as well as "bastard," "oh my God," "balls," "crap," and more. Some of the swearing may be hard for American audiences to understand given the actors' accents.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this gritty, buzzworthy sci-fi epic filmed in South Africa (and produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson ) is full of extremely realistic, bloody violence, including severed limbs, lots of bodies, piles of high-tech weapons, and even torture. The movie's aliens aren't cute or appealing in any way -- they're scary-looking, insectoid creations with complex biologies and lives. Expect constant strong language (especially "f--k"), as well as some drinking, smoking, and discussion of sex. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (59)
• Kids say (134)

Based on 59 parent reviews

Great movie for older kids

Parallels with xenophobia and apartheid, what's the story.

Set in an alternate present, DISTRICT 9 takes place in South Africa, where, 20 years ago, an alien ship came to rest in the skies above Johannesburg -- with more than a million workers and near-slaves aboard. Now, after two decades of uneasy co-existence, the local government is moving the alien "Prawns" from their ramshackle slums in District 9 to a new camp 200 kilometers away. But as part of the forced relocation, a government bureaucrat discovers that District 9 has secrets of its own.

Is It Any Good?

Produced by Peter Jackson, District 9 is a rarity -- a lower-budget science-fiction film with amazing effects, thrilling action, and, most importantly, emotional and intellectual depth. Turning the plight of marginalized groups into science fiction is nothing new, but District 9 's dark vision of the apartheid years is somehow brain-bendingly exciting and painfully real.

Director/co-writer Neill Blomkamp makes a few mistakes -- some of the character arcs have a few rough edges, and the film's middle section is a bit interminable -- but, at the same time, District 9 is a welcome antidote to "science-fiction films" like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (which, of course, have no science in them whatsoever). The movie's willingness to take on complex political and moral questions is an equally welcome change from the bloodless, thoughtless gloss of big-budget action films like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra . And, of course, it's just plain exciting -- full of action, comedy, eye-popping effects, and tricky stunts. District 9 is a bloody, brutal action-science-fiction allegory served up rough and raw, but that's what makes it worth getting excited about.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's extreme violence . Is it meant to be realistic (in that, yes, high-tech alien weaponry could be this horrible) or is it just eye candy for action fans? Does it have more or less impact than the violence in a movie like G.I. Joe ?

How does the movie's news footage/documentary-like style compare to that of other large-scale sci-fi films? Does it seem more realistic? Does that make it scarier?

How does the movie's setting echo the real-life conditions of poverty and prejudice during South Africa's apartheid era? Even though it's a sci-fi film, what messages does the movie send about that period?

Can you think of other sci-fi movies (or other types of media) that have tackled tough political ideas through metaphor and fantasy?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 14, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : December 22, 2009
• Cast : David James , Jason Cope , Sharlto Copley
• Director : Neill Blomkamp
• Studio : Sony Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Run time : 113 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : bloody violence and pervasive language
• Last updated : May 13, 2024

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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District 9 Reviews

Blomkamp doesn’t miss a step. His film is cynical, funny, smart, exciting, and satirical—all without losing his audience’s involvement in the scenario.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 4, 2023

District 9 might not be a classic like Alien or ‘The Terminator’ (not many films are), but it’s still an effective sci-fi film with depth and style.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2023

Funny and ferocious, cynical and satirical, "District 9" is both ingeniously clever and reflectively thoughtful, a science fiction thriller that bubbles with social commentary.

Full Review | Apr 26, 2022

I don't think the film is the epic reevaluation of science-fiction storytelling like some people have hailed it to be. But I do think it's a solid smart sci-fi action flick that's honest to its characters

Full Review | Jan 10, 2022

One of the most creative and exciting science-fiction adventures in the last decade.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 28, 2020

Amid the mayhem, however, it's impossible to lose sight of the film's penetrating satire on racism and xenophobia.

Full Review | Nov 23, 2020

FEELS oppressed and this oppression permeates virtually every single minute of the film's 112-minute runtime.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 6, 2020

It's a genuinely impressive debut feature and unlike the singular experience of Cloverfield's faux-reality, District 9 has narrative, plus thematic weight and visceral thrills, which elevate it above the gimmick of the reality format.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 29, 2019

It is without a doubt that District 9 will be a hit.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2019

Copley is never a believable protagonist, and his transformation isn't very believable. About the only interesting cast members are the CGI aliens.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 16, 2019

If someone asked me what I could offer them to convey the "mission statement" of science fiction, I would hand over a copy of District 9 without thought.

Full Review | Jan 14, 2019

Part found footage (or just footage), part mockumentary, part satire and part action; Blomkamp pulls it into a coherent, moving, violent, sci fi allegory. Copley is terrific as Wikus moving from species-ist opportunist to a genuine if gormless redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 17, 2018

There are lots of great odd details filling the early scenes, suggesting we're not getting all the cultural references, that make for exciting film-watching.

Full Review | Nov 14, 2018

The only thing saving the story is an astonishingly impressive performance from Copley. His every incarnation as Wikus-first as a cheerful, if incompetent suit, then as a pathetic xenophobe, to finally a self-sacrificing warrior-rings true.

I won't tell you to rush out and see it, but in these days of sequels and remakes, this was an interesting original.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 14, 2018

Neill Blomkamp has made an instant science fiction classic. From beginning to end, the thrills magnify, intensify into a horrific drama that will live for the ages.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2018

I don't know guys, at the end of the day it's aliens and hard for me to take this seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 12, 2017

It is a sign of intelligent filmmaking when those crafting the movie realize that less is more. Real artists show restraint.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2017

It has become almost impossible to make a sci-fi film these days that doesn't spend its last 30 minutes in a multiple-orgasm roar of screaming, shooting and shattering explosions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 14, 2016

The wonder is that despite its obvious roots, District 9 feels staggeringly original.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2015

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In 'District 9,' An Apartheid Allegory (With Aliens)

Jeannette Catsoulis

Metaphorical mothership: Three decades after extraterrestrials arrive on Earth, they remain quarantined in a violent, squalid Johannesburg ghetto. The refugee aliens aren't welcome, but they're also not allowed to leave. TriStar Pictures hide caption

Metaphorical mothership: Three decades after extraterrestrials arrive on Earth, they remain quarantined in a violent, squalid Johannesburg ghetto. The refugee aliens aren't welcome, but they're also not allowed to leave.

• Director: Neill Blomkamp
• Genre: Sci-Fi
• Running Time: 113 minutes

Rated R: Bloody violence and pervasive language With: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt

(Recommended)

Watch Clips

'Aliens Arrive'

Media no longer available

'Contraband'

Filmed almost entirely on a giant South African rubbish dump, District 9 spins human trash into extraterrestrial gold. Charging through a three-day story arc with end-of-the-world intensity, its characters dare us to quibble over their unpronounceable names and unintelligible accents.

But then as their frequently-subtitled exchanges prove, words aren't really the point: When it's human against alien, we rely on our eyes much more than our ears.

Made for around $30 million — a steal at today's prices — this frenetic debut by Neill Blomkamp (a protege of Peter Jackson, who produced the film) grabs you by the eyeballs from the very first frame. Jackson's own cinematic technique may have congealed into a bloated caricature of itself, but District 9 proves he still recognizes talent.

As we learn from a brilliantly concise intro involving faux newsreels and direct-to-camera interviews with government drones or corporate mouthpieces, an alien spaceship stalled above Johannesburg 20 years earlier, its million passengers helpless and starving. Labeled "prawns" due to their love of scavenging and their disgusting-to-humans physical appearance (a hybrid of the monster from Predator and Pirates of the Caribbean 's squid-faced Davy Jones), the aliens were corralled into an area known as District 9 .

Now, however, the District has devolved into a stinking, violent ghetto, and the multinational entity in charge of it has decided to relocate the refuse-happy residents. Heading up the dangerous task of evictions is Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a dedicated bureaucrat considered expendable by his loathsome boss-cum-father-in-law.

They'd phone home if they could: "We didn't mean to land here," one alien explains. "We mean you no harm. We just want to go home." David Bloomer/TriStar Pictures hide caption

They'd phone home if they could: "We didn't mean to land here," one alien explains. "We mean you no harm. We just want to go home."

Wikus is a bit of a pill; officious and with a sneering superiority, he's unafraid of the prawns and not above threatening the removal of their insectoid offspring should they refuse to relocate. The early scenes, which follow Wikus and a harried TV news crew as they trudge from one hovel to another brandishing eviction notices, have a nerve-jangling tension spiked with dark humor.

MNU In Black? Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is employed by Multi-National United (MNU), a company tasked with researching the aliens' weapon systems. David Bloomer/TriStar Pictures hide caption

MNU In Black? Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is employed by Multi-National United (MNU), a company tasked with researching the aliens' weapon systems.

Seamlessly blending the natural and the unnatural, Blomkamp layers visual gags (signs warning "No Non-Human Loitering") with aural (alien conversations that sound like extreme intestinal distress) while advancing a plot rife with references to E.T. , The Fly and Alien Nation. References to apartheid are a given.

The wonder is that despite its obvious roots, District 9 feels staggeringly original. Channeling Cloverfield 's on-the-fly shooting style and Paul Verhoeven's energy and anti-corporate sensibility (there's even a cameo by what looks like RoboCop's ED-209), the movie rarely holds still. And while this restlessness has predictable consequences for character development — only Wikus feels three-dimensional — it's difficult to care. As corporate bigwigs lust after alien technology and the aliens lust after cat food (can a Fancy Feast endorsement be far behind?), District 9 gradually narrows its focus and widens its ambitions. The final struggle between alien and human will be played out not on the ground but in Wikus' bloodstream, a war zone less visible but infinitely more consequential.

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‘district 9’: film review.

No true fan of science fiction — or, for that matter, cinema — can help but thrill to the action, high stakes and suspense built around a very original chase movie.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

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'deadwood': thr's 2004 review, 'family guy': thr's 1999 review.

Having scored a direct hit with audiences last week at Comic-Con, “District 9” is primed for solid business in all markets when it rolls out domestically in August and globally from August through October.

By choosing to film in the city of his youth, Johannesburg, Blomkamp situates his story in a very real place off the beaten path for science fiction. The accents, townships, barbed-wire enclosures and harsh, dusty environment all give “District 9” a gritty sense of place. Why shouldn’t an alien spaceship land some place other than the U.S.?

In fact, the film’s alien ship arrived over the sky of Jo’burg 20 years before the movie begins. Instead of Spielberg aliens, these are exhausted refugees whose ship literally ran out of gas. The stalled mother ship still hovers over the cityscape, its bedraggled occupants long ago removed from its foul compartments into makeshift camps separated from the human population.

These creatures are deliberately made to appear disgusting: Located somewhere between insects and crustaceans on the evolutionary scale, the aliens have hard shell areas, extremely thin waists, sinewy joints and surprising strength. Humans, in their disgust, call them “prawns” because they are bottom-feeding scavengers who root around for food, especially cat food!

(Make what you will of a humanoid species segregated into refugee camps in South Africa, a place still coping with the after-effects of the apartheid system. The film makes no comment, nor does it need to.)

Multinational United (MNU), a private company contracted to control the growing alien population, decides to relocate them from their homes in District 9 to a rural concentration camp. Through nepotism, the task of this mass removal is handed to MNU field operative Wikus (Sharlto Copley), a by-the-book wimp in a vast bureaucracy.

While delivering eviction notices, he discovers and tries to clear an illegal lab run by alien Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope). (You’ve got to like the idea that condescending Earthlings have given human names to this subjugated species.) In doing so, Wikus unwittingly gets infected with the alien virus that rapidly changes his DNA. Within hours, he becomes violently ill and grows an alien claw for a hand.

You guessed it. His claw can now operate alien weaponry. Instantly, he is “the most valuable business artifact on Earth.” Somehow this means MNU scientists want to harvest his organs. Wilkus escapes, and the chase is on. Hot on his heels is MNU’s chief enforcer and the movie’s chief villain, Koobus (David James).

The fugitive hides in the only place no one will look: District 9. There he is forced into an uneasy alliance with Christopher and his young son. Seems that virus he came in contact with is the liquid Johnson has been distilling for the past two decades to power the mother ship back home.

What the film runs away from though is well-rounded characters. Wikus stands alone as the only fully developed character, a human who has little choice but to become a traitor to his own species. Everyone else leaves a fleeting impression, and the film’s villains are too cartoonish. When the decision is made to harvest Wikus’ organs — by his own father-in-law, no less — there isn’t even a hint of a moral dilemma.

Then too the whole point of the chase is vaguely defined. The Nigerian gangster wants to cut off Wikus’ arm to eat it! The MNU scientists want to kill Wikus. This makes little sense: Shouldn’t Wikus — the only being who can operate alien weapons — be of greater value alive than dead? What do the scientists believe they can extract from his organs?

Maybe no one thinks straight in the blur of events. Most of the action takes place over 74 hours. Blomkamp catches its frantic activity with all the raw authenticity of a documentary, egged on by the rhythmic drive of Clinton Shorter’s magnificent score.

“District 9” is smart, savvy filmmaking of the highest order.

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District 9 review

A sci-fi movie with great visual effects AND a brain: did someone in Hollywood miss a meeting...?

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As far as mentors go, Peter ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Jackson has to be up there with the very biggest. Just imagine it: you’re a young filmmaker, talented but as yet untried, and one of the most powerful men in world cinema takes you under his wing.

With his (Jackson’s) backing, you secure a $30 million budget for your first feature – a virtual mockumentary on extraterrestrial apartheid, set in Johannesburg, without a single star actor attached – and are given total creative control of the project. Yeah, it’s safe to say District 9 ‘s director, Neill Blomkamp, was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But, oh boy, did the man deliver. District 9 is the most audacious sci-fi action film since The Matrix – and there can be no higher praise than that. 

The 28 year-old Blomkamp – a South African native who moved to Canada in his late teens – has always been something of a high achiever, starting his career in 3D animation and VFX at the tender age of 16, before going on to direct award-winning music videos and commercials (including the famous Citroen’s breakdancing robot ad, Alive with Technology).

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So it was clear from the start that Jackson’s protégée was something of a prodigy. After being slated to direct the now defunct Halo adaptation, Blomkamp pitched Jackson an expanded story based on his short film Alive In Jo’Burg . The King of Kiwis loved it and greenlit the project.

The plot of District 9 has been kept closely under wraps, using a viral marketing campaign of teaser trailers and a drip feed of titillating titbits – so don’t expect the game to be given away here. This sense of anticipation is vital to District 9 ‘s aura of the unknown.

Very briefly then, the film is set in an alternate reality where 20 years ago a monolithic spaceship appeared over the skies of Johannesburg…and then did nothing. After several months, the spaceship was breached, revealing a million aliens, known only as Prawns, in a state of socio-regression.

Unsure as to how to continue, the South African government housed the refugees in a makeshift shantytown, District 9, where mass corruption soon became rife. Now, with public patience over the alien situation exhausted, a private defence company, the MNU (Multi-National United), have been employed to deal with the problem, who decide to pack the Prawns off to a purpose built concentration camp, District 10.

During the relocation process, which soon becomes a brutal disaster zone, bumbling MNU field agent Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copely), a lovable Afrikaans redneck with a striking similarity to Rhys Darby’s Murray character from Flight Of The Concords , and promoted way over his head because he married a MNU executive’s daughter,  gets involved in an Earth-shattering series of events.

Principally presented as a documentary on Wikus’ involvement in the events leading up to and after the Prawns’ extraordinary rendition, District 9 is a multimedia mash-up of TV news reports, vérité handycam footage, home movie outtakes, CCTV film and interviews.

However, unlike many of these ultra-real mock-ups, Blomkamp also fuses traditional filming into the mix. So whereas similar movies like Cloverfield and [REC] have always suffered from the ‘why are they still recording?’ question, District 9 doesn’t have to shoehorn in some contrived explanation for this.

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In a nutshell: if the camera being there isn’t plausible, just film it normally. It’s a brave, and hugely self-assured, decision that frees District 9 from the – let’s be honest – gimmicky nature of the Blair Witch device, and allows it to become a ‘real’ film in its own right. And what a film it is.

A visual masterpiece, particularly when its budget, relatively minor in the blockbuster stakes, is taken into account (Jackson described it as a ‘tiny project’, but then he has his own standards), District 9 puts a lot of recent event movies to shame. No wonder Blomkamp was regarded as a CGI genius – we’re talking Dark Knight levels of sexiness here.

Surging along at a breakneck, kinetic pace, and hardly pausing for a moment’s breath, District 9 is an audio-visual tour de force. The experience is like mainlining pure adrenalin, and so intensely engrossing that by the time the climax plays out and the credits roll, you’ll be buzzing harder than an ADD twelve-year-old dosed up on a cocktail of Ritalin and Red Bull.

And yet, the action remains crisp and clear throughout. There’s none of the Bay-esk, epilepsy-inducing Gatling gun editing and uber CG commotion so common in science fiction nowadays. You actually know what’s going on, all the time. Character development and world building isn’t sidelined in favour of spectacle ether.

Blomkamp throws in a healthy sense of gallows humour and a fully realised plot, devoid of any major holes. The decision to base the film in South Africa is priceless – even without apartheid parallels – and the Prawns’ social customs and physiological differences from our human ones doesn’t make their leap to reviled, second class citizens unbelievable. It is, in fact, a hugely likely reaction, sadly enough.

Stuffed full of the little details that create a bigger whole – the lead alien being called Christopher and the African warlord’s black market exploitation of the Prawn’s weakness for cat food, for example – District 9 is a perfect example of a brilliant premise executed to perfection.

Could this have been done within the strict confines of the Hollywood studio system? Who knows? Blomkamp hit the jackpot when he found a benefactor of Peter Jackson’s stature, but has repaid him in turn and produced the most startlingly original film for a long, long time.

With District 9 The MTV generation has come of age, and Blomkamp proven that the Children of the Eighties, weaned on a diet of boundless imagination, have the vision to redefine the scope of mainstream cinema much like Lucas, Ford Coppola and Spielberg did before them. If only someone is brave enough to give them a chance.

Yes, it really is that good.

District 9 goes on general UK release on the 4th of September.

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The truth about District 9 is out there

Sometimes writing this column I feel a little like the aliens in District 9, the new Peter Jackson-produced sci-fi movie set in a Johannesberg where extra terrestrials landed in 1982 and now live in squalor in a fenced off slum. Admittedly, I don't have a fetish for eating cat food (as the aliens, known as "prawns" by humans for their crustacoid features, do in director Neil Blomkamp's first film), nor am I capable of interplanetary flight or DNA modification. But being required to keep one's mouth shut about one of the most exciting and brilliantly-realised genre movies of the year - due to the current UK embargo on reviews - does feel like a mighty unreasonable restriction on one's freedoms, damn it!

Verdicts are , however, abundant in the States, where the film is out tomorrow - which at least that gives us a chance to check out some of the early reviews of this most startling of films.

What I will say is that Blomkamp and his team masterfully mix dramatic footage with faux news reels, documentary-style shots and even CCTV in a manner which delivers the cinema verite -style shock to the system of a Blair Witch Project or a Cloverfield, but without the constant irritating feeling that the cameraman would surely have dropped the thing and scarpered after the 15th extra-terrestrial beating. It really is a very intelligent and - just as importantly - non-distracting fusion of styles.

The largely unknown cast, in particular Sharlto Copley in the central role of Wikus van der Merwe, the hapless head of the military-backed firm which is sent into District 9 to try and evict the aliens, has been perfectly selected. And the whole thing has just the right mix of sci-fi intrigue and trashy third act ultra-violence to keep both fans of Philip K Dick and Michael Bay happy.

But back to those reviews. First up, king geek Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News , who declares in his headline that he's already seen District 9 three times "and is looking forward to many more!!!" (Note the three exclamation marks: that's Aintitcoolese for very exciting indeed.)

"District 9 must succeed," he writes, with trademark zeal. "Because it is a truly great film. A film that asks us how we'll see future beings? Will we allow the ways of the past to dictate how we'll treat future sentient beings? But more than that, it's great film-making. Stunning film-making. The last 30 minutes or so - it's concentrated badassery at a level that will have you cheering.

"This is what ORIGINAL filmmaking looks like. What happens when you let a first timer have exactly what he needs to make a film that just fucking blows your mind away."

Sara Vilkomerson of the New York Observer , meanwhile, writes: "District 9 is the most exciting science fiction movie to come along in ages; definitely the most thrilling film of the summer; and quite possibly the best film I've seen all year." Entertainment Weekly 's Lisa Schwarzbaum describes it as "madly original, cheekily political, [and] altogether exciting." Variety calls it "an enjoyably disgusting sci-fier".

Small surprise, then, that the film has a 97% "fresh" rating on reviews aggregator rottentomatoes.com , making it one of the most critically successful films of the year so far. There is the odd naysayer, however: Armond White of the New York Press lays into District 9's outlandish premise and attacks its apartheid-era allegories for racial insensitivity.

"Blomkamp and Jackson want it every which way," he complains. "The actuality-video threat of The Blair Witch Project, unstoppable violence like ID4 plus Spielberg's otherworldly benevolence: factitiousness, killing and cosmic agape. This is how cinema gets turned into trash."

Are you looking forward to catching District 9, which arrives in the UK on September 4? Do drop a comment below to let me know your thoughts.

• Science fiction and fantasy films
• Peter Jackson

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A Young Director Brings a Spaceship and a Metaphor in for a Landing

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By Dave Itzkoff

• Aug. 5, 2009

Less than 24 hours after losing out on the movie of his career, Neill Blomkamp found the other movie of his career.

In 2006 Mr. Blomkamp, a young director of commercials and shorts, was plucked from obscurity to direct a big-budget feature based on the best-selling Halo video games, endorsed by no less than Peter Jackson, the “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker. But weeks after Mr. Blomkamp was hired, the project was abruptly shelved by its Hollywood backers.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity he and Mr. Jackson devised a new film that is arguably just as ambitious.

At the start of that film, “District 9” (which Sony’s TriStar Pictures division will open on Aug. 14), an alien spacecraft stalls out in Earth’s atmosphere, not over New York or Washington but over Johannesburg.

When its extraterrestrial passengers emerge, they are sequestered in a sprawling shantytown and shunned by even the lowest strata of human society. Amid an effort to relocate the creatures to a new camp, a corporate bureaucrat (played by Sharlto Copley) is infected with a virus that begins turning him into an alien, forcing him to confront his prejudices and his loyalties while he runs for his life.

If it all sounds like a science-fiction parable for South Africa’s segregationist history, Mr. Blomkamp, 29, says that is no accident. “The whole film exists because of that,” he said.

Growing up in Johannesburg, Mr. Blomkamp was a visual effects prodigy who at 14 was already working alongside Mr. Copley at a computer graphics company. Though Mr. Blomkamp moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Mr. Copley relocated to Cape Town, their memories of Johannesburg at the end of apartheid stayed with them.

In a joint interview in a top-floor suite at Sony’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters Mr. Blomkamp described his hometown as “this amazing, racially charged, powder-keg city — an urban prison.”

Mr. Copley, 35, added that among his peers at that time, “there wasn’t much political conversation.”

“We were all just sheltered from what was going on,” he said, “and it was only looking back that you realized, God, that’s how it was.”

After Mr. Blomkamp’s commercial-directing career took off, he returned to the city in 2005 to shoot a six-minute film called “Alive in Joburg,” a documentary-style short in which fearful Johannesburg residents discussed how their lives had changed since the arrival of outer-space refugees. Mr. Blomkamp created his own special effects for the film, which cost about $15,000 to make, and Mr. Copley, a producer, appeared in a small role as an unsympathetic police officer.

That short was among the works that convinced Mary Parent, who was then a producer for Universal Pictures, that Mr. Blomkamp would be the ideal candidate to direct the movie “Halo,” adapted from the Microsoft video games; Mr. Jackson, an executive producer of the film, approved.

But after Mr. Blomkamp relocated from Vancouver to Mr. Jackson’s offices in Wellington, New Zealand, Universal and a second studio, 20th Century Fox, withdrew from “Halo,” unable to come to terms on a profit-sharing arrangement with the filmmakers and Microsoft.

Devastated, Mr. Jackson and his producing partner and wife, Fran Walsh, encouraged Mr. Blomkamp to channel his momentum (and their production resources) immediately into a new film. At a presentation for “District 9” last month at Comic-Con in San Diego Mr. Jackson said they suggested “working on an original idea, something we could own, that we weren’t beholden to studio politics.”

Shot in Johannesburg in 2008 on a $30 million budget (“Halo” was rumored to have one reaching $175 million or higher), “District 9” is Mr. Blomkamp’s feature-length expansion of “Alive in Joburg.” Written by Mr. Blomkamp with Terri Tatchell, it offers familiar sci-fi, fantasy and horror conventions: the shaky cinéma vérité of “Cloverfield”; the colossal alien mother ships of “Independence Day”; the gooey metamorphosis of David Cronenberg’s remake of “The Fly.”

“I was trying to make the science fiction feel vaguely familiar,” Mr. Blomkamp said. “The South African component would be the alien component.”

The plight of the film’s crustaceanlike extraterrestrials can be easily read as a metaphor for the persecution of South African blacks under apartheid. But Mr. Blomkamp said he was also trying to comment on how the country’s impoverished peoples oppress one another. While “District 9” was being filmed in the Chiawelo section of Soweto, Alexandra and other townships were ravaged by outbursts of xenophobic violence perpetrated by indigenous South Africans upon illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi and elsewhere.

As “District 9” is prepared for a worldwide release Mr. Blomkamp said he was unsure how certain portions of the film would be received in the United States, particularly a sequence in which Mr. Copley’s character is pursued by Nigerian gangsters who want to cut off and eat his alien parts.

“It could leave a bunch of North Americans feeling either confused or insulted,” Mr. Blomkamp said. But, he added, “I could see the same scene in South Africa being watched almost as though you’re watching a piece of news.”

Ultimately, Mr. Blomkamp said, the onus is on American moviegoers to acclimate themselves to unfamiliar ideas.

“The rest of the world has always been open to films from all over the place,” he said. “The Americans have to, in the 21st century, start dealing with the fact that they may be watching popcorn films not from America.”

“Soon,” he said, “we’ll all be making films for the Chinese.”

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Movie Review: District 9 (2009)

• Khidr Suleman
• Movie Reviews
• 8 responses
• --> September 9, 2009

Like many films before, I had seen the trailer to District 9 . However, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to witness when I stepped into Screen 5 to watch the entire film. Trust me, when I say that no amount of description can give justice to the story but I shall do my best anyway.

We are told the background as to how aliens ended up on Earth. It all started when an alien ship mysteriously appeared over Johannesburg in 1982. There was no contact with the aliens and the ship remained suspended in mid-air. The South African government eventually took the decision to cut into the ship where upon malnutritioned aliens were found. A refugee camp known as District 9 was set up to house them. However, what was originally supposed to be temporary accommodation became permanent as the aliens could not restart the mother ship. Today, the camp struggles to contain the 1 million inhabitants and riots between humans and aliens make the city a dangerous place. A private military organization known as Multi-National United (MNU for short) is tasked with forcibly moving the aliens to another camp 250 km outside of the city.

Throughout, we follow Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley), an average Joe who is promoted by his father-in-law to head up the relocation project. As he makes his way around District 9 handing out eviction notices, he is exposed to a substance which has damning consequences and leads to him to becoming a fugitive.

The first half of the film is told in a documentary style and in a totally believable fashion. Interviews with MNU employees and relatives, and news and surveillance footage is mashed together to set the tone of the film and create curiosity within the audience. Normal storytelling service is resumed when we get to the fateful moment when everything in Winkus Van De Merde’s life changed.

The central themes dealt with in the film are that of segregation and xenophobia. The aliens are left to live in squalor, and are known degradingly as “prawns”. The location of South Africa is also far from coincidental. Director Neill Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg during South African apartheid and he does an admirable job of tackling the subject. The film is bound to raise historical interest in the new generation as the treatment of the aliens is a clear metaphor for the way in which black South Africans were treated (you’ve probably seen some posters dotted around bus stops, billboards and phone boxes which signify that the areas are for “Humans Only”. These not so subtle marketing techniques are a clear nod to the signs incorporated during apartheid.)

What makes the film even more impressive is that it was made on a $30 million budget. Proof, if ever there was, that you don’t need $200 million to make a great film. The small budget means a great deal of effort went into producing a good story that will captivate the audience on substance. This doesn’t mean there wasn’t any money left over for there to be realistic CGI though — there is; there just isn’t two hours worth of explosions. That said, District 9 does have some extremely gory scenes and towards the end of the movie, the body count does pile up.

Watching District 9 is an experience that you will never forget. The film provides you with a rollercoaster ride of emotions from disgust to sadness to joy. It is certainly one of the best crafted and thought provoking films of the year. I look forward to the inevitable District 10.

You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.

Feature: Top 10 80s Action Movie Stars Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Movie Review: The Spirit (2008) Movie Review: Ghost Town (2008)

'Movie Review: District 9 (2009)' have 8 comments

September 11, 2009 @ 11:12 am T.K.

District 9 succeeds brilliantly as an exercise in style, but the style promises a level of substance the film never quite delivers. If you’re looking for the late-summer special-effects action fantasy with big franchise potential, forget about G.I. Joe Instead, proceed directly to District 9.

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September 12, 2009 @ 5:58 am Raphael

It isn’t clear if it’s exactly sci-fi, but an impressive movie and very original compared to other movies. Special effects are great too.

September 13, 2009 @ 9:00 am Captain Arcain

I was prepared for the visual effects and the style in which Peter Jackson gives you an intense and immersed feel for the universe he plops you in to when the lights dim. I was prepared for a good story and some gritty action sequences rife with splatter and gore. What I wasn’t prepared for was a raw story of human emotion and social commentary that struck enough chords to fill an orchestra hall. Oh sure, there was some cheese mixed in with the sumptuous buffet but that’s all part of the Jackson flair. Star Trek aside, I haven’t seen a sci-fi flick this good and this intensely passionate in quite a few years. Thus proving that the genre is far from dead. It’s merely been biding it’s time.

September 20, 2009 @ 4:53 am Molly Taylor

The film was brilliant. I completely understand when you say how hard it is to describe.

It worked on so many levels, and such a new concept (well first time I had seen it I think) the story where the aliens were the oppressed. The documentary style seems to work even through it is combined with non documentary sections.

And I found myself praying to god they didn’t make a sequal whilst desperate to know if he made good on the 3 year promise.

October 2, 2009 @ 12:41 pm lee

these comments are good and revelant – finally !!

i have been reading lots of other reviews and need to start commenting in order to clear up some of the misunderstandings.

ive read so many (usa) reviews about the “unbelievable main character” and the “fake accent” and to any south african Wikus is 100% typical of our own red neck those-who-never-apply for passports true blue south african. we all know lots of south africans who speak and act and (unfortunately) think exactly like wikus.

there is a huge problem with nigerian violence, scams and drug trafficking in SA and the locals have been protesting about it. Our malawian gardener who comes to us once a week always gets himself robbed by nigerians when returning to the townships, we have opened a bank account for him so that doesnt carry cash anymore. Our friends in JHB had their son killed because a nigerian gang kidnapped him and asked for a ransom, which our friends paid for, and they killed him anyway. So yes, its very very appropriate to include them in the movie.

The ruwandans, mocambiqueans, botswananas, malawians and all manner of neighbouring africans who have flocked into SA are corralled into the worst parts of every township and are called “aliens” locally.

Racism? Well the white guys are depicted as the baddies and the black guys in MNU are the nicest humans so the racist card is not that clear.

I find it amusing that people who would walk out of a movie only 20 minutes into it can write reviews and have any sort of intelligent opinion. The director clearly states that he didnt need to patronise the audience by explaining every little angle and leaves much to audience.

A good movie is one that gets people thinking and talking and this movie sure does that !!

I understood the brilliance of the movie when seeing it the second time and so much fell into place that I couldnt take in the first time because it was so intense.

Hopefully the academy will do their due diligence and try and understand the social and criminal context, the accent and ignore some of the super ignorant reviews that have been written by folk who cant understand a movie unless it spoonfeeds and stars Will Smith !!

February 18, 2010 @ 10:16 pm Steve

I was really touched by this movie. The special effects were unquestionably superior, but the story spoke more to me than any crazy effect could. District 9 is very deserving of its Best Picture nomination.

July 8, 2010 @ 11:31 pm Micro

This movie when it first started off I thought I was going to hate, but it really is a great movie not only sends a good message but it’s just overall pretty amazing. :)

January 4, 2011 @ 9:02 am Prader

Here I thought I was one of the few people who actually enjoyed this movie. When I first watched it I couldn’t wait to talk about it to all my friends. They were not as impressed. I don’t understand why? The movie was brilliant, and it didn’t leave you hanging. You know exactly what happens, and in my opinion it was a good ending. It’s good to see positive remarks about this movie.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• August 14, 2009
• Sharlto Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe; David James as Koobus Venter; Vanessa Haywood as Tania Van De Merwe

Home Release Date

• December 22, 2009
• Neill Blomkamp

Distributor

• Sony Pictures

Movie Review

Most of us love the occasional visit. We gussy up our guest rooms, happily cook meals and sit on our couches with guests, laughing and talking until the wee hours of the morning. At least that’s the way it works for a while. But eventually, even the most gracious of hosts feel the need to turn thoughts back to jobs and school and family and … normalcy.

So what happens if your houseguest is still there? What happens if they can’t leave?

Residents of Johannesburg, South Africa, know the feeling. About 20 years ago, a huge alien spacecraft parked itself over the city. For months, citizens waited for its occupants to come out and either say, “We come in peace” or “Die, earthling scum!” When neither happened, they decided to go up themselves and knock on the door. Inside, they found a race of insectoid creatures … starving, aimless—queenless, some scientists speculate. So, not wanting to be rude, Johannesburg welcomed them down to the planet and tried to make them feel—well, if not at home, at least comfortable.

Two decades later, Johannesburg’s ready for them to leave already. The aliens—now derogatorily referred to as “prawns”—are sequestered in a cramped, lawless ghetto in the middle of the city, where they live in makeshift shacks and pick through trash piled, seemingly, everywhere. Most humans think they deserve no better. Tension pops like bacon grease. In this country of longtime apartheid, where racial tensions have run deep for hundreds of years, blacks and whites finally have found something that unites them: Their growing hatred of prawns.

Johannesburg’s solution is to hire the huge, militaristic conglomerate Multi-National United to move the prawns—all 1.8 million of them by this point—to a new “relocation” (read: concentration) camp well outside the city. MNU, in turn, taps Wikus Van De Merwe—an undistinguished pencil pusher who happens to be married to the CEO’s daughter—to take on the daunting task.

Wikus launches into his duties with all the enthusiasm of a certain pointy-haired middle manager given a make-or-break shot at relevancy. He leads MNU enforcers into the ghetto and starts prodding prawns to sign eviction notices, clearing the way for their relocation. Along the way, he confiscates alien weapons (massively powerful things that, because they sport a biological trigger, are useless to humans), kills alien embryos and sets fire to shacks filled with prawn eggs.

[ Note: Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

When Wikus is exposed to an alien-made liquid, he finds this career opportunity coming undone—and his whole body, too. He starts throwing up. Black goo trickles from his nose. His fingernails and teeth begin falling out. And he slowly begins to transform … into a prawn.

Positive Elements

It’s hard to find much to praise when it comes to discussing Johannesburg’s human population. Even Wikus, hero of District 9 , is a jerk much of the time, and he’s frustratingly slow to lose his prejudices. But when he finally does, it galvanizes him into a ruthless champion who’s willing to sacrifice himself to save a prawn family. He also loves his wife dearly and does everything in his power to reunite with her.

As for the prawns, Christopher Johnson, a single parent raising a prawn lad, spends 20 years manufacturing a vial of fuel to power the hovering mother craft. When MNU officials take it, he and Wikus form an unlikely alliance to get it back. Wikus’ reasons are largely selfish: Christopher has promised to turn him back into a human. Christopher, meanwhile, has his eyes set on rescuing his people from our increasingly hostile planet.

Spiritual Elements

A petty crime lord is advised by a witch doctor to eat the body parts of prawns so he can absorb their power—advice he follows.

Sexual Content

We hear that “interspecies prostitution” goes on within the slum, a point driven home by the appearance of suggestively dressed women. Wikus is falsely accused of having sex with aliens: Evidence consists of a fabricated photo. (Wikus is fully clothed and contact is obscured with a censor box.) A crime henchman, seeing Wikus, alludes to the picture, saying he did it “doggy style with a demon” and asking whether he wore a condom. Someone makes a reference to testicles.

Violent Content

“I can’t believe I get paid for this,” MNU’s military leader tells a beaten, bloodied alien. “I love watching you prawns die.”

The filmmakers must believe moviegoers enjoy watching, too, because District 9 boasts a sky-high body count of both prawns and humans—though, frankly, there’s often very little left of the bodies to count.

The aliens rarely use their own weapons, though early on we see some news footage of crashed trains and the like, suggesting the prawns sometimes caused serious damage outside the ghetto. For the most part, prawns trade their weapons for, literally, cat food. Wikus, however, kills scores of people with the horrific weapons—sometimes tearing off their arms and heads, but more often they’re messily vaporized, leaving behind just a spatter of blood and gore. (He can fire them because of his new alien appendage.)

Humans and prawns are punched, kicked, thrown, shot, burned, gassed, blown up and otherwise treated poorly. A human kills a prawn, execution style, with a bullet to the head. A pack of prawns rip apart a human with their tentacles. (Blood spouts when the man’s head comes off.) A bomb explodes in an office building. A small missile lodges in the forehead of a human before exploding. Prawns appear to watch the alien equivalent of a cockfight, with two small creatures battling to the death in a makeshift ring. We see a charred prawn corpse. A lab worker stretches what appears to be a prawn skin.

Wikus’ transformation is incredibly painful to watch. He pulls out his own fingernails, yanks free his teeth and, finally, begins to peel away skin. Holes and sores begin to cover his flesh—places where Wikus’ burgeoning prawn body inside is working its way out. In an effort to stop the transformation, Wikus steals an ax and nearly chops off his prawn arm. (He settles for a finger.)

Because of his unique status as a human/prawn hybrid, Wikus becomes a desirable commodity for MNU. Doctors and officials poke and prod his evolving arm with needles (causing Wikus to curse and scream in pain) and eventually whisk him to a secret, Josef Mengele-style lab filled with prawn corpses and body parts. There, they strap him to a chair and force him to fire captured weapons (zapping him with electricity to make him pull the trigger). Most often, the target is a slab of meat. But the final “test” is on a living, confused prawn, whom the weapon obliterates in a cloud of blood. (Bits of the carcass spray Wikus.) Eventually, MNU decides to “harvest” everything they can from Wikus—”strip him down to nothing,” someone says—a fate Wikus escapes by fighting his way free from hospital personnel and holding a scalpel to the throat of a doctor.

A minor human-run crime syndicate in the ghetto also tries to separate Wikus from his arm—twice, in fact—so the crime leader can eat it.

Crude or Profane Language

More than 130 f-words, supplemented by close to a dozen s-words. God’s name is abused twice; Jesus’ once. “B–tard,” “p—” and the British profanity “bloody” also are heard.

Drug and Alcohol Content

The aliens love cat food—so much so that they’re willing to make one-sided trades to get it. It’s not completely clear whether it’s because they simply like the taste of the stuff, or whether their bodies react to it as if it’s a recreational drug.

Someone drinks a glass of whiskey.

Other Negative Elements

A prawn turns to face Wikus—and the camera—while urinating, so there’s probably some full-frontal alien nudity on display. (Whatever that may be!)

Vomit is a recurrent theme. Wikus, as he endures his painful transformation, throws up several times, including once all over a surprise birthday cake. He mentions that he might’ve defecated in his pants.

MNU’s CEO lies to his daughter. Wikus—not quite a good guy yet—knocks Christopher out, leaving him, for a while, in the hands of MNU mercenaries. When Christopher’s child asks where his dad is, Wikus lies, telling him that Christopher is just fine and will be along shortly.

Before I end this review by talking about the real-world racial issues District 9 explores by proxy, let me redirect your attention to what you’ve already read: “Violent Content.” “Crude and Profane Language.” And so on. This is a foul, messy and incredibly violent R-rated film—a movie that assaults the senses and has the power to make viewers shut their eyes, squirm in their seats and perhaps even run to the restroom for a breather.

That said, District 9 also comes with something you won’t find in such summer blockbusters as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra . It comes with a message.

The director, native South African Neill Blomkamp, ushers moviegoers into a brutal, ugly world that, for all the aliens running around, feels sadly familiar. It holds echoes of some of humanity’s most shameful, legalized crimes against itself: Blacks in apartheid-era South Africa. Jews in Nazi Germany. American Indians in the early years of the United States. History shows us how frighteningly easy it can be to marginalize people who look or act differently from us.

But when I watched District 9 , I couldn’t help thinking back to one of history’s first written examples of mass persecution, alienation and genocide: Pharaoh’s mistreatment of the Israelites in Egypt.

There, in the land of Goshen, was a burgeoning alien race. They were so different from the Egyptians … so frightening to them, with their one God and ever-growing numbers. So Pharaoh isolated them, bullied them, enslaved them and killed their children. And the Israelites called up to heaven for someone to save them.

God sent Moses.

Christopher James tells Wikus how he longs to save his people, and he uses those words: “My people.” He is not a leader—we get a sense the prawns have none. But perhaps, given some time in the wilderness of space, he could become one.

District 9 is not religious. It’s not spiritual. If the filmmakers in any way intended these biblical parallels, they keep evidence of it mostly under wraps.

But it does suggest, however obliquely, a sense of divine destiny and universal morality. While we can see how racism, both covert and overt, took root in Johannesburg when the aliens began to outlive their welcome, it does not excuse it. And that—even in a film as hard and horror-filled as this—is saying something.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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District 9 Review

04 Sep 2009

112 minutes

Aliens. We’ve had cute ones. We’ve had nasty bastards with great big pointy teeth. We’ve had stupid ones, smart ones, ones that look like Jeff Bridges, and ones that eat bridges for breakfast.

In fact, we’ve had so many of the extra-terrestrial buggers that putting a fresh spin on the movie alien is clearly a tricky thing. But, as newcomer and Peter Jackson protégé Neill Blomkamp proves with District 9, it’s not impossible — even if, on closer inspection, there’s nothing really original about the movie’s components. Hero metamorphosing into something more than human? Why, hello there, The Fly. Human with trenchant anti-ET attitudes forced to partner up with alien, discovering — hey! — his true humanity along the way? Nice to meet you, Alien Nation. And the end battle, with an insane mecha-suit wreaking havoc, is a throwback to RoboCop. And there’s more — throughout, Blomkamp, a self-confessed sci-fi sponge, studs at least a dozen other references to classic sci-fi flicks, including Jackson’s own no-budget debut, Bad Taste.

Happily, though, District 9 manages to become more than just a nudge-nudge wink-wink tribute package. It’s a genuinely exciting and surprisingly affecting thriller that, thanks to Blomkamp’s stylistic device of choice — a faux-documentary, with plenty of Paul Greengrass-esque shakycam — feels fresh and original, with the outlandish action rooted in a grimy reality. The astonishing, state-of-the-art effects aren’t dwelled upon or drooled over. They’re just there, enhancing the feeling that this isn’t just a fantastical sci-fi pic. This is real. This is happening.

It’s a striking approach that Blomkamp (a 29 year-old South African who was taken under Jackson’s wing for the painful, aborted adaptation of the hit video-game, Halo) adopted for his 2006 short film, Alive In Joburg, which serves as an appetiser to District 9’s main course.

Like District 9, Alive In Joburg addressed the problems faced by genuine illegal aliens, stranded in a city and a country whose track record on tolerance is, shall we say, questionable. But this is not just a comment on apartheid (to wit: it’s wrong); District 9 has more pressing matters on its mind, not least the savage treatment meted out to Zimbabwean refugees by indigenous black citizens. As we see the aliens exploited, abused and treated like pieces of meat by a corrupt government, it’s clear that they operate as allegory, albeit one so thinly veiled it might as well be wrapped in cling film.

Thankfully, District 9 is not built upon a rickety old soapbox. Instead, it works primarily as a fun thriller, peopled — or aliened — by some of the best (and strangest) extra-terrestrials this side of E. T. Eschewing the guy-in-a-suit approach, Blomkamp plumps for aliens that truly define the word: non-humanoid, multi-limbed clicking monstrosities, derogatorily referred to as “prawns”, that can leap small buildings in a single bound, rip a man’s head off in a heartbeat and interact seamlessly with humans, their jittery body language strangely, beguilingly, human. The digital work on display here (bearing the imprint of Blomkamp, an effects whizz who started out as something of a wunderkind) is magnificent, and consistently photo-real. The cost? Believe it or not, just $30 million. Michael Bay has dreams that cost more than $30 million.

But it’s a human effect that’s the film’s strongest asset. As Wikus, a largely decent, if slightly insulated man bewildered when the system to which he’d dedicated his life suddenly turns on him, Sharlto Copley is nothing short of astonishing, particularly when you consider that he’s a first-time actor (in fact, he’s a producer and FX guy who gave Blomkamp his first job, 14 years ago), and that all of his dialogue was improvised, as if Mike Leigh had wandered in and started directing a sci-fi movie.

Despite this, Copley ably depicts Wikus’ transformation from cold, blind bureaucrat, enthusiastically revelling in the popping noises made by alien eggs as they’re aborted by fire, to noble and embattled freedom fighter, as his body fuses with alien DNA. Treated like an object by MNU, the corrupt agency he worked for, most affectingly in a sequence where a dazed Wikus is forced to operate alien weaponry and blow away some prawns, he unwittingly becomes a, if you will, Mandela-like figurehead for the neglected alien hordes. Although Mandela never sprouted an alien claw where his left hand should be and never, to the best of our knowledge, developed the ability to don an alien exoskeleton that would make Iron Man cream his armour in envy.

Refreshingly, Blomkamp shies away from the easy, traditional path of the reluctant hero — for most of the movie, Wikus’ motives are powered by blind panic and a selfish desire to become human again. Even when he teams up with an alien partner, the amusingly named Christopher Johnson, and mounts a staggeringly staged, extraordinarily violent assault on MNU HQ in order to retrieve the MacGuffin, he’s never given an iconic one-liner or heroic money shot. This is a truly different hero, even if it does take a little time to root for a man who sounds like he’d be happier yelling, “Diplomatic immunity!” at Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

The action in this extended sequence is absolutely stunning, with electrical blasts splattering villains all over the camera lens, while cars flip through the air and Wikus lays everything to waste with that nifty mecha-suit. As the stormy mayhem escalates impressively, it immediately becomes apparent why Jackson took Blomkamp under his wing.

But, just as Bad Taste was hugely enjoyable but flawed, so too is District 9. The whole thing moves at such a cracking pace that the many gaping plot-holes pass unnoticed amid the Sturm und Drang, until they pop unbidden into your head several hours later and, like the aliens themselves, just won’t leave.

Perhaps inevitably, because the action takes us into areas where a news team would fear to tread, the illusion that the movie is a documentary is suddenly dropped around the 25-minute mark, before being arbitrarily reintroduced at odd intervals. It’s an often jarring effect that removes us from the on-screen action.

And while Copley may be top-notch, that doesn’t go for the rest of the cast, with some particularly wooden turns on the menu, particularly from the snarling, one-note bad guys, including an MNU soldier who looks like a bald, fat Jason Isaacs, and a perma-sneer Nigerian criminal overlord who rules over District 9 and, surprisingly for a movie that’s all about tolerance and debunking stereotypes, has a rather dodgy obsession with voodoo. They’re panto villains, the type of bad guys you love to cheer when the inevitable squishing happens, but for a movie that has strived so hard for realism throughout, they’re perhaps a tad too cartoonish.

But when District 9 works, it’s an explosive and exciting sci-fi that heralds the arrival of a major new talent. Considering where Jackson has ended up, it’s hard not to get excited about where Blomkamp will be in five years’ time.

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'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' an adventure epic that's all that and a band of chimps

Action scenes thrill and the visuals stun in overlong but entertaining chapter of the simian franchise..

On his mission to find survivors of an attack on his clan, Noa (center, played with CGI capture by Owen Teague) is joined by orangutan elder Raka (Peter Macon) and feral human Mae (Frey Allan) in “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

20th Century Studios

If a time traveler from a hundred years ago were to suddenly land in a theater showing “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” they would most likely either faint or exclaim something like:

“What the $%#! You’re telling me apes can talk now!? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN????”

The CGI and motion capture technology, and the brilliant voice work by the unseen actors, are that impressive. From the moment we settle in for director Wes Ball’s overlong but undeniably entertaining standalone sequel to “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017), it’s no effort to buy into this world in which chimpanzees and orangutans have evolved to the point where they converse in articulate English and regard humans as filthy, stinking, feral, primitive creatures.

So it goes with the people and the apes over the course of a franchise that has grown to 10 films overall, starting with the 1968 classic. Sometimes the apes are in charge, sometimes the humans are in charge, sometimes they try to co-exist. And we know that’s never going to work out, as we’re served with metaphors about racism, social mores, runaway viruses, weaponry, authoritarian regimes, police brutality, etc., depending on the most pressing concerns of a given era.

There are times when “Kingdom” is thuddingly heavy-handed with its particular brand of messaging, and the dialogue is cornier than a 1950s action epic, but there’s always another exhilarating action sequence around the corner, and the visuals are never less than stunning.

Kevin Durand plays the fascistic Proximus Caesar, leader of an invading kingdom.

After a brief prologue, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes us to a world “many generations” after the death of the great Caesar, whose legacy and philosophies have either been forgotten or twisted by most ape clans. In a thrilling opening sequence, we’re introduced to the young chimpanzees Noa (Owen Teague) and his best mates Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) as they participate in a ritual climb in search of eagle eggs. Turns out they belong to the peaceful and community-oriented Eagle Clan, headed by Noa’s father Koro (Neil Sandilands), known as the Master of Birds. This isolated and idyllic existence is soon shattered when the troops of the fascist and utterly terrifying leader Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) — a character we don’t actually meet until later in the story — swarm all over Eagle Clan, burning it down and either killing or capturing nearly all of its inhabitants.

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Noa survives. Determined to find the surviving members of his clan, he embarks on a classic adventure-movie journey that will be Fraught With Peril. Along the way, he reluctantly teams up with the wise and quite talkative old-timey orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), one of the last devout followers of the Caesar’s true teachings, and a feral human who comes to be known as Mae (Frey Allan), who has her own agenda for tracking down Proximus Caesar and invading his costal kingdom. (Mae is initially given a name that is a callback to Linda Harrison’s character in the original “Planet of the Apes.”)

With a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, “Kingdom” sags a bit in the middle stretches, but once we reach Proximus Caesar’s kingdom, with its distinct echoes of ancient Rome and other past ruling civilizations that eventually fell, it’s a spectacular adventure on the grandest scale. Director Ball and writer Josh Friedman deliver some satisfying notes of conclusion while also setting up the next chapters in a planned trilogy.

Something tells me that no matter what direction the story takes, the apes and the humans will have a hard time getting along, as will apes with other apes, humans with other humans, all the combos. It’s been that way since Charlton Heston fell to his knees on the beach in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.